Archive for the ‘society’ Category
Public Witness How-To’s
Filed under: Ecumenical, holidays, living, Morongo Basin, music, society, witness |
Leave a Comment Several local groups of Christians participated in the Grubstakes Parade in Yucca Valley this weekend.
Joshua Springs Christian School Pep Band.
Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel operates a Christian School. They sent their Pep Band. As it went by my position, they were playing the James Bond theme. Very nice.
Yucca Valley Nazarene Church Worship Team
The Nazarene church sent their worship team. The music wasn’t anything I recognized, but it wasn’t obnoxious, and the singer was pleasantly enthusiastic. Another winsome entry.
Then came these people:
Anonymous Kooks
Why are they? I don’t know who these people were, or if they’re associated with a local church, but they should be ashamed of their witness. If this is how they want to present the Good News to people, they should go read how Paul did it (Acts 17:16-23). Or even Jonah (say, Jonah 3:4,5,10; 4:1-2).
Finally, this.
Handing Out Tracts
A guy walked the route passing out tracts. Fine. But look what it says: “Your Parade Guide.” I’m sure that it seemed clever to whoever wrote it — I’ll guide you toward a decision for Christ, which is more important than this parade. But this is worldly cleverness, the kind used to write TV commercials. It’s fundamentally dishonest, because it pulls a bait-and-switch on the reader.
In Time for Holy Week: Apostasy!
C.S. Lewis somewhere decries ministers who desert their faith but feel they should be left to “carry on” in their office in the church. Here’s a case in point: an Episcopal Muslim:
“Both religions say there’s only one God,” Redding said, “and that God is the same God. It’s very clear we are talking about the same God! …”
(What, I wonder, makes it “very clear” that “we are talking about the same God?” Is it the Bible? The Qur’an? Or simply her wish that it were so?)
“… So I haven’t shifted my allegiance.”
The sad thing is that she probably hasn’t. That would be a shame, if she were just another member of her church. But she was a priest.
A priest for 30 years, yet her faith was such that she could become a Muslim and not shift her allegiance. Thirty years. Lord have mercy.
Now, after only three years of apostasy, Redding has been defrocked. Three years. One for each time the cock crowed.
O make me Thine forever,
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love to Thee.
Unexpected Currents
Have you ever spent any time in the ocean?
My in-laws have a house in southern Orange County. Whenever we visit, we go down to the same beach near their home. So we stake out a place on the beach and then we go out into the surf to swim and splash around.
I enjoy bobbing in the surf. I love the feeling when a wave comes along and lifts me up like I don’t weigh a thing. Then I’ll look over and see everyone else it lifts up and I’ll get a sense of the ocean’s size and power. Then a wave will flip me over and rub me into the sand and gravel just as easily, and that part isn’t so much fun. But it’s not so bad either, so I stay out there until the next wave comes along and keep doing it two, three, four, five times.
Spring Forward? But It’s Still Winter!
Yecch. Daylight Savings Time begins earlier than ever this year. (They haven’t changed it again, it’s just that the second Sunday of March occurs 6 days earlier this year.)
Dry Bones
I don’t know how many of you have seen the movie Star Wars. I have. I’ve seen it dozens of times, and all its sequels and the more recent prequels. You could fairly say I’m a Star Wars fanboy — and I’ve done what I could to make sure my kids are too.
I know the exact moment when I became a Star Wars fan. It was the first time I saw Star Wars, about 30 seconds into the movie.
If you’ve seen it, you remember the opening scene has this battle between two space ships. The first one goes roars overhead, then there’s a moment with these green laser blasts zipping through space, then the second ship goes by. And goes by. And goes by. And keeps going by.
(If you haven’t seen it, watch it on youtube.)
Where the first ship passed overhead in a moment, the second ship takes about 15 or 20 seconds to fly by, so you realize just how big it is.
The moviemaker is able, in the first minute, to give you an idea of the scale of his story.
There’s an equally cinematic moment in Ezekiel 37:
1 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
A valley full of dry bones! Close your eyes and take a moment to picture it.
What is it that God is revealing here? What does Ezekiel’s vision mean, that these dry bones were restored to life?
Whatever else it may mean, it says something about the scale God operates on. It says God is bigger than our problems. God is bigger than our imaginations.
It’s helpful to remember that.
Some days I wonder how things will turn out with our church. I think it’s possible for us to turn things around financially. I have a vision of a church that is making an impact in people’s lives — here in our community, but also among our own members. I believe that. But there are days when I’m discouraged.
That goes double for the broader problems in our society. I don’t believe the troubles with our economy will be our undoing, nor the war on terror. I believe our society can still address problems with education and health care and the disintegration of the family.
This season of Lent is a time for us to remember what a sorry situation we are in. It’s a time for us to consider how pervasive sin and its effects are in the world. It’s a time to see just how much the world resembles a valley full of dry bones.
Easter is coming, but it’s not here yet. While we wait for it to arrive, we can cling to our hope in God. Because our problems are real, and serious, and very, very big. But God is bigger still.
Hezekiah: the Greatest King
For the king .. had taken counsel to keep the passover in the second month.
–2 Chronicles 30:2
Everybody’s heard of King David, but how many remember King Hezekiah? He ruled over Judah, the southern part of what had been a united kingdom under David. After David’s son Solomon died, the northern part of the kingdom, Israel, broke away. Its rulers set up their own dynasties, while David’s descendants, including Hezekiah, ruled over the southern part.
What makes Hezekiah so interesting is that he was a good king. None of the kings of Israel, and few of the kings of Judah, were good kings. But of Hezekiah we read: “there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him.” (2 Kings 18:5)
Hezekiah a better king than David or Solomon? How’s that?
Horrifying
This makes me sick:
A homeless man searching for cans in a Rancho Cucamonga parking lot Dumpster made a startling find Sunday morning: a 5-pound baby girl.
The newborn was naked, her umbilical cord still attached, and stuffed in a plastic Target bag full of discarded mail. She was not crying. She felt cold — her body temperature had dropped to 87.5 degrees — but she was alive.
The big question is: will it make me sick enough to do something?