Disturbed Christians

This is not a biblical game. It is Lego version of...

2012-01-08T10:41:52.232-08:00

This is not a biblical game. It is Lego version of Pictionary, where instead of drawing you build it out of Legos. Duh.

Whats not to get? God ordained everything. Everyth...

2011-10-09T13:24:20.151-07:00

Whats not to get? God ordained everything. Everything we do should be an act of obedience. We're not good at all; God is good in everything. Heaven and hell are real. God is a trinity. Badabing-badaboom, there's Calvinism.

Does the Bible teach this stuff?...I think...yes.

Courtney, it is good for us to share our testimony...

2011-09-06T16:18:21.724-07:00

Courtney, it is good for us to share our testimony's of God's work in our life's when witnessing but ultimately the message that saves is not our stories, but instead it's the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified (Rom 1:16-17), God's Story! Hence the reason why we have have all been commanded to preach the gospel, and it's also why Paul keeps going on about the Gospel, which remains 100% true independent of our experiences and story's. What I have found with people who's focus in witnessing is sharing their story is that it becomes a man-centred message rather than God-centred, we are not the centre of God's salvation plan, He is! The message of Salvation is based on an event, the death and resurrection of Christ, and not on our experience's and what has happened in our lives!

In respect to the article, I don't think it's right to criticize people, such as Todd Friel and his method, which is used by Ray Comfort's Ministry, knowing personally that they are very faithful when it comes to witnessing to the lost, probably more faithful than 99% of the Christians I know!

"One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord.

Moody's reply was "I agree with you. I don't like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?"

The lady replied, "I don't do it."

Moody responded "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."

All I ask, is that before we start criticizing other people, saying such things as: "How not to witness", we better be doing it ourselves. The reason I say this is that your final remark seems a bit like the elderly lady response in that story: "How do you do that? I don't know, yet. I'm still figuring that out."

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." Rom 11:36

You are dead on. One only need to look to Germany,...

2011-09-02T07:15:12.024-07:00

You are dead on. One only need to look to Germany, Romania, or a number of other countries where religions peoples blindly followed in the name of 'patriotism.'

I just created a blog post on the pledge of allegiance that you might be interested in ( http://terry.ipearson.net/2011/09/02/the-pledge-lets-have-an-open-debate-on-this/ ).

It largely is based on the same notion that you discuss in this post. Our allegiance is to God (Jesus), and cannot be usurped by a third party (government).

I love the freedoms that we hold ideal in our nation, but we need to be careful, not to put our country above our creator.

Sorry, I saw the label "brett" and assum...

2011-08-01T00:15:18.077-07:00

Sorry, I saw the label "brett" and assumed that was your name. So sorry!

Hi Brett, I've just come across your blog and...

2011-08-01T00:14:01.990-07:00

Hi Brett,

I've just come across your blog and I can say that it pretty well resonates with where my husband and I are at.

We spent most of our lives inside a very small, conservative, traditional synod until just 2 years ago. Since then we've attended a "missional" non-denominational church. But about 10 months ago, our work and school schedules completely conflicted with the program times and church services that gave us any connection to the community at all. And unfortunately, once we weren't able to be involved no one checked in with us to see how we were doing...we just got a couple facebook comments like "hope to see you in church!" or "we miss you!"

Anyway, long story short, it made is take a step back and think about what "church" means. And you're spot on with your definition of
what the church is.

So yes. I have also failed at being the church. I know I'm naturally bent toward independence, but I also know that I need other people. I want to be in community. But the question is, is being involved in church programming and showing up to church on Sunday to sing a few songs and hear a message the only way to be apart of a christian community?

I sure hope not.

And to answer your question, I'm trying to get to know the people God has put in my life at this time. I'm trying to love them...though my selfishness often gets in the way. I'm trying not to judge. I'm praying God takes care of the rest.

Disclaimer: I'm totally generalizing and basing this post off of my own experiences.

