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Todays world is very focused on getting. Our media is full of advertisements trying to persuade us to get things. Many of us want to be rich because of all the things we would then be able to get. We judge lives by how much stuff people have gotten. When people say someone has done well for themselves, its usually because they have got a high-paying job, a good house and good investments.
But things dont need to have a dollar symbol attached, to be part of our culture of getting. A look at anyones to-do list will reveal a wide range of gets. We want to get fit, get married, get pregnant, get a boyfriend, get more friends, get famous, get a university degree, get a trophy.
And when we are feeling miserable about our lives, what are we usually upset about? What we havent got. We havent received the love, the friendship, the opportunities, the beauty, the money, the accomplishments, the treatment we deserve. We wanted to have gotten more and were annoyed that we didnt.
Some churches have also jumped on the getting bandwagon. They tell Christians about all the things they can get if they pray. They tell them that God wants them to get that job, get more money, get healed. We pay a lot of attention to For everyone who asks receives. Not so much to Act 20, where Paul tells us that Jesus said It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Whatever happened to that? Was is just something that worked well in Jesus day, but isnt really applicable in todays consumer culture? I dont know so. Im pretty sure the idea seemed just as strange then as it does now. But its often the things that seem the strangest that have the most to teach us.
Its a completely different way of measuring things than the one we are used to. We are taught to believe that how much stuff a person has and how much we get is whats important. To place more value on giving completely turns things around.
Its kind of hard to get our heads around. We may say it. We may even believe it. But do we live like this? When we go to bed at night, are we thinking of all the ways we gave? Or are we thinking about all the things we failed to get, all the things we did get and all the things we want to get tomorrow? When we write out our goals, are they all about giving? Or do most of them revolve around getting? When we think about accomplishments, do we think of the things we gave or do we think of the ways we got?
So its not quite gospel truth but Acts is pretty close and Paul did say that Jesus said it. So taking it as gospel truth, how does that change the way we think about our lives? Do we think differently about what ourselves and others have achieved? Does it change our goals and priorities at all? Does it make us see that what we thought was important really isnt that important after all?
And it works. This isnt just something that looks good in the bible, but fails to work out in real life. It really works. A parent receives much joy from their relationship with their children even though it is a relationship that involves lots of giving and not much getting. When I feel down, I have found the best way to cheer me up is to go out and help someone and Im sure Im not alone. The happiest people are often those that are in jobs that involve lots of giving. The unhappiest people are generally the most selfish ones.
So why not try it? Cross out a few gets on your goals list and replace them with some gives. Think about your accomplishments only in terms of what you gave. Try to give more love than you receive. And if youre feeling down, forget about cheering yourself up with a spending spree. Try a giving spree instead.
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If I were a king and wanted to get a whole heap of warriors to fight for me, there are three ways I could do this. I could scare them into fighting. Threaten to kill them or torture them or make their life a living hell if they didnt fight. That would work until they started thinking I wasnt that scary anyway. Until they began to wonder whether I really had the power or the resources to carry through on my threats.
Or I could bribe them into fighting for me. Promise them rewards good pay, gold, land, whatever. That would work too. Unless they didnt get those rewards when they expected them. Or unless those rewards werent as good as what they thought they would be. Or until someone else promised them better rewards.
Or I could get them committed to the cause. And once they were committed to the cause, I wouldnt need to persuade them to fight. They would want to. And they would fight longer and harder than any of the other two groups of warriors. In a battle between the three, Id be backing the ones that are committed to the cause. Id rather have ten warriors committed to the cause than 50 warriors who are there for the rewards or 100 warriors who are there because of fear.
So too are there different ways of getting people to follow Jesus. For a long time, the church relied mainly on fear. There was the fear of hell. But also there was the fear of the Inquisition or ex-communication if a person failed to believe or failed to do the right things. It worked. Fear does work. But then people started to read the bible for themselves. They started to wonder whether the church was really that scary. They started to doubt if it really had the power to do the things it had threatened.
Fear is not such a big thing nowadays, but we still use it. Become a Christian or you will go to hell, we tell people. And sometimes it works. But its kind of lost its power. Many people nowadays dont even believe in hell. They are not going to be scared of going there. Personally, I think hell is a real place and its not somewhere I ever want to go. But its a pretty poor reason for getting people to follow Jesus.
The other way churches get new Christian recruits is by promising rewards. If you follow God, he will bless you and make your life better. Youll get that job, have more money, be healed, live longer, be happier. That works too. But what happens if those rewards dont come when the person expected them to. If a person is in it mainly for the rewards, how long are they going to stick around if they fail to materialise?
By far the best way of getting people to follow Jesus is to get them committed to the cause. Now, in my opinion, the cause of Christ is the greatest cause in the world. I dont see why everybody doesnt want to fight for him. But I have to be realistic and recognise that not everybody sees that. I think part of the problem is that they look at the cause of some Christians, and believe thats the cause of all Christians or of Jesus. One example of this is issues of morality. For many people, the issue of morality is not one worth fighting for.
But the cause of Jesus is so much greater than this, and I believe there is something in it that every single person in the world can care passionately about. Instead of telling new Christians what they should be caring about, we should be helping them find what it is about Jesus that speaks deeply to them. Do they care about letting people know of Gods love and acceptance? Are they passionate about social justice? Is the idea of living a better life with Gods help one that appeals? Is caring for the poor something that speaks deeply to them? Are they amazed by this idea that we dont need to do good works to get into heaven?
