Putting me in my place

I had the opportunity to give the message in church on Sunday. I learned a number of lessons while doing that. The biggest one was that despite the fact that it may have appeared that I was the ‘main dude’ at church on Sunday (I was the only person to occupy the stage by myself), that in reality it has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with God.

Let me tell you the story.

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Easter – Part 3: Everyone

One of the big criticisms of Christianity is that it is very exclusive, after all Jesus himself said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6). I mean, how unfair is that? There are a lot of religions that teach and practise good things, so where does Jesus get off saying something like that? If that were true it would just not be fair to condemn all those other good people to eternity in Heaven.

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Easter – Part 2: Red

In my Easter post yesterday I said “Jesus died so that we don’t have to”. But what is with the dying thing any way? I think a lot of us struggle with that. Regardless of our religious convictions I don’t think many of us can fully grasp the deal that says that the things I have done deserve death.

Someone else put it this way: If God is so big on forgiveness, even if my sins deserve death, why could God not just forgive me? As people we forgive people all the time right? Why could God not just forgive us? Why the whole deal with someone having to die?

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Easter – Part 1: Ransom

Tomorrow is Good Friday. For some people that just means it is a holiday. For me it means a whole lot more than that.

Easter, the reasons for it and explanation of it, is something that I am very passionate about. Don’t get me wrong I like the bunnies and chocolates and family time that is usually associated with Easter, but there is so much more to it, and it is the ‘more’ that gets me excited.

The one word that, IMHO, best sums up Easter is the word: Ransom

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Blasphemy! How should a Christian respond?

The students at the local university do a fundraiser every year for the university run charity. Every year they harass motorists on their way to work trying to sell a student produced magazine (why the guys think the will sell more by dressing up as girls I will never figure out).

I usually buy the mag with no intention of reading it, but rather as a contribution to charity. It is generally a massive waste of money if you by it for the content.

This year the students thought it would be funny to attack Christianity those of us who call ourselves Christians.

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Empty Seats – Dare you to move

I posted this on my church’s blog the other day.

Check it out!

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Tired of waiting?

The other day when reading Stuff Christians Like, I found the dramatized exchange between Moses and Aaron quite amusing.

While relaying this amusing story to a colleague at the office, I began to see the incident with the golden calf in a whole new light.

Here is some background. The Israelites had been in slavery for 400 years. Most of them had probably given up on God doing anything to rescue them. Then, practically out of the blue, God arrives on the scene and, through a series of dramatic events, frees the nation from slavery and walks them (through the Red Sea) to freedom.

Now a short while later God calls Moses away for a chat. When Moses gets back he finds the whole nation is worshiping an idol. This being one of the things God had specifically asked them not to do, Moses got quite mad.

The question that popped into my mind as I was retelling the story was “What, after all the blatant evidence of God’s presence, the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire and smoke, food and water in the middle of the desert, what after all these things caused these people to go after a man made god?”

The bible says: “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain…” Exodus 32:1a

Simply put: They got tired of waiting!

But wait, before we point fingers at these guys, we need to ask ourselves, I need to ask myself, how often do I get tired of waiting?

How often to we put something into God’s hands one moment and then a short while later get tired of waiting?

Is it just me or does that track with you?

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