I absolutely agree with this post. I think if we ...

2011-07-02T09:00:03.440-07:00

I absolutely agree with this post. I think if we think about salvation as the end goal for non-believers, then perhaps, yes, a guilt trip is the way to go in way of evangelism. But, while yes, salvation is clearly important, I think LIFE in Jesus is what should be represented in our evangelism. Yes, Jesus died for our sins and has saved us from eternity apart from Him, but He has also set up a plan for a life that can be abundant with Him- a life that is more than guilt and shame and hoops to jump through. This is the true message of the gospel- so why can't we share this? While a "formula" (as mentioned by stormbringer above) may be useful, I think that telling our personal story as it relates to us is much more powerful. And at the end of the day, I'd rather use words I'm passionately connected to with people I claim to "love" over a grossly over-manufactured track/formula any day of the week. Jesus is a part of our stories. So let's tell them.

Guilt trip or Holy Spirit conviction? About two pe...

2011-06-24T18:37:54.854-07:00

Guilt trip or Holy Spirit conviction? About two percent of Christians share the gospel. How many of them are doing the "get saved by reading this prayer and everything will be cool"? Or the "relevant" stuff the article mentioned? Sure, there's no "formula", but then, it's good to have some kind of basis or structure for those of us who are not God in the flesh.

George-- I don't know what kind of crack you&...

2011-06-11T15:15:01.382-07:00

George--

I don't know what kind of crack you're smoking, but I didn't say anything about the government! How come every time some one says the world "fighting poverty," y'all Tea Party folks automatically think we're talking about communism?

Is it charity for the government to confiscate mon...

2011-06-11T10:47:20.123-07:00

Is it charity for the government to confiscate money and make decisions for us who should get it? Is it even sound thinking or fiscal policy for the government to confiscate a dollar and pass on thirty cents??
Churches were the center of VOLUNTARY charity giiving... as well as giving directly as the need appeared to them. And Churches typically handle charity 90 cents on the dollar received.

yeah, it was probably Amway

2011-06-03T07:53:21.847-07:00

yeah, it was probably Amway

I did a little nail-biting about whether or not to...

2011-05-27T05:10:22.439-07:00

I did a little nail-biting about whether or not to make Harold Camping jokes or whatever. It's certainly very funny and all, but on the other hand it is also kind of sad. A friend of mine made a comment about how her heart goes out to all those "who thought today was going to be the day," and how awful it must feel. And come on, it's never in good taste to mock people for their religious beliefs.

However, and this is a big however, Harold Camping isn't some innocuous religious voice who believes unconventional things. Yes, he took a lot of money (I believe the "donate" option on the website was active all throughout the whole ordeal), but the main thing that disturbs me is his animosity toward gay people. He claimed in multiple places on multiple occasions that gay people are a big part of the reason God was so angry.

It's hard to be sympathetic for this poor old preacher when he viscerally antagonizes me and my family. So while yes, it must have been heartbreaking for those who thought it was going to go down, it's also heartbreaking that people have turned their religious traditions into a vessel for revenge fantasies.

Was there a typo in the last sentence? He's s...

2011-05-23T08:54:17.545-07:00

Was there a typo in the last sentence?

He's saying, "There's a time for charity and social justice, but right now it's [NOT] that time." Got it?

?

Hey Liz, Yeah it's me Travis, a.k.a. the form...

2011-05-01T07:00:15.325-07:00

Hey Liz,

Yeah it's me Travis, a.k.a. the former desolateangel83 from Livejournal. I cross-posted this one on both my personal blog and here on Disturbed Christians.

Was this the same blog I saw on Kindle just now..?...

2011-04-30T20:49:44.977-07:00

Was this the same blog I saw on Kindle just now..? Did you guys have a Livejournal once upon a time..?

BTW, I've been disturbed most of my life, and been a Christian for about 20 years of it. [I'm now in my 30s.] I'm confused as to what good there is in being disturbed.

