"Judge not..."

“People tell me judge not lest ye be judged. I always tell them, twist not scripture lest ye be like satan.”

Paul Washer

"seriously, one minute?"

so i was talking about this to some of the senior students here at North Florida and i was wondering what everybody else thought about this subject.

I recently was in the local christian book store and amongst all the self-help books and lame christian fiction, there were actually books that dealt with spiritual things in the back. I found one among the teen section and it was titled, "The One Minute Bible."

I thought to myself, "Self, who only has one minute a day to read the Bible?"

I mean seriously, who's so busy that they only have time for one minute a day for ninety days?

Let's look at it this way. There are 24 hours in a day. That means if there is 60 minutes in each hour, then there is (hold on while i pull up my calculator app) 1440 minutes each day. 1440 minutes a day for ninety days is 129,600 minutes. So, you take the 129,600 minutes for ninety days and subtract the 90 (one per day mind you) and you get a whopping total of 129,510 minutes where you're too busy for God.

Say what?

Look folks, that's cold hard data right there and if there's one thing i know is that cold, hard mathematical data doesn't lie (except when you get into algebra).

So i said all that to say this (the watered down version):

Is the "One minute bible" OK or just really a poor idea? Maybe I'm just being a super christian and saying we should spend more than one minute in God's word. Or maybe, this "bible" (and i use that term loosely) just isn't a good idea.

Perks of the job...

One of things about working in the ministry, is that you do a lot of work behind the scenes. Especially when you work in the media ministry like i do. That's pretty much all i do is behind the scenes work.

And i love that. A lot of times, not many people know what i do. My wife would probably admit to not knowing fully what i do. It's cool though, because i can do little things for God, with pretty much just Him knowing.

The only downfall though is that i see a lot of stuff i sometimes wish i hadn't. Being the Tech Director (person who switches from camera to camera) on Sundays, i usually see who's paying attention in church and who's checking their watch every ten seconds. I see who's really there for worship and who's there just because they have to. It breaks my heart that it is normally the latter of those both.

I've seen people fall asleep.

Today, the school had a chapel in the main auditorium (the one we have church in) and i was up in the balcony, standing by the soundboard. As the music began to play, I listened to it build.

First the bass drum came in. Boom, boom, boom. And then the guitars came in. i don't think there are words in the English language to describe the wonderful noises that came from them, so just imagine. The music kept building and building until, bam, it exploded. Then the vocals came in and that's when i looked over the balcony.

After the music starting like that, i expected full on riot. What i saw was, everybody just standing there. The way it always is.

You had your few who you could see were really belting it out and giving it up to Him. But they were lost among the mass who thought it was too cool to sing.

Now i can understand sometimes you just don't "feel it", but come on, everytime?

Oh, Christians! "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."

No matter how crankin your music is, no matter how wonderful your soloists are, no matter how many funny stories the speaker tells, it is all for nothing.

You wanna change your church? Then preach the Gospel. Preach that man is nothing without the Grace of God. Preach to convict man's wicked heart, as Paul does in the first three chapters of Romans. Then will you see change in your church. Only then.

Why We're Not Emergent (by two guys who should be)...

So, I've started to read a new book and so far it's pretty good. It's not a full out attack on the emergent or emerging movement, but rather just reasons on why the authors are not. What attracted me to the book was the title, cause i often feel that the majority of my age group either leans toward no religion at all or the emerging church.

So far it's been pretty good and i would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

The Church...

I think there can be two legitimate definitions for "church".

The first being, "All born again Christians as a whole." This can also be called, "The Bride of Christ."

The second definition would be, "a place where aforementioned group meets for fellowship and worship."

So, we have a group of people on one hand and the place they hang out on the other.

In my last blog, I wrote that there is nothing wrong with the church. It was one of those things i understood in my head, but i guess it didn't make as much sense on paper. The church i wrote about was "the collection of all born again Christians." The point i was trying to make was that, a lot of times when the world views the "church," it sees everybody in the buildings and church services. But not everybody in those buildings and services are all Christians.

In today's church, you'll find three different types of people. The first would be the born again christian. The second would be the curious unsaved person. And the last would be the false convert, one who says he is christian, but has never truly been saved.

It is the last type of person where we find our problem and the one i was addressing in my previous blog. They are the one who professes, "Lord, Lord," but does not know the Savior truly.

I think that might help clear up any confusion, if not let me know and I'll take another stab at it.

I'd also like to get some opinions on this and perhaps start a quaint little discussion.

"Is church for the unsaved?"

I ask because, as far as me, I always been taught and told to bring people to church. I remember contests on how many people could be brought to church. I remember "friend days," where you were supposed to bring a friend to church. But i look at it now and don't really see that backed up by scripture. Church is always fellowship and worship among believers in the New Testament. To spread the Gospel, we aren't to bring the unsaved to church(2nd definition), but we should bring the church(1st definition) to the world.

What do you think?