The Great Pumpkin and Jesus in the House

Nope, not an oxymoron, though 10 years ago, most thought it was.

I could throw some scripture at you, but that is always suspect, since it's always out of context, so instead, I'll demonstrate how this church threw the Gospel at 600 kids and their parents.

Yep, that's right. Over 600 kids and parents showed up from

the community to High Pointe Church's Harvest Party, which had a pretty dead on Gospel presentation, BEFORE they went trunk or treating.

Let me break down the potential good and bad of it as I have seen it or had it explained to me.

Potential Bad   
                              
1)  Halloween is about boiling babies in pumpkins or any of the the other neo-druid rites that are not Godly.
(Historically, there were no pumpkins in England, so this is false from the beginning, but "Druid" rites are pretty much a mystery thanks to Julius Caesar destroying 100% of the druids, and creating these stories in the process to scare his army into fighting harder.)

2) It is going into the world, doing worldly things, rather than trusting the Gospel.

3) If you act like a demon, you invite demons.

Potential Good

1) Halloween is a religious rite that is generally misunderstood and distrusted by the Protestant church because it is a Catholic tradition.  Exploration of the truth is good, and knowing what the tradition is to begin with is also good.  We are all the Church of Jesus the Christ.

2) You get the opportunity to provide a SAFE and NON-DEMONIC atmosphere for both your own children and families but also for those who don't come to church.

3) You get to Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4) You get to Love on people.

5) It's Fun.

The main building only holds 600 so the overflow was in the smaller building which only hold 200ish, I would guess. There, they sang to Lord, with the High School youth group leading them in the words and hand motions.  No kidding. Everyone SHOWING the gospel, not just reading it.

At 6:15pm, in 40 degree weather, with the NE Patriots beating the tar out of the Broncos, 60 plus cars and not a few ministry groups showed up with simple to elaborate decorations just to pass candy out to kids.  Not even,

necessarily their own kids.  Just kids.

What struck me was that this is a conservative bible thumping evangelical, church building, fire and brimstone preaching baptist heritage church, doing Halloween.  

They laid down their hard earned paradigm about Halloween for the chance to have the pastoral team bring the Gospel, the truth, to 100's of people who never would have come into any church, much less a Conservative one.

That's how much they believe ....  sorry here comes the

scripture ...



Wait for it.....



Wait.....



He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. - Mark 16:15

That's Love.

Since I go to this church, I can assure you that Doctrine is preached, though not everyone agrees with doctrine.  We have people who think many things are sin and many who think all things are lawful.  We have many that think women can preach and we have women who preach, though not in the church. The superintendent of church schools is a women. That's a hard job, one that involves preaching even if it's not recognized as such.  I once held that position in another church so I really know the difficulty.  Very demanding. We have dress arguments and giving disagreements.  We have music discussions about to much show and not enough show. Normal church, except....

No one disagrees that We are to Love the Lord our God and

Love his people, and the best way to do that is preach the gospel. Some do it with words and some with actions, but we all agree;

The truth will set you free, and Grace is more powerful than everything in the world.

So, we do the pumpkin thing, and bring the word to 100's that never heard it and 100's who never felt it.

I Invite Your Comments - I really love learning from other's hard earned view points.  I challenge you to speak out.

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Books that will either add to your conviction, explain other's convictions or bring the light of truth and history to the discussion.  Knowledge sharpens the sword, and it is sharpened well indeed if you are seeking it for the Kingdom of God.

The Conservative Christian View on why Halloween is bad:

The historical view on what Halloween is from a scholarly point of view:

The Crazy S#$%^ Christians Say

A decade ago, I attended my daughter's graduation from a Christian University.  Let me be clear, this is no standard Christian University where you send your child to make sure they learn correct doctrine and are safe from the world. This place insisted that they made their own choice in their faith, understood the concepts and the reason, and got a valid degree in the world.  But they were weird.  We go a letter 6 months into her first year telling us to stop pressuring her to decide what the rest of her life was going to be about.  She had not heard the call yet.  She did not know.  I'm thinking, 100k for this?  She better know what she is doing.  As it turns out, I was wrong. She chose changing lives by using her teaching gifts in karate.  She has changed 1000's of lives already, including my own. Anyway, this university gave her, and me by extension, the tools to see how crazy we Christians can be.

Crazy S#$%^ #1)
 One of the speakers at her graduation was a professor emeritus and a baptist pastor of some renown.  We got up and said, something like, "There are many God damned people in the world."  

