He created everyone.  So why did he pick the Jews?  He decided to send his son (or himself, depending on what you believe) to earth to die for us.  So why wasn’t Jesus African or Japanese?  He promised that all believers (at least those who trust in Jesus’s atonement, depending on what you believe) would spend eternity with him in heaven.  So why would he roast billions and billions and billions of people in hell just because they didn’t say the right words on salvation or agree with the accepted plan?

Red and yellow, black and white, how many are precious in his sight?  Where does God’s love end?

I asked a fellow the other day if he had ever considered the fact that everything we believe is totally dependent on our trust of the people who taught us.  Obviously, we can’t prove any of the ancient positions on religion to be true, so sincere belief is necessary.  An assurance in your heart, so to speak. But aren’t we obligated to challenge those same teachers on the reasonableness of their statements?

My friend replied that, if we start challenging what we believe, we open ourselves to the temptation of Satan and will soon fall into serious sin.  Say what?  Is this guy one of God’s favorites?

I think we need to back the doctrinal bus up a bit and reconsider it.

I remember a quip from an old comedy team routine, The Smothers Brothers, where Tom Smothers asks his brother Dick, “Why does Mom always like you best?”  Dick replies, “Because I’m an only child.”

If Jesus is God’s “only begotten,” does that make him an only child?  I was an only child (still am), and I have to admit that I see pros and cons about having brothers/sisters or getting all of the attention yourself.

Coming from a typical family unit (James, Clara and little Stevie), it’s hard to picture Jesus in the same role. Sure, he had an earthly mom, Mary, and even an earthly dad, Joseph (old enough to be his grandpa, I’m told), but the dad he always talked about was God.  And a lot of people say he himself was God.  Not only was Jesus God, but the Holy Ghost/Spirit is supposed to be God too.  Three God’s in one?

It has been said that there are not three God’s, but God manifested (displayed) in three forms.  They call it the Trinity.  But that word trinity isn’t in the Bible.  A fellow named Tertullian came up with it around 200 AD. He was the son of a Roman centurion (military officer).  Tertullian was also a lawyer and ordained priest. People like that are always coming up with new words.

But answer me this.  Why did Jesus pray to God, talk to God, talk about God and worship God?  Why did he call him Father?  If he was really God himself, doesn’t that make him a little schizophrenic?  Or was he just trying to fool us?  Sure, he said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”  But couldn’t that just mean that they were like-minded, that Jesus is simply in the perfect will of God?

Still trying to sort this one out.

Everyone works for someone, reports to someone, is controlled by someone or is responsible to someone.  It starts at birth.  Our parents or guardians have complete authority over what happens to us 24/7; our free will consists of peeing, pooping and crying.

As we grow, more authority figures are added:  teachers, bus drivers, policemen, etc..  Then the workplace brings forth supervisors, task leaders, bosses, their bosses, division bosses, corporate bosses and the CEO.  Even in small businesses and partnerships someone has to assume the management role.

I used to write that God was at the top of the food chain.  Even a hermit in a secluded location in the dense forest, who planted his own garden and burned candles, would still have to answer to God in the final analysis.  I credit my upbringing and somewhat skewed Bible teaching as forming my view of “God’s justice,” he being the BIG BOSS.

The Old Testament paints a picture of a people who trembled at the thought that God might be near.  They begged their current prophet to speak on their behalf, for fear that the Almighty would smite them dead.  In the New Testament, however, Jesus shows us a very different God, one who is loving and caring, yet was not pleased with those that troubled or hurt their family and neighbors around them.

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I believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, my elder brother, my lord and master.

I believe that he has a right to my absolute obedience whenever I know or shall come to know his will; that to obey him is to ascend to the highest point of my being; that not to obey him would be to deny him.

I believe that he died that I might die like him — die to any ruling power in me but the will of God — live ready to be nailed to the cross as he was, if God wills it.

I believe that he is my Savior from myself, and from all that comes of loving myself, from all that God does not love, and would not have me love — from all that is not worth loving; that he died that the justice, the mercy of God, might have its way with me, making me just as God is just, merciful as he is merciful, perfect as my father in heaven is perfect.

I believe and pray that he will give whatever punishment needed to set me right, or to keep me from going wrong.

