Christianity 101 | Ain't Complicated

Christians and Community

I bought the Wall Street Journal at the airport. On the opinion page was a letter from James S. Martin, a Mennonite from Scurry, Texas. When it comes to health care and meeting social needs, Martin sees little advantage to insurance and entitlement programs offered through the federal government and private sector.

"Our communities have been successfully meeting our own financial needs for 500 years," Martin wrote. "How relieved I am to rely on the voluntary sharing of my own church community."

If our policies were built upon the simple faith of the Mennonites, this crisis would have never happened because the good of the community would have been put ahead of personal gain. The families who made it through the Great Depression helped and relied on one another. It may be that we all have to do that again.

Martin believes the Mennonite and Amish form of mutual aid and a community support system will endure. "After all, it springs from a 2,000-year-old imperative," Martin writes. "Bear one anothers burdens" Galatians 6:2.

SMBI: Days of Elijah

OK. I won’t do this often. Very rarely, in fact. For the record: I am not a YouTube fan.

I learned about this video from one of the singers (and fellow blogger), Hans Mast.

Hans Mast, live and in concert!

I’m calling your attention to it because my family and I heard them live in Lebanon (Oregon). We really enjoyed that program, even if the venerable Urie Sharp wasn’t the director.

Oh, I didn’t mention these are the Sharon Singers from Sharon Mennonite Bible Institute (SMBI).

May this song encourage you. And warn you.

Behold, He comes!

We live in perilous times, as in the days of Elijah and as in the days of Noah.

Prepare!

What Would You Read?

Uzbekistan: Fifteen year sentence for reading “prohibited” Christian literature? Well, time will tell what his sentence is. According to the story, the issue isn’t Bible reading. It’s reading other Christian literature. So look at your book shelves. Which Christian book would you still read even if it meant your arrest. And possible torture. And possible long-term imprisonment?

In other news at the same site:

Young Evangelist Beaten Unconscious in India

Yemen: Christian arrests may herald new era of persecution.

Calling All Missionaries

Current.

Retired.

Aiming2B.

A revolution in missions taking place

In the last few decades a profound yet quiet revolution has taken place in mission which is best observed from a field perspective. There are many facets of this shift, which is accelerating in speed and intensity as the timing of our Lord Jesus is coming closer.

The first change, according to The Bridge International’s RK Ulrich, is the pulling back of the Western church as torch-bearers of the Gospel to the unreached, and the merging of national churches with strong leaders who effectively are reaching their own. It is interesting to note that the Church-at-large is presently growing far more rapidly in the third world and emerging nations than in the West (Europe and North America)

Secondly, Ulrich says, “The definition of who is a missionary is changing. Traditionally, it was the person with a life-long call, trained through mission-school and sent out by a church or mission organization to one geographical field where they lived and died.”

[…]

And finally, the rapidly increasing availability and use of the internet and satellite television is changing outreach. Ulrich says, “These media are already blanketing every square inch of our globe with an unfathomable amount of information. It’s said that the paradigm shift caused by the coming of the information highway is causing as profoundly revolutionary changes in our present global community as the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press did to the world culture at the time.”

Generally speaking, I think the pulling back in the first change is unfortunate. Why pull back? If the national churches overtake us, praise God! But pull back…?

Anyway, I enjoyed this short article. Sure, I grew up in Mexico as an MK. Sure, I served in Mexico as an adult missionary. Sure, I’m chairman of a mission board. But I hope I enjoyed the article as a Christian and not just because of my involvement in foreign missions.

Tony Snow

He died this morning.

I just stared at the headline.

I knew he had cancer. I knew he’d fought it off at least once. I didn’t know he was that bad off, though.

He had a good radio show before he went to the White House as press secretary. I enjoyed listening to him. And I was glad to hear him once in a while on The Radio Factor after he retired from his WH job. But I didn’t know him personally. So why should his death matter to me?

I don’t know.

And why should it matter any more than the young man in Somalia that died at about the same time Tony did? (I assume one did.)

I don’t know that either.

In any event, I keep wondering what Mr. Snow learned after he died.

What will you learn after you die?

And I?

So…what should we learn before we die?

And when shall we try to learn it?

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

May the Snow family find the Good Shepherd’s comfort and peace and strength and courage.

Mr. Savage? Yes, He Can!

Closing out his first hour this afternoon (at least here in Oregon on 750 KXL), Michael Savage said (and I quote to the best of my recollection):

I don’t know if God Himself can save this nation.

Sir, God can save this nation!

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

Yes, God can save America.

But will He?

Or is the cup of iniquity of the United States of America too close to full by now?

I don’t know.

And if God chooses to bring judgment on the USA, what will I do?

Would to God that I will stand strong. And shine strongly with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christ, a Hostage?

Something’s weird here, in my estimation:

A student at the University of Central Florida says he’s now getting death threats after he stole and later returned a wafer representing the “Body of Christ” from a Catholic Mass in Orlando.

The student senator, Webster Cook, originally claimed he merely wanted to show the Eucharist to a friend who had questions about Catholicism before consuming the host.

Cook, who was raised Catholic, said he decided to bring the wafer home June 29 after a church leader tried to physically pry it from his hand. Cook broke Church rules by failing to consume it immediately during Communion and then removing it from his mouth once seated.

The wafer was kept in a Ziploc bag until Cook returned it days later along with an e-mail stating, “I am returning the Eucharist to you in response to the e-mails I have received from Catholics in the UCF community. I still want the community to understand that the use physical force is wrong, especially when based on assumptions. However, I feel it is unnecessary to cause pain for those who are not at fault in this situation.”

Cook has reportedly been getting death threats, prompting his friend, who wants to remain nameless, to discuss the situation with local media.

“I was kind of confused because I always thought that Jesus was a pacifist, and they’re using violence in order to get back the body of a pacifist,” he told WOFL-TV.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on the case, stating:

“For a student to disrupt Mass by taking the Body of Christ hostage – regardless of the alleged nature of his grievance – is beyond hate speech. That is why the UCF administration needs to act swiftly and decisively in seeing that justice is done. All options should be on the table, including expulsion.”

Is this on a par with “desecrating” the Koran?

Or cartooning Mohammed?

And does The Nameless Friend have a valid point on the violence angle?

And what about Bill Donohue — does he have a good point also?

PS: I reject the doctrine of transubstantiation.