Other Requirements

I am going to steal a post from Craig, as he has not posted on it in over a week. The topic? Requirements of a pastor. I am curious, outside of the requirements in the book of Timothy, do you think we should have other standards?

Is it possible that the authors of the Bible, might have taken for granted the process for becoming a pastor? I mean, think about it. In those days, you had to study the Word, and after memorizing the Old Testament, if you were still in the "class" that is, another priest might as you to be his apprentice. Upon successfully learning that priests message and what not, you could then start preaching.

In our society today, what do you need to do to become "ordained"? Anyone can become a pastor. They even have online classes for it!!

The more that I think about it, the more frustrated I get. I keep coming to a similar conclusion that this is why we have so many preaching false doctrines. On the other hand, is it not great that anyone can study the Bible? In our society however, you dont need to be a pastor to study the holy Word of God. So why is it that anyone can become a pastor? Do we have any standards today?

Can someone be denied to attend seminary? If they are, whats the difference between them and someone in an online course?

Do these "pastors" know and understand the Bible? I guess it is possible depending on their own motivation. It is troubling that we have all these pastors, and the sheep seem to be scattered. Is there a hard core group of pastors that are considered the "elite"?

Also, while I am on a rant, what about pastors that use other pastors sermons? How about pastors that recycle their sermons? Should a pastor be in such a low demand that they need another job to provide for their family? What if having a second job keeps the pastor too busy for him/her to spend time with God?

Because we have, as it seems, no standard for our pastors, there are too many. Because there are too many, we are getting pastors who need other jobs, because they cant get a full time job in the ministry.

If they need to have a second job, well I guess its more likely that the pastoring job would be the second job. More than likely the other job would be the full time position. That being said, what if a pastor doesnt write the sermon until Saturday night? Does that really allow God the opportunity to work in their heart?

So that is my rant. I had to get it out there. Let me know what you think.

Barrack Hussein Obama Comic

Make sure you zoom in on these pictures to read everything. Its well worth it!

Moving Forward

"So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding." Hebrews 6:1-4

For those focused on forgiveness of our sins, let us move forward. Repenting of our sins is fundamental importance, but let not our focus on it hinder our progressive movement in faith, not let it hinder that of other Christians. If your constant focus on sin hinders another believer, you must stop. (1 Cor. 8:13)

For the love focused Christians, I applaud for efforts to share and show the love that Christ would ask you to. Let us not stop there, lets keep our eye on the goal so that we can finish the race. Lets not just promote Gods love, but let us seek the knowledge within His divine and inerrant word. I remember the old D.C. Talk song "Love is a Verb", we must live beyond the song by seeking what God wants next from our lives.

Let us live in faith so that we might not stand still or fall back into our old and useless sinful nature.

Prominent Thought

"Prominent Thought" is the title of the new blog that I have stared. While it is still under construction, I am excited to hear back from many people, and their words of encouragement.

With that being said, I have been working on a mission statement that might best explain the purpose of the said blog.

"Prominent Thought is a center for believers to learn, discuss, and grow amongst different denominations, reminding us that beneath the labels, Christ is the core of our faith. We promote discussions on all aspects of the Christian faith, in a Christ like manner, striving to recognize we are all part of His holy body. Our hope is that we will become unified, highly educated, and prepared for all challenges that seek to diminish the Christian faith."

The website for the blog is currently located here, or can be accessed on my "friends pages". I hope that in short time, the posts will start posting. Thanks again, and hope to see you there.

Inerrant Word of God

Some of you may have read a recent post of mine on three different kinds of Christians (defined by their focus). If you read that, you were probably able to pick up on which I would fall into, faith focused. That being said, I feel that a Christians faith is very significant.

When I look at the thief that died on a cross next to my Savior’s, I think about what it was that allowed him salvation. It was obviously not works, nor was it a prayer or salvation; it was his faith in Christ. He didn’t ask for forgiveness, at least not like we do today. The thief accepted the punishment for his actions, he feared God, and recognized Christ as Lord.

This scenario makes me think deeply about faith and salvation, which brings me to the topic, the inerrant Word of God. How does the thief on the cross bring you to the subject of God’s inerrant Word you might ask? Fear not, I will explain.

Faith believes in something that you cannot always prove. It’s an action behind knowing, and I believe that I know the Truth. That truth is Jesus Christ, and my action is giving my life to Him.

The Bible was written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The original texts, in the original language, written by the original authors, could be inerrant, but there wasn’t really a grouping of the books at that time. To this day, experts are unsure if the thirteen epistles credited to Paul (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon.), were actually written by him; in fact, most believe that only a few were.

During the canonizing of the Bible, there were arguments over which books should be added, and which shouldn’t. For a time, there were different books in different Bibles. Even now, there are different books in a Catholic Bible than those in a Protestant Bible.

What about spelling errors in the original text, or historical facts listed? Historical facts that say there were 5000 fed, instead of maybe 5001. The point here is not to say that the Bible is wrong, or that there are possible flaws in the Bible. And while some of the readers might think I am bordering on heresay, I would ask a few questions: Do you believe the Bible to be inerrant? Which Bible? What books? What about the 13 epistles that the authorship is given to Paul? What happens if they could prove that only 6 were written by Paul?