There was a gasp.  Indignation.  Then silence.  

Then he said something I have never forgotten.  "Most of you are more worried about me saying 'God Damned" than about those who are damned."

Wait........

What?  

Yep.  He was right.  We judged him on our rules.  Swearing is bad.  Don't do it.  Somewhere in the Bible I can prove it.  For sure, don't use the Lord's name in vain.  Problem is, he was not swearing.  He was stating a fact.

We were more worried about the words he used than the people we have been charged to help.  People who do not know Jesus are damned.  We have been given the tools to help them, so the spirit can work within them.  Yet, we are worried about his words, not their souls.  Odd.
Backwards.   Wrong.

We should shine the light of the Gospel.  Can't shine darkness anyway.

Crazy S#$%^  #2)  I was at an event sponsored by group my wife's and daughter's karate school belongs too.  There was one of the best rated goal setting, sales supporting, uber-speakers in the world today there.  And ... he is know as an out spoken Christian.  Yea.  I listen with awe to his awesome presentation.  Someday I could be a rich and powerful Christian just like him.  We even got to sit with him at dinner.  Pretty cool. 

I told him Crazy Story #1 above, and he said, with perfect posture and aplomb, that this professor was wrong, and misleading young minds.  No one should ever take the Lord's name in vain.  He missed the point.  The great commission was about sending us out to bring the Word to the lost, not spreading rules around and measuring other people.

He really was just a stuffed expensive suit, pretending to be a Christian in order to make money.  He spends his life seeing if other's measure up.

Crazy S#$%^  #3)  God loves praise and worship music, so if you don't do it, your not making God happy.  Really?  I know the verses, but really? 

I'm mostly tone deaf, and my injury makes loud music, heavy metal and reverb an awesome trigger for headaches that put me on the ground.  Ill.  Like I can't describe.  So any church that spends massive amounts of money and time on music, insisting that God demands it, kinda hates my service.  I teach.  That's I how serve.  I have to hang in the bathroom during most of the praise music so I don't get sick.  No kidding. 

Does that mean I'm going to hell?  Plus, I rather hear a flute, piano and Base than a keyboard, lead guitar and a snare drum anyway.  I'm ok with rock and roll; it's my generations greatest gift to the world, but I really prefer classical and country to heavy metal.

Same university.  Sitting at the baccalaureate service in a local church.  (The university does not have it's own church, as they insist that their students attend a local church and get involved in that churches mission.)  One of the speakers, the valedictorian or the dean of students, I don't remember which, talked about the trends in modern churches, and used a phrase.  7 - 11 Music.  7 Verses, 11 times.  I count now, 10 years later.  You know what, he was right.  Most music is 7-11 music in churches I visit.  It's really not praise and worship.  It's marketing.  

Give me amazing grace.  At least I know it won't get me sick, and it causes me to listen to the words.

Crazy S#$%^  #4) Your bible is evil, and by reading it, you're insuring that you're going to hell.

Err.  Hell seems to be nipping at my heels, like a dog. I don't like most praise music. I read evil bibles.  I'm worried about the damned.  Help.  Going down for the last time.

All bibles are translations.  All of them are wrong.  There is no original one.  They are a collection of letters, stories, books and histories, but we don't even have the original collection.  I was actually told, when I asked about this, that "the original ..... have no errors."  What?  How's that?  Worse, they were not written by the hand of God.  They were written by the hand of humans.  However, they were written by inspiration from God.  And, if they are read with the Holy Spirit's inspiration, whatever bible you are reading is both inerrant and sufficient.  If you do not have the Holy Spirit, it's just a book.  Yet, we fight over which one we read. Just as if Jesus spoke the original in English. 

Crazy S#$%^  #5)  My church no longer gives me what I need.  

What?  Church is NOT about your needs, desires or wants.  It's about God.  If you don't get what you want, either change what you want, because it might not be in line with what God wants, or change your Church.  

We, as Christians, are not about swapping sheep or shepherds.

We are about the harvest.  

Go get more sheep.  New sheep.  Times a wasting, and we have already been told what to do.


Crazy S#$%^  #6)  If you were offended by the title, The Crazy S#$%^ Christians Say, S _ _ _ _  -- five letter.  Not  4 .. 

Stuff, people, stuff.  Crazy Stuff Christians Say.

 Put your whip back in the drawer.