[My apologies if this is the wrong blog.]

The sacrifices in the Old Testament foreshadow wha...

2011-04-24T14:42:18.194-07:00

The sacrifices in the Old Testament foreshadow what Jesus death means and it is clearly penal substitution.

But really the death of Jesus will not be a reality in your life unless you are born of God by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Only a regenerated person can have victory over the power of sin.

When one becomes so consumed with something (Tea P...

2011-04-17T21:48:29.973-07:00

When one becomes so consumed with something (Tea Party/politics)that they worship it, it's hard to distinguish who your real messiah is. We know Jesus is the Messiah, but we have to stay focused on Him and His Word. Those who focus on protests and politics entirely usually leave little room for Jesus and therefore forget who they are really worshiping- if they ever really, intimately knew Christ to begin with.

Good post!

You were meant to blog. It has inspired me to star...

2011-04-15T00:49:20.486-07:00

You were meant to blog. It has inspired me to start my own blog on barrie dentist

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It's not about choosing one or the other....It...

2011-03-29T06:18:10.732-07:00

It's not about choosing one or the other....It's about current world philosophies and what they prioritize. I understand your question...I am also literal minded and get confused by many statements because of this. You can certainly save trees, but this statement is about how saving children should be infinitely more important as their value is infinitely greater...after all Jesus died on a tree, for the people, not for the tree. :)

Glad you and Diana are safe!

2011-03-23T15:22:08.932-07:00

Glad you and Diana are safe!

Sometimes the issue is where we are when we get ar...

2011-03-11T09:00:20.951-08:00

Sometimes the issue is where we are when we get around to asking. Like any other conversation if you wait so long that you're angry its hard to hear the answer. Maybe that is why we are entreated to pray frequently, so we can get those questions out early enough to still hear the answers ;-)

You could always look into the Libertarian Party. ...

2011-03-03T08:35:25.791-08:00

You could always look into the Libertarian Party. They have plenty of religious as well as non-religious people in it. They also have at YouTube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReasonTV

I'm kind of right there with you. Too progress...

2011-02-25T03:55:17.273-08:00

I'm kind of right there with you. Too progressive for the evangelical church, but not going to give up some of those things- especially 4 and 5.
I do have hope that someday government officials will understand bi-partisanship and get things done rather than acting like spoiled little children who are fighting on the playground.

We should of course read historical accounts as be...

2011-02-24T15:56:38.421-08:00

We should of course read historical accounts as being historical, metaphorical accounts as being metaphors, poetry as being poetry, etc. To say that the bible is either all literal or not is a gross fallacy -it's made up of many books and different genres of writing occur throughout its books. Knowing how to read each book and putting into it's proper genre isnt that hard. Many scholars and apologists have been doing this rationally and logically for decades. Check out Reasonable faith .org and listen to podcasts from William Lane Craig or Ravi Zaccharias. The biggest mistake I see in our generation is that we think we are the first ones to grapple with these issues. The powerful skeptical arguments that we are seeing against biblical narratives are not new, they have been around for centuries. The bible doesnt have to be inerrant to be true. But Jesus had to absolutely rise from the dead or I'll be the first one to turn in my Christian ID card!
Remember: God says that faith is a gift, it's not however, the gift of stupidity. We are not supposed to blindly believe things that are unreasonable (that's called delusion). But we are (and will with the Holy Spirit) believe things that are revealed as true. Picking the revealed truths out of the bible is not as hard as we think if we are willing to build on the scholarship of apologists, archeologists and theologians who have been working and publishing on these things for years (again see Criag, Paul Copan, Ravi Zaccharias, Michael Ramsden, John Walton, etc.)

"God is the Divine Householder who makes sure...

2011-02-17T19:25:05.514-08:00

"God is the Divine Householder who makes sure that everyone in the household have enough..."

I guess he's not doing so good at keeping up with that little chore given how many of us die for lack of food, sanitation, medical care, etc.