If you were not able to attend a church service today or were just not willing, I would invite you to Life Church online today and for the rest of this week.  Pastor Craig gave an amazing message today, as he does every week, and I think you would really learn a lot from it.  Please, take a few minutes out of your day and watch this powerful message!!

(Once this week has passed you may find it as the fifth week in the Red Letter Day series in the archives.)

Author: Mae O’Steen-Grant

ISBN: 978-1-4327-3910-2

Genre: Religion, Christian Life

Pages: 257

Publisher: OutskirtsPress.com

Rating: 2 stars

I’m really sorry to say that I just really didn’t get this book.  It seemed to just go in circles and I felt very confused the whole time I was reading it.   I only read part of the book as I could not figure out exactly what the point was.  I finally just decided I needed to move on to something else.  So, unfortunately, this book is not a book I would recommend.

The point of the message was that there is a place for everyone at church – it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, there is a place for you.  I wholeheartedly agree with that.  Everyone should be welcomed when they step into a church.

The part that I had a problem with was at the beginning.  He started his sermon by saying that local churches need to be careful about not making church a place for “church people” – an “insider” thing – that they shouldn’t do things or say things that might make someone who has never been in church uncomfortable, that we need to make sure that we don’t use language that these same people would not be able to understand, and things like that.

This is where I disagree with him.  It seems to me that the main function of the church is for believers to gather in order to worship God and fellowship with one another.  It’s a time to come together each week and refocus ourselves and make sure that we are living as God wants us to be.  It’s a time for teaching and learning but most of all – for worshipping.

While I believe that taking people to church is a fabulous thing to do and great way to try to evangelize, I don’t believe that churches should be designed for unbelievers.  Yes, we need to take the time to welcome them; yes, we need to take the time to explain things they might not understand; but no, we should not be watering things down so as not to make someone uncomfortable who might be there just checking things out.

There are all kinds of programs and classes we can set up for unbelievers, new Christians, or people just checking things out.  A classroom setting or a small group setting, in my opinion, is a better way to get things on a level that someone who has not grown up in church might feel comfortable with and be able understand.

Corporate worship should be just that – worship.  And that’s something believers do.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Do you agree or do you see things differently?  You can even watch his message and get your own personal take on what he said.  The part I’m talking about is only about the first five or ten minutes of the message.  Come back and let me know if you do!  I’d love to know what others think about it!

The message of this series is that we all need to “stop acting like a Christian and BE one.”  Too many of us spend our lives calling ourselves Christians and going to church each week but we never behave like the body of Christ.

I hope you’ll take the time to watch the message.  It is SO worth your time!!

(If you are not involved in a local church I would highly encourage that but for those who are not able to do that for any reason our church has past messages online and you can go through and pick the series you’d like to watch and watch them at your convenience.  Craig Groeschel, our pastor, is an amazing communicator who preaches Biblical truth and powerful messages!)

The founders of our country wrote into the Constitution that:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Many of us are very familiar with the 1st Amendment but read it again, this time looking for the group that is restricted by the Amendment.  Did you find it?  It’s Congress – not the people, not Christians, not churches – Congress.  The first Amendment of the Constitution says “Congress shall make no law…”

Before the mid-twentieth century, pastors spoke out about Presidential candidates.  They were not silenced by the government and were able to speak their minds clearly and share their opinions about Presidential candidates. They had freedom of speech.  They examined these men based on Scripture and decided who was the better candidate based on their morality – their Christian walk if you will.  If they were sinful men they pointed that out to their congregations so that they were aware of who they could be electing.  This was completely legal and they had no problem with it.

In 1954 everything changed with what is called the Johnson Amendment.  When L. B. Johnson was a United States Senator, he was trying to get re-elected and there were a couple of non-profit organizations that were saying that Johnson was pro-communist. In order to try to silence these groups he included a little paragraph in a tax law that was being rewritten.  This tax law was never discussed on the Senate floor, it was never sent to committee and debated, it was never checked to see if it was constitutional.  He simply presented it with this tax law and it became law.  Through this Pulpit Initiative they are attempting to get this law removed and give freedom of speech back to pastors.

Many will say that pastors have no business preaching about politics from the pulpit – that there is “separation between church and state.”  It continually amazes me that people throw that phrase out as if religion has no right to be anywhere in the public arena or in any government area.  First of all, IT’S NOT EVEN IN THE CONSITUTION!  That phrase was written by Thomas Jefferson in a private letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, in 1802.  The original meaning and intent was nothing like what people use it for today.  When Thomas Jefferson used that phrase he was reassuring the men he was writing to that the government would not establish a state denomination.  That’s it.  He wasn’t saying that religion could play no role in the government.  On the contrary, our founding fathers used Scripture for the foundation of the laws they created for this land.  It was a part of who they were and it is seen in every aspect of what they did to establish this country.

Another reason that people give for their belief that pastors should not speak about politics is that it’s their own belief and it shouldn’t be taught from the pulpit.  They say that that’s using a church for political use and that’s not allowed by the tax law.  Our pastor shared a great story illustrating why it’s not “freedom of speech” for a pastor to be told he can believe whatever he wants but he needs to keep it to himself – that he can’t share his beliefs with his congregation.  He was talking to a reporter and he asked her, “What if the government told you that you could write any kind of story you want.  You can type it up, print it out, but then you have to keep it to yourself.  Just read the article to yourself.  Would you consider that freedom of the press?”  Of course the answer was no!  But that’s what the government is saying to pastors – they can believe whatever they want, but when it comes to anything that has anything to do with government or politics they have to keep it to themselves.  That, my friends, is not freedom of speech!

