Why God?

For the past few weeks, I have been following the "Blasphemy Challenge". For those who need a quick summary, blasphemychallenge.com is a website run by a group of atheists that is encouraging people to post video online of themselves verabally stating that based on rational thinking, there is no God, Jesus, or Holy Spirit. All of these people receive a free DVD if they post a video of such.

Now before you visit the site, please note that it can likely shake you. Some would argue that the whole purpose is to bother Christians. Well...they win. I am bothered and this is why.

First, Christians are targeted. Wouldn't a true atheist be more agressive to all religions? The founder of this challenge argued on Fox News that he does personally target all religious yet all of his rhetoric was Christian-oriented and specific. But why woudn't it be! Christianity is true and therefore the largest threat to their agenda.

Secondly, the site claims to be motivated by "rationale" yet their approach to the whole initiative is not very rational. They are encouraging people to make an uniformed decision. Any rational person would want to consider more information, even if it may appear anecdotal, before making a decision. Even after they may have decide something, most rational people would not want to close a door that they could keep open or return to. Leave your options open, right? Yet this group is irrationally encouraging what they themselves characterize as unforgivable sin and eternal damnation. Where's the rationale in that?

Here's my response. What I Was Made For .com is launching a web page called God challenge. WWW.GODCHALLENGE.COM will host similar videos, except they will be of testimonies of people and their God experiences.. Instruction on how to be a part can be found on the site. The site is geared toward true God-given wisdom and rationale. It encourages people to search for God and that if they do...they will find him. It promotes listening to others' experiences with God and considering the fact that we may not know everything, or, at the very least, we may not know enough to make such statement as the Blasphemy Challenge is requiring.

Encourage your circles to send their support by sending their videos. We know that we will overcome by the word of our testimonies!

Indoctrination?

I was watching a video documentary today on Christianity. The video was obviosuly produced by, at the least, a social liberal company but it wasn't the film itself that bothered me. In fact, I think that film really did an okay job of showing Christianity at face value. But perhaps that is the problem...our "face value".

We are worthless at face value. I know many ministers, including myself at times, have lobbied for people to more jovial and transparent about the benefits of a Christian lifestyle...but honestly, it is hard to compete with the world in marketing. So, by default, our face value isn't of much value. However, our core value is!

This is the point that bothered me in the video... the presentation of our core values. those are the values we hold dear and protect because (in reference to an early blog post) God says they are honorable.

On the video was a radio host (obviously anti-Christian) who challenged a Christian children's pastor on the air. He made a statement and I was completely dissatisfied with the pastor's response. The radio host noted that "teaching children was different from indoctrination" and that "teaching a child" was exposing them to everything so they can make choices about life. A child, make choices about life? Thank God my parents did not lay that responsibility on me when I was a kid! Needless to say, the pastor offered a lame rebutal of "well we feel we have a right to teach our kids our Christian heritage".

NEWS FLASH! God's truth is not our heritage! You can quote me on that. His truth is our REALITY! (referencing another early blog post, I am seeing a spiritual pattern here) What about the argument that we want to teach our children truth and the way the world was designed to operate!? If you are teaching a kid math, you instruct them on the laws of mathematics so they can learn to develop the right answers from mathematical problems. Same thing with our faith. We teach our children the laws of God (or reality) so they can get the right answers to life's problems. We don't do it for a heritage or a social agenda. We do it because we care they know about life!

Here's my response ot that very radio host. "Your agenda on that show is a social-political agenda. You are obviously irritated with the political threat conservatives present and you are attacking the very core of the Judeo-Christian belief system in order to acheive your means. Christians on the other hand, simply want to preserve an envirnoment where their children can learn about how to be successful in life (both now and eternal). And that envovles God."

And even harder, my response to the pastor. "Stop presenting our faith at face value. There's no dressing up that God's law is real and He maintains dominion. If you continue to protect that face value (things like heritage and image), you will fall short. Your persecution was prophecied and so is God's ultimate victory."

Are we relevant?

The other week I was completing one of my very common routines. I was looking through some ministry videos and came across a video that got me thinking. In the video, a man was interviewing people on the street about if they attended church. The interesting part of the video came when people began to respond why they didn't attend church. The common answer was "it's not relevant to today".
Is God not relevant? Could it be possible that God, the very creator of reality as we know it, could have become antiquated and obsolete?
I think a better explaination is that perhaps Christians often fail to be relevant. And I really think it is an honest mistake.
The truth is we spend our Christians lives studying a book that, well...to be honest...is really old! It has been around for thousands of years and we base what we know about God on it. All of sudden, it becomes easy to how we might be perceived as outdated.
What people don't see (because we fail to communicate it) is that even though the Bible is old...it is not dead. That's what we a really talking about right?! A faith that is perceived as dead or dying.
But that's not my faith! God's word is a LIVING word. That means that it functions like most living things; it grows, it adapts, and it interacts with us. It grows in prayer by the author Himself speaking to us. It adapts in it's form to apply ot our situations. It interacts because it's very instruction is life changing.
So why do people see as irrelevant? Something I see to often is our presentation of God's Word as finite and complete. We present God's Word as if it is established fact ... done and finished. No need for discussion, no need for explanation. But God's Word is not fact or a complete thought. It is continuous dialogue with God.
Might I suggest that we can be more relevant if we presented God's Word as the start of a dialogue. I really can see that if show people the way to God, not to completion, he will show them the Living Word we are so often unable to communicate.
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Our Innocence

Romans 16:19 tells us "I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good (innocent)and simple as to what is evil. "
The quest for preservation of innocence extends beyond Christians. Societies have been molded around the quest. But do we really understand what's innocent? Some people go to great lengths to perserve what they feel is innocent. Most Christians see an unborn child as an innocent thing, so they fight to protect it. In the same breath, most see family as innocent, so politcal battles rage. But are we judging innocence or are we seeking God for what He has identfied as innocent. I do believe that children and family are innocent, but not because I get warm and fuzzy thinking about them. They are innocent because God works to preserve them.
But lets not forget that God's blessings are not always innocent items. Let me provide an example. I feel that people of God should be prosperous, even financially. I really feel that God blesses us with wealth but He suggests that money is anything but innocent.
I really think our quest is to reevaluate what is truly innocent. Let's take a step back and seek the things God so chooses to fight for and what he is working for. Perhaps then we might choose our battles more wisely!