What I am getting at is this: The Word of God is inerrant; however is the Bible an untainted interpretation of God’s word?

My jury has not yet convened on this subject, however I currently lean towards the idea that while God’s word is inerrant, it is possible that the Bible that we read today, might not be without error. Does that make me less of a Christian? I’m not sure. Does that negatively impact my faith? No. What it does for me, is makes me search out to find the truth, something we should be doing anyway.

My final thought on this would be best explained by giving an example. On occasion, when I have written a post, my readers misunderstand what I am saying. If someone took that post, and 100 years later wrote it in Chinese, and tried to share it, there could be flaws. Lets then imagine that it was rewritten ten times. Probability it would still be word for word exact? Next to nil. What about the probability that the meaning and purpose behind the writing was accurate? Pretty good.

The Word of God is inerrant, but I am unsure if what was written down is inerrant. I know that the truth behind the words is, just not sure if the words themselves are.

A New Creation

I have decided to start a new blog. While it is up and running at the moment, it is still in developmental stages. This new creation, as I hope to see it, will be a place of many authors. I hope to have a few core authors, but also hope to have frequent visitors.

I came about this idea after talking with Craig yesterday. I wanted to create a site where people with different ideas and theology (all Christian based) could post. This is not meant to become a battlefield or arena of any sort. It is to become a site where different thoughts can arise out of question, without being attacked.

I am unsure of how successful this will be, and I have not yet decided if I will enable comments. I am unsure of how often a new post will get posted, or whom the authors will be. I am unsure how I will regulate the posts and topics, I guess that might depend on the sites popularity. Who knows?

I just wanted to let everyone know what I was planning on doing, and get some feed back on the idea.

Not left to Interpretation.

I am rethinking some ideas and or beliefs on the Bible. Crazy as it sounds, but it is true. Many times I have said that a verse is read by two people, and both get a different meaning. Interpretation of the Word often speaks to each of us differently. Is it supposed to? Did God create the Bible to speak to each person differently, or does He use it to give a guideline, an example, or His purpose.

It seems to be very common to read something, and disagree with another person on a verse, or even a complete topic. We are all aware of the gray areas in the Bible, obviously gray because thats how God wanted it. Why do we seek to understand such areas? Are they really that important??

I have been wrong in many areas, and I believe that my interpretations have been wrong as well. I am starting to believe that there is only one interpretation that is acceptable, and that is the one of the author.

As I venture into writing, I cant help but wonder what my would be readers might think I am saying, verses what I intend to say. I noticed it today as I left a note to my wife. It said something like, "please combine the two bags of beef in the fridge". You could read that and understand that I meant for her to take the two bags of beef, and combine them in one bag, or you could read it as if I was saying that they actually had to be in the fridge when you combine them. The point being, your interpretation might not be the same as what I intended to say.

That being said, there are a lot of gray areas in the Bible, and I have often argued my interpretation, however my interpretation is not the important one, that honor belongs to the author.

3 kinds of Christians

So I have been doing some thinking an the Christian faith, and I am developing some new ideas. Well new to me at least. As a forewarning, I believe that each of the following have good traits, however like many things, our focus can be misleading at times, I will try to explain this. A combination of the 3 is needed.

I believe that there are currently 3 "types" of Christian believers. There are the "sin focused", "love focused" and "faith focused" Christians. Again, I understand that most Christians see the importance of all of them, however its the "focus" part that we are dealing with.

I believe that the "old school" Christians have a tendency to focus on the sin of man, thus making them the "sin focused" group. This would be the group that will emphasize that we are all sinners, we have a sinful nature, or are born into sin, and must receive forgiveness. While this is true, the only other thing that you really hear out of this would be the importance of forgiveness, and how it is needed daily.

The problem with a sin focused belief, is that it really is more harmful than good. Let me explain. First and foremost, it brings forth the idea that we are worthless, and cannot do anything correctly. (If you are a sin focused believer, right now you are agreeing with this statement, probably saying something like: "without Christ we are...") Lets really think about this though. Would God create us to be worthless? no. God loves His creations, and wants them to be joyous, He wants us to enjoy being with Him. Have you ever hung out with someone who has no self esteem? Its difficult. Sinning is difficult to prevent, and when we fall, its easier to sin again and again.

Sin focused believers struggle with sin as much as the next person, but putting the focus on sin is a never ending battle. We all sin, and in God's eyes, all sin is the same. Being homosexual is an equivalent to those who speed (breaking the law is a sin). What emotion do you feel when you sin? Regret? Shame? Humility? Often being sin focused creates barriers, and society plays a role in it too, but the church should treat sin equally. Striving to be humble is a great goal, and one we should all learn.

I remember my wife and I discussing a topic (to which I cant honestly remember, but it doesnt matter). Lets say it was making dinner. What carries a greater value... Cooking dinner for your spouse without being asked to, or cooking dinner when they ask you to? To me, it means more if my wife makes dinner, without me asking her to do it. Likewise, being humble before God, even when we don't sin, would carry more weight. We shouldn't just be humble after sinning.