The 1st Amendment protects the people.  It gives us free exercise of religion, free speech, freedom of the press, the right to gather peaceably, and the right to petition the government.  The Johnson Amendment contradicts the 1st Amendment and so should be stricken from the tax law.  I hope that the people running the Pulpit Iniative are successful.  Pastors need to be able to share with their congregations what God puts on their hearts in regards to political issues.  They don’t have to require the congregation to agree with them but they should definitely be able to share it with them!

While I thought the book was a decent enough read for a fiction book, I was disappointed with it as a Christian.  The reason I didn’t care for it is that I found it to be contrary to what Scripture teaches.  I realize that it’s a fiction book and isn’t meant to be taken literally – at least I would guess that isn’t the intent – but when a person writes things about Christianity and the Bible that just aren’t true and aren’t backed up by Scripture a huge risk is being taken – a risk of leading people away from the one, true God.

In the comment thread that I was referring to, Neil shared a great site that nails the way I was feeling after reading the book.  The guy that wrote the article on that site lists many things that are problems in the book.  I would highly recommend reading his article!

I will share with you just a few things that really struck me as wrong in the book though:

1. In the story, God manifests himself as a woman.  Not only is God always referred to as God the father in the Bible (and not mother), He is not a man (like Jesus became man) and does not have a human body like we do.

2. The Holy Spirit manifests himself as a woman.  Just as above – the Holy Spirit is never referred to as female nor does the Holy Spirit have a human body like we do.

3.The way the Trinity is portrayed in the book is not Biblical. The Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in one.  They are not three distinct people.

4. In the book, God says that sin does not need to be punished – that it is punishment itself.  That’s not Scriptural either.  The Bible clearly teaches that God will judge each and every one of us one day.  We will be held accountable for our sins.

5. The Trinity is portrayed as being completely equal and that there is no heirarchy among the three of them nor should there be on earth.  That’s simply not true.  Jesus says many times in Scripture that he does as his Father commands him, that he wants to do the Father’s will, that he seeks his Father’s will through prayer.  We also have many heirarchies on earth as Scripture commands.

These are definitley not the only problems with the book but these were the ones that really stood out to me and made me say, “Wait a minute!  That’s not right!”  Other things were much more subtle – enough that I would kind of furrow my brow and say, “Hmmm…” to myself but not something I really could put my finger on in the middle of the story.  Norman Giesler and Bill Roach, the authors of the article I linked to above, have done a fabulous job of pinning down the problems so please give that a read.

Mark Driscoll has also preached against this book and has a short video on You Tube.  I would highly encourage you to watch it as well.  He explains very well why this book is not Scriptural.

So, if you are concerned about the upcoming election and the direction of this country please keep coming back for awhile and read the information I’ll be sharing!

To get back to the phone call, after this lady asked me to work I told her that we don’t go to church there anymore and she asked if I could tell her why.  I told her there were many reasons but the gist of it was that we didn’t feel connected there and as an example I told her about my kids’ experience with the youth group.  I think she was kind of speechless at first.  I think she might have been a little embarrassed too.   She proceeded to apologize several times but really what good does that do?  The church (meaning the whole body of Christ – not just this particular church) needs to realize that its job is to minister to the community, to disciple believers, to reach out to the lost.  It’s not just a time to gather for social hour on Sunday morning.

Okay, venting session over.  Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

I’ve been sucked into the land of Facebook. My daughter was asking for one and I wanted to see what it was before I allowed her to do it, well you have to sign up for it before you can get into it so… I signed up. I now have a facebook with four friends – my husband, my daughter, my (close enough to be a daughter) daughter, and a great girl on our softball team.

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I also just wanted to share with my bloggy friends how much you mean to me. I’ve probably said this before but it’s worth saying again – I never dreamed I’d develop actual relationships with people on here but I have and I’m so thankful for all of you. You are each so special to me.

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Neil had a post the other day about abortion and ironic statements that pro-abortionist’s have made. The post generated a long (and still growing) comment thread about abortion that is pretty interesting. It astounds me how people try to justify the murdering of innocent babies with irrational and illogical arguments. There have been some extremely well-spoken people sharing the pro-life stance over there though and it’s been very interesting to follow.

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I thought I was going to freeze to death yesterday. Not really but it sure felt like it. Our high was supposed to be about 57 degrees and it actually got up to 69 by early afternoon. It was just gorgeous outside! How was I going to freeze in that you ask? Well, we had softball practice yesterday and in the time span of about thirty minutes to an hour or so the temperature dropped about 30 degrees!! Add a VERY strong north wind to that (not to mention the fact that our practice field is directly south of a small airport so there is NOTHING to block the wind!) and by the time our practice was over I could barely feel the parts of me that weren’t covered by clothing!!! My whole face and my hands were numb when I got in the car! And the rest of me wasn’t faring much better! I am so thankful for heaters in cars.

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I am so ready for spring.

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Those of you who have been around my blog for awhile know that we have been involved in church planting. Last summer (or there about) we kind of decided to put church planting on the back burner and attend a church in the area. Well, we kind of feel like God is speaking to us about this because we just haven’t felt that this church is where we’re supposed to be. My husband still feels a very strong calling to ministry and church planting in particular. We both want so much to minister to the lost. If you think of us please pray for us in this process. It’s such a hard path and so full of difficulties. We just really need to have some confirmation that this is the right path – some success in team building would be a great way for that to happen.

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Well, I’m off to prepare for family night! The last few Fridays it seems we’ve had something come up so that we couldn’t have a true family night so I’m excited about tonight. On the schedule: pizza and pop, maybe a fun game of Cranium – Turbo edition (have you played this game??? Seriously, it is SOOO much fun!!), and then probably a movie. Hope you all have a great weekend!