The Online Rant

What happened to church? When did church become a chore? When did it become a duty rather than a joy? For many people, church is just that. A place where people go because they have to, rather than because they want to. I don’t mean they don’t want to go. They do, but not because they like it. Rather they want to go because they feel like it is the right thing to do.

But it shouldn’t be that way. Church should be a place we want to be. Attending church should be the highlight of the week. That’s the way it was for the early church. Acts is full of stories about the new believers. And it’s clear that they enjoyed getting together. They didn’t see it as a duty or a chore. They gladly attended every service they could. Thousands would show up to hear the apostles speak and to have fellowship with each other. And it wasn’t about the the facilities, the comfortable seats, or the entertainment. The early churches were meeting in homes and outdoor fields. And yet they clearly had great joy and happiness. Everyone, no matter what their station or class was welcome. It didn’t matter who or what they had done. All that mattered was that they had accepted Jesus. Jesus loved them, and that meant they were family. And all of them enjoyed getting together to worship and enjoy Jesus. So what happened?

Why isn’t it that way today. We sing songs of worship, but we don’t think about what we are saying. The way we sing them is empty and meaningless. It’s just ritual and tradition. Where did the joy go? We fellowship with people at church, but we keep our guard up. We have to make sure we always keep our church face on. Not because our real face is wrong, but because our real face is different. And different people aren’t welcome. Only people who fit the traditional mold are welcome. So church rather than being a place of joy and a family, has become a place of meaningless ritual, tension, and rejection.

I’m not saying all churches are like that. There are exceptions, the one I attend being one of them, but the majority of churches aren’t the happy family they should be. They are judgmental, ritualistic, and depressing. And it shouldn’t be that way.

I read a quote this morning that I thought was really relevant to our current society and culture. The quote goes like this.

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
– HL Mencken

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about “hate speech.” The main theme being that modern society should not tolerate or accept “hate speech.” And to some extent, I agree. I often cringe when I read or hear some of the things that people say. The hurtful and misleading things they say aren’t right, and they really shouldn’t be tolerated by the main stream of our society.

But unlike many who are calling for laws against this kind of thing, I don’t believe that laws are the way they should be handled. For one thing, laws won’t solve the problem. The racists, xenophobes, and intolerant people will still be there. They will still be around and will still be racist and intolerant. For another, who gets to decide what is defined as “hate speech.” Anyone can be offended by anything. So who gets to decide what crosses the line when it comes to free speech?

Freedom of speech, even for racist or hateful people, is far more important than not being offended by what someone says. As the quote above implies, once you start restricting what people are allowed to say, you will end up with laws against anything you say. While it’s never been my intention to offend, I’m sure there are things I’ve said on this blog that have offended people. So if we start restricting the speech of people like NeoNazis(who’s speech we all would agree is offensive and wrong), how long before this blog and others like it are told what they can and can’t say?

As the quote says, I don’t like having to defend the rights of people who are hateful and wrong, but I find myself having to defend their rights in defense of my own. I don’t think we should tolerate or accept hate speech, but I also don’t think we can ever outlaw it or be free of it.

Sometimes I forget how well off I am. I look around and see all the things I don’t have and forget how rich I am. Seeing the fancy cars, houses, and entertainment systems that others have makes me feel poor. But the truth it, that I’m actually very well off in comparison to most people.

I have a good job, a nice house, and a new car. Sure my car isn’t as nice as those that some people have. And my house isn’t as big as the houses that some of my friends have. But the house is mine, and the car is practically new. Most people in the world don’t own their own house, and most people can’t afford a new car.

When I think about how well off I am, I feel ashamed at how ungrateful I can be. God has blessed me with so much, and yet most of the time I’m not satisfied with it. No matter how much I have, I always want more. The truth is, that I have way more than I really need. God has provided me with so much that I don’t even deserve.

What should be happening, is that I should be thanking God every day for what he’s given me. Because I’m truly blessed by God.

Since I’ve been traveling so much lately, I haven’t been able to do much with the Mission Disk project. But the good news is that Darrell has been hard at work updating the website and getting all the software versions of the included programs up to date. And now he’s put out a new release(v 1.1) of the disk. So check it out.
www.MissionDisk.com

And if you don’t know what the project is all about, follow this link to read about it.

The other day I was having one of those bad days. The kind of day where I get depressed about my life. When that happens, I start questioning everything about my daily activities. Why do I do the things I do? Do they really make me happy? What is the point of anything I do?

That kind of thinking usually pushes me into a deep depression. But this time I was trying to think positive. And as I was trying to pull out of the whole depression state, I remembered something I memorized as child.
It’s an excerpt from the Westminster Shorter catechism.

“Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

Am I glorifying God in my daily life? Maybe my frequent bouts of depression and dissatisfaction are actually because I keep losing focus and forgetting what I’m supposed to be doing here on earth.