Often, we put a lot of focus on sin and forgiveness, when Christ has already forgiven all sins; past, present and future. I think that understanding sin is needed, especially for new believers, but understanding that we will continue to sin, and that all sins are equal, and equally forgiven is a better focal point. Understand it, work on prevention, and keep running the race.

The new or "emergent" church is what I like to call"loved focused". Love should definitely be a defining character of all Christians. If you are not showing love, you are not living Christ-like. That being said, you have to understand that Christ got mad, to the point of throwing tables around (which sounds much better than "over turning"). Christ, God, hate sin. HATE being the keyword here. Should Christians care about that? of course. Is it important to the message of salvation? without a doubt. The message of love is best taught by actions. Love is only a part of God, there are other parts, and yes, some are not so fun to talk about, but lets face it, you cannot fully understand love, without understanding hate.

It is kind of like the kid that grew up, and had everything given to him. He doesn't understand the value of money, until he is without it. We can have love, but until we lose it, do we really see its value. The Old Testament is full of examples of the Israelites in and out of Gods graces.

Lastly, and what I believe is most important is to be "faith focused". Being faith focused is Christian maturity. Paul tells us we are no longer children, and we must grow up. To grow up, we must recognize we sin, understand its going to continue to happen, but press on. We must be able to show love, because its not normal or easy for us to love everyone. We must find like minded people to sharpen ourselves, we must study the Word of God, and challenge our beliefs. Learn to defend our faith, learn to share our faith, but mostly, learn what our faith really is. Faith isnt something you pull out Sunday mornings, its a lifestyle. Its not something you force on others, its not something you hide from others, it has to become you, and you have to become it. It needs to radiate within every part of your life, or its going to fade away.

Faith focused helps us look past our sins, and other peoples as well, so that we may become what God wants us to become. Faith is not for the faint of heart, it teaches us humility. Humility that teaches us to love all people, no exceptions. Love knows no boundaries, and neither should our faith, because faith is an action. Faith is believing that something is there even when you cannot see it, taste it, smell it, touch it or hear it.

Lastly, its our belief in Christ, who died, and rose again so that we might be forgiven, that secures our eternal life. Humility, love and faith will teach us that we heaven is not our goal. Our goal is to serve God's goal, which is to reach out and be an example of Christ, every moment we breathe.

Finally! A New Post, woot.

This is for all you Rob Bell fans... I have finished his book, Velvet Elvis, and decided I needed to make a post on it. I actually finished it a little while ago, but as you can see, I haven't been posting much (I have hit lvl 70 though in WoW).

Velvet Elvis was given to me by a buddy in my small group at church. At that time, there was much controversy about him, and I had never read much about him. I have seen some of his "Nooma" videos, but mostly what I had heard about him was from friends, and that was across the board.

I decided to read the book, and much enthusiasm from my friend. After all, it isn't very often I find someone who tells you, "Everyone needs to read this book", and when you hear something like that, from someone you respect, its only right to listen to them.

So I read it. I remember in the beginning of the book, in the first few chapters as I recall, I had to set the book down a couple of times because he was making me angry. His line of thinking was outright! I would pick the book back up and continue reading only because I said I would. During this time, I remember talking to Timm, and letting him know I was reading it, and how I have been setting it down in frustration. He said that he had to do the same, but he never picked it back up.

The more I read, the more I realized why I was getting upset. This guy, Rob Bell, is shaking my foundational beliefs. Naturally when this occurs, people get upset; the interesting thing, was that I kept going back for more.

I love to learn, it is a passion of mine. I love critical thinking, because its something that drives me to learn more. This book did just that. After every time that I would get frustrated and set the book down, later, when I picked it back up, I would start to see what he was trying to get at... and it would make sense.

Now while I do not subscribe to the spring/brick wall theories yet, I can say that they shed light on what he was talking about. I am not going to go into them, because I feel it is irrelevant. What I feel is most important is what comes from the second half of the book.

I can say that Velvet Elvis has changed some of my thoughts on Christianity, not really the hardcore ideology, its more about everyday living. I find its amazing how God used other situations in my life, while reading, to reinforce some of the ideas. Thats not to say God has never done it before, but I was recognizing these situations now.

I would like to read this book again. I have found friends that attend his church, and have been invited to attend, which I plan on doing.

While I have heard Rob's ministry categorized by the "Emergent Church" movement, I am unsure that it applies. Party because I do not fully understand what makes a church "Emergent" vs. a "normal-everyday" church. If his ministry does fall under the emergent church sect, so be it; if it does not, I honestly could care less.

I saw an interview that was in Europe with Mr. Bell, and he was asked what he thought about beings labeled as "Emergent". His response was that he doesn't like labels, and would rather they do not apply a label to him, this response makes sense.... when a label is applied to a church, it gives Satan the opportunity to create division, which he has done with great ease.

I hope to write more about how my thoughts have changed later, hopefully not much later. :)