Why did I write this?  Because, as it turns out, I know many Christians that spend much time slamming other Christians.  I am more worried about my family members who don't know Christ than I am about those people who attend a church different than mine or who don't follow, understand or agree with my doctrine.

I know that God loves me, and the gay couples I know, and you too. 

I can't control my own behavior well enough to call myself righteous, and I am sure that by calling someone else a sinner, I get no closer to God.  Saul (Paul) did that; then he saw the light.  The light of the Lord.  The Good News. 

I want to live in this time with fellow Christians that are more worried about the damned than they are about the rules.  I want us to be more willing to spend their treasure and their time to bring love to the world than they are to spend time to yell at each other about doctrine. 

I'm tired of hearing about how much God loves guns, the constitution and baseball, and how much he hates Islam, your church, gays and New England.  I'm a conservative born again Christian. Yet, I am worried about those who don't know the Lord.  

The two most important laws, according to Jesus, are to Love the Lord your God, with all your Heart (body, mind spirit, life) and just as important, Love your neighbor as yourself.

Chill out.  We are not supposed to pick up the sword and start smiting the evil one.  We are supposed to love God and our Neighbor.  Stop the hate.  Start the Love.  I'm far to weak to do it on my own, and the light keeps fleeing from my sight.  

One Church.  One God.  Amen.

Day 9 - Stand Tall - Daily Inspirational Verses from Real Life

1 Corinthians 16:13 (NIV1984)

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong."

Do you believe in Satan?

Do you believe that he has the ability to put stumbling blocks in your way?

I never did.  My education is in physics, and I have spent my academic life and the remainder of my life since then, solving problems.  The basis of all that is observation.  If you can measure it, you can duplicate it, and it is real.  If you can not, you either lack knowledge, or it is not real.

One thing it never is, nor can it be, is outside of rational thought, or supernatural.

Yet, if you are a Christian, as I am, you already acknowledge the supernatural.  Nothing ordinary or explainable in Jesus' life, your salvation or Grace.  For no reason, other than love, you sins have been forgiven.

So if you believe in God, Jesus and Grace, then you believe in Satan.  Since you are God's now, he can't attack you directly, but he can and does throw things into your way, to break your spirit, your will and your faith.

This verse wants you to be aware that the attack is coming.

This verse says it will not be easy to stand in the storms in your life, but do it anyway.

This verse tells you to live lives of courage.

Why does he tell you this?  Because sometime God does not stop the storm.  He lets it pass, and instead he calms you.  This verse is the calming spirit of God, reaching out to you to tell you that you ARE strong enough to stand.  So Stand.  Be Strong.  Have Courage.  God has made you strong enough to do it.

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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.

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Day 1 - Daily Inspirational Verses from Real Life

Art used by Permission from www.GoodJobNotes.com

If you live in a world where things are just not going your way a little too many times, there is some powerful help from the word of God, written just for you and me. Unlike what I used to believe, the Lord provides real change, real help in real time.  Here is one of those awesome words.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV1984)

Hope generally is most needed and noticed in our lives when things are going badly, and we can not alter our emotions.  Despair begins to take over, and we start seeing catastrophic results are possible everywhere.  

It is even possible that catastrophic results are real, and not just possible, but happening.  Yet, Hope is still possible.  

Hope is like Superman, arriving just in the nick of time, to change how you look at everything, and make a good outcome possible in your mind and life.

1) Yet, you do not need to wait for despair to arrive.  In Jeremiah, God is telling you that he HAS PLANS FOR YOU.  Not the person next to you, not your country, your church, the good people, the other people, but YOU.  

2) Better than that, he is going to MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER (prosper) you, and he will do it with out harming you.

Of course, the ultimate good is heaven, and we all have a solid hope in Heaven, if we have accepted the free gift. This promise is more worldly too.  God WILL give you HOPE.

In my life, I have been sued by corporations with money. One of these experiences was solely based on them wanting to escape from their responsibility to me. They knew I did not have money, and could not defend myself. Worse, the attorney was the very picture of evil in thoughts words and actions. Because of him, I learned a new word, Ad hominem, in court, which means "personal attack."  He was cautioned for that over and over again.  The ONLY hope I had was in the Lord.  End of story, God showed up in this world by providing an attorney for us, who allowed us to have some dignity, and escape the ad hominem and the corporation.  Yea God!