I watched the new Rambo movie a couple of days ago. It was actually pretty decent for an action film. Not a lot of plot, and very bloody, but good overall.
The premise is that Rambo has to go in to rescue a group of missionaries that have been captured by the Burmese military. The plot line is a bit weak, but what can you expect form a Rambo movie.
The thing that struck me was the portrayal of the missionaries in the movie. Throughout the entire movie they are portrayed as naive and out of touch with the real world.
Rambo cautions them against going into Burma unarmed, but they won’t listen. Instead they tell him that weapons are the problem. So they refuse to carry them.
He saves them from river pirates, and they tell him that violence isn’t the answer. In fact, they tell him they are going to report his killing of the pirates to the Burmese government.
They bring prayer books to people who are starving. They sing hymns and read Bible stories to people who are under attack. They just have no concept of what is happening all around them, until it happens to them.
So that made me wonder. Is that how people see Christian missionaries? The movie wasn’t anti-Christian and the Christians in it weren’t portrayed as bad people. They were just portrayed as people who don’t understand the world.

Recently I’ve been overseas working at my new job. (By the way, the new job is for a governent contractor doing IT work) I’ve been over here for about a month now, and I have about two months to go before I get back home.
For the most part I haven’t minded being over here. There isn’t all that much to do, but while I’m here I work 12-14 hour days 7 days a week. So I really don’t have time to get bored or homesick. Even better is that I don’t have time to spend any of the money I’m making. And with my living expenses paid for by the company, I can save all the money I make.
About the only thing I really miss is regular church attendance. You wouldn’t think that church attendance would be the one thing that I would miss the most. After all I’m missing almost everything else that I have made a regular part of my life. But other than my church, most of the other stuff I hardly think about.
I tried to find a church around here, but I couldn’t really find anything except a Catholic Mass. There was a Protestant service, but it was basically a Unitarian service. So since I’m not Catholic, and Unitarian services are really nothing more than feel good clubs, I’m stuck with nothing in terms of church.
So anyway, when I get home I’ll be pretty excited to be back at my church.

(My church does have a podcast of it’s messages, but the Internet access here is pretty slow and blocks downloads. So I wasn’t able to download any of the messages. I’ll be sure to catch up on them when I get back though)

A lot of Christians make a distinction between service and evangelism. Service is ministering to the physical needs of people, whereas evangelism is ministering to the spiritual needs of people. That is spreading Jesus’ message to those who do not know God and are in need of His forgiveness.

Many Christians concentrate on one of the two and exclude the other. But that kind of behavior is not Biblical. Jesus, whose life is the example we should try to live by, did both. He ministered to the physical needs through the healing and feeding the poor. He also ministered to their spiritual needs. Preaching and teaching to anyone that he came in contact with. Furthermore He didn’t make any kind of distinction between the two in his earthly ministry.

Christians are commanded to minister to both the physical and the spiritual needs of people who are lacking.
Physical

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Spiritual

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15
“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” John 20:21

The modern church seems to have forgotten this. Current church leaders and pastors often preach and push evangelism, but rarely ever preach or put resources towards dealing with the physical needs of people. And when they do, they are usually only directed towards helping fellow Christians.

But that isn’t the way it is meant to be. Spiritual and physical assistance should go hand in hand. People need spiritual healing and redemption, but they also need to eat, and they need a place to sleep, and clothes to wear.

It is a sad thing that most of the aid organizations out there are mostly secular. Secular organizations are simply incapable of dealing with spiritual needs. And most missions organizations are only interested or capable of dealing with spiritual needs. People who are in desperate need of both physical and spiritual assistance can only get one or the other.

Secular organizations are only able to minister to one of the needs of the world. But the Church and Christians are in a unique position to be able to minister to both. Sadly we don’t take advantage of our ability. We squander our position and disobey the commandments by ignoring some needs in favor of others.

Today I set up a website for my missions project. The whole thing kind of went on hold over the last month. What with Christmas and everything, I just didn’t have a lot of time to work on it. But now I’m getting back to it.

Things are going rather well on the Installer. So I thought it was time to set up a website to host the project files and various pieces of data that this project entails. It’s mostly a shell at the moment, but I’ll be adding to it in the next few weeks. So stay tuned to the new project website for updates.

Check it out: www.MissionDisk.com

The other day I got an invitation on Facebook from a friend. The invitation was to join an online poll.

The poll was put out by ABC News and the question was “What role should the personal faith of a President play in his/her decision-making?”

The choices in the poll were as follows.

• Not sure
• It should not play any role
• It should play a balanced role with other considerations
• It should play a strong role

I didn’t join the poll, but it did get me thinking about the question. And that made me realize that the entire poll was wrong. No matter