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Those well-known words were uttered by one Rodney King in 1991, following horrific riots, which themselves were prompted by the acquittal of the police officers who brutally subdued him after a traffic violation. The anger of the black community was fueled by the fact that the incident was caught on videotape. Mr. King, who was awarded a large sum of money in a subsequent civil suit, proved by multiple arrests before and after the incident that he himself was unable to “get along.”

Yet, the words are profound and still stand. Because it’s what God wants. It’s what we were created for. The concept goes beyond mere tolerance of one another.

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I was listening to a radio preacher the other day, and she seemed to be trying to explain things that were accomplished  and completed in the name of the Lord, while admitting that those same things must still be dealt with.

She said that Satan was defeated at the cross, but doesn’t know it yet. Really?  I thought defeated meant that he had no more power, was no longer a threat.  The message from pulpits across the country is that we still struggle against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” It sounds more like Satan will be defeated, but doesn’t believe it yet.

She went on to say that our sins were nailed to the cross, but she admitted that we still struggle with them.  I suppose she was referring to the teaching that the cross (the finished work of Christ) provided complete forgiveness for our sins, even though we still sin.

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Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

Sometimes old contemporary Christian songs will pop into my mind and run around for awhile.  Lately it’s been the 1994 hit Shine by the Newboys.  The song speaks to the Christian experience being so good that, being witnessed, it becomes desirable to those who aren’t Christian.  Similar to the verse above, the refrain ends with:

let it shine before all men

let ‘em see good works, and then

let ‘em glorify the Lord

The it referred to is identified in the first verse as your light, same as that which Jesus preached about in the Sermon on the Mount.  The Newsboys’ audiences were predominately confessed Christians, while Jesus’ congregation were some lower class Jews who were probably trying to make sense out of what he was saying.

But the message is clear.  The world is dark.  We are light.  Meaning the world is metaphorically darkened by their lack of true knowledge of the living God, and we, bearers of the “good news,” carry the torch of the gospel.  Trouble is, there are so many versions of the light, that it’s hard to distinguish which one can really extinguish the darkness.

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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg

How many times have we heard unbelievers reject Christianity because there were “too many hypocrites in the church?” And the standard response has been that, regardless of the behavior of Christians, our decision determines where we spend eternity — point and counterpoint. I’ve yet to hear anyone acknowledge the fact that hypocrisy is a serious issue in the church.

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witness - noun, an individual who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness.

The chief goal of fundamental Christianity is to spread the gospel, taken from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19:

Therefore, go and make discipiles of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..

For many this means to get the gospel of Christ to everyone who may not have heard, especially people in the heathen countries, whose men, women and children face eternal damnation, simply because they never got the word.  For those of the Reformed persuasion, the Commission is just the method in which God brings to himself those that he has chosen to save, rejecting the rest to that same eternal torture.

A witness, then, is someone who tells others about what Christ has done in his or her life.  The answer is always that “Christ has saved me from my sins.”  This phrase is further explained as Christ’s atoning sacrifice, dying on the cross in my place, which provides instant forgiveness for all of my sins — past, present and future — if I would but believe it to be true and accept him as my savior.  Beyond that, life pretty much continues on as before, except that now I’m required to annoy everyone around me, plying them with gospel tracts and memorized Bible verses, so that if, God forbid, they should reject Christ, then their blood isn’t on my hands.

I don’t buy it.  

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I’ve been hitting the public library a lot more lately.  I found that you can check out movies and keep them for four days, and I also have increased my reading activity. While looking for a specific non-fiction title, I came across a little gem by Oliver “Buzz” Thomas called 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can’t Because He Needs The Job).

Clearly an out-of-the-box theologian, Rev. Thomas makes some pithy observations about life, love and the role of the church in bringing the real Jesus to light.  Here are some of his thoughts, as well as my own.

Consider again the question of origins.  If, for example, scientists are able to take us back to a big bang, nagging questions remain.  Why did it all happen in the first place?  For what purpose?  What does it all mean?  How should we then live?  Only the philosophers and theologians can help us there.

I don’t believe that scientists are out to prove that God doesn’t exist.  But over-zealous Christians are out to prove that scientists are wrong on any scenario that doesn’t fit with their own biblical view.

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