This is not some long range promise, but rather a promise for the here and now as well.  Your faith, if you have it, can be based on the Lord's own words.

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For information on be certain of your Status with God, overcoming your actions that keep you from God, and allowing you to accept his free gift of eternal life, Click Here.

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Book Review: Who Is this Allah? by G.J.O. Moshay

Amazing Grace - First Verse

Amazing Grace was written by John Newton and published in 1799.  He was born in London July 24, 1725 into a sailing family.  He followed his father's profession and was pressed into service in the English Navy, where he was eventually assigned to a Slave ship.  From there he became a captain of a slave ship and that is how our story begins, according to Amazing Grace, the Story of John Newton.


The moment that the Amazing Grace first occurred in his life was at the height of a storm at sea, where a seaman who was steering the ship had already been washed overboard and lost. Again, according to  Amazing Grace, the Story of John Newton.  "He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him."


At a moment of extreme danger, and extremely disagreeable, disgusting, ungodly, non-repentant, non-believer addressed God, and God reaches out and touches his soul.  Amazing.


FIRST VERSE

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

Amazing Grace refers to that fact that John Newton saw himself as a great sinner, one beyond the rational levels that could allow anyone to think of redemption. Acts 15:11 (AMP) "But we believe that we are saved through the grace (the undeserved favor and mercy) of the Lord Jesus, just as they [are]. 


What was amazing about the grace was that at long last, John Newton was broken.  He discovered how evil his life had been, and how real God was, and it sickened him.  He was Amazed that God would reach out to one such as he, and even more amazing, that he would wash his sins away, and offer him Heaven.  Amazing Indeed.


For me, the Grace extended by Jesus was "logical."  By that, I mean I was not surprised when it dawned on me.  The person in my life who was teaching me about the Lord only talked about the Love of Jesus.  He was passionate about what Jesus' love had done for him, and what it could do for me.  Once I accepted his testimony as legitimate, finding that same love witnessed in the Bible was easy.  No Bells.  No strange moment of 'I got it."  Just a feeling of duh.  


I really did not get the amazing grace part until the last few weeks, when I finally reached out an made my relationship with Jesus something more than it has been.  I was broken in the world, and that caused me to look inside.  I saw nothing, and had nothing to lose, so I asked the Holy Spirit to show me my sins.  POW.  Now I get it to the roots of my toes.  My sin, like John Newton's is huge and ongoing.  That makes Jesus' grace all the more amazing.  We have an Awesome God!


That Saved a Wretch Like Me.  Just in case you missed the meaning of Grace, undeserved favor or mercy, he repeats the sin ...  he was a Wretch in the eyes of man and the Lord, and he knew it.  That is called confession.

Credit: Free images from acobox.com

I once was lost but now am found. He was not a believer of any type, according the "The Creation of Amazing Grace," yet God found him, like the lost sheep in Luke 15:6-7 (AMP) "And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost. Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [especially] wicked person who repents (changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance."  He did not believe, and he acted according to his own compass as to what was right and wrong, but Jesus found him and carried him home anyway.


I was once told that the outstanding quality of sheep was that they were stupid and dirty.  That offended me.  Now I wish I was only the stupid and only that dirty.  What a great way to look at ourselves.  We roll around in the dirt of the world thinking that is what we were born for, and along comes Jesus, tells us the truth, offers us love anyway, and some of us actually say NO THANK YOU.  I did for over 30 years.  If you want to read my story, visit Diving in to the Unknown. If you want to dive in yourself, and experience this amazing grace for yourself, then click here.


Was blind, but now I see. John 5-37 (AMP) "And the Father Who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. Not one of you has ever given ear to His voice or seen His form (His face--what He is like). [You have always been deaf to His voice and blind to the vision of Him.]"  He went from not knowing there was a  God, to seeing him everywhere in his life, in a blink of an eye.  

This was not a conversion experience that left him wondering.  It was a face to face meeting with his own evilness.  And God washed his sin, opened his eyes, and welcomed him home.


I did wonder after I accepted Christ.  I did not ever wonder about my salvation, I just wondered what I was supposed to do next, and how to get closer to Jesus.  I frequently forgot even that when things were going well.  




Recently I have read a few good books that have gotten me back into the Word, and back into the arms of Jesus.  


If you would like to read our review of them, see: Book Review - Good News for those Trying Harder, and Book Review, the Barbarian Way.

Amazing.

Grace.

How sweet it is.