This is not to say that only one issue is important and people can just focus on one issue and forget about all the rest of what Jesus had to say. But when people become committed to those aspects that appeal most strongly to them, they will also see that the rest of what Jesus had to say is also a worthy cause. Commitment to one issue can soon turn into a very strong commitment to Jesus Christ. And I would rather have a church full of ten people that are committed to the cause, than a church of 10,000 people who are not.
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I love to read about history, particularly Christian history. Im not talking about the white-washed view of Christian history, where Christians are responsible for every good down in the world and never seem to have done anything bad. In fact, I like reading about all the bad stuff that Christians have done in the past. I think it has the most to teach us.
Christian history can give us greater insights into our present and our future. By reading about the past, we can understand why we are the way we are and why we believe the things that we do. When we learn what led to us having certain practices, beliefs and structures, we can better understand what importance they should have. We can also draw parallels between things that the church has done in the past and things that they are doing now. The church has had many problems and made many mistakes along the way. When we understand these better, we can better avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Another good reason to learn about church history particularly the bad bits is that many people who arent Christians know it quite well. Some people have been put off organised religion or churches because of the things that the church has done in the past. Others refuse to believe in a God whose followers have committed all sorts of atrocities. The tendency can be to dismiss these things as though it were not important. But I believe far more is to be gained by learning about them, admitting that the church acted in the wrong way and explaining why we have faith anyway. Not as a method of evangelising, but as a way to speak to people about their concerns.
The other big reason for finding out about Christianitys past is that it helps us be less critical of other religions. Whenever a group of religious people that are not Christian do something terrible, the general consensus in the church seems to be that they did it because they are the wrong religion. Its almost as if they think it offers them proof that Christians are the only ones following the right God, because Christians would never do anything like that. When you learn about Christian history, you are far less likely to make this judgment. Before we judge other religions, we should recognise that Christians have done many of these awful things in our past.
At church once, someone showed a small group of people a gruesome video of someone getting their head cut off. Naturally enough, the talk turned to how people could do this kind of thing. Most people seemed to assume that the only reason these people could do this was because they werent Christian. When I said that Christians kill people too, I was told that they have always done it in a humane way. Say what? Being hanged drawn and quartered isnt just a saying, you know. Its something that Christians did to other Christians. And it wasnt humane. Nor, for that matter, was burning people at the stake. Nor was dunking women in water to see if they would drown because we thought they were witches. We have to admit that we are capable of atrocities too. Denying this just makes us look like we have our head in the sand.
Reading Christian history isnt always pleasant. Sometimes it can make you downright uncomfortable. It may even challenge your ideas about the church. But its important nevertheless. By reading about the churchs past, we can better understand its current structure, be better placed to avoid the mistakes of the avoid, be more respectful of those who have something against the church and be less likely to make judgments about other religions.
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Politicians are pretty good at looking at issues through a certain set of glasses. If theyre members of the ruling party, they see government policy through rosy glasses. They praise the good that theyve done and the good that theyre going to do. Admittedly, they can admit mistakes that the government has made. But when they do, it is always with the ability to see beyond those mistakes and look to what the government is now doing to fix them.
Politicians on the opposite side see things a bit differently. Using the same facts, they can present a completely different view. When the government does things badly, they are quick to point this out and magnify any wrongdoing. When the government is doing the right thing, they were too slow to address the issues and they are addressing them in the wrong way
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I havent written in this blog for awhile. I never made the conscious decision to stop writing. I didnt wake up one morning and go I dont think Ill write in my blog for awhile. I guess I just lost the passion for it.
When I first started, I was full of passion. I was like a young girl who has just fallen in love. All I could think about was my blog. Every television show I watched, newspaper article I read, sermon I listened to, person I talked to seemed to give me ideas for my blog. I would mentally compose blog posts while taking the kids to school, making dinner, doing the housework. I lived for my blog
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The other day my youngest son was looking for his stuffed toy. My eldest son told him that he would pray and then God would help him find it. They prayed and continued looking for about five minutes, at which point my youngest son gave up. God isnt going to help me find him, he said. My eldest son said yes he will. God will help you find him. I wish I could properly convey to you the tone in which this was said. There was no doubt, no uncertainty. My son had absolute faith that God would answer his prayer.
Sure enough, about 30 seconds later, my youngest son got up, went to his room and returned with the stuffed toy he was looking for. But he told us that God didnt help him at all. Instead, he had just gotten this feeling in his heart that he knew where it was and when he went and looked, there it was. I told him that I thought God did help and that feeling in the heart was Gods way of telling him where the stuffed toy was. I also told my eldest son that I believed his prayer and his absolute faith that God would answer that prayer no doubt had had some bearing on my youngest son finding his toy again
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In Australia recently, there has been debate about Bill Hensons photographs. Bill Henson could face charges regarding his photographs of naked adolescents. Many artists and other people have spoken up in support of Bill Hensons work. But Kevin Rudd said that he finds them revolting.
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During the ABCs program Q and A, Kevin Rudd was asked about his Christian faith. He was the first guest in the new program, answering questions from the general public, through the audience, by email and by SMS. The question asked about his faith was one that I asked myself. I had texted it in, despite believing that they wouldnt ever ask it. I thought the ABC wouldnt see it as a question that the general public were interested in.
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Comment by samaritan
on LIE: Jesus was ALL about Love and Forgiveness
Fringe Faith
But God sees the heart. God not only knows what we do, he knows why we do it. I believe that some people who say they are Christians will be judged for what you have described here. But only God knows what their heart is really like and so only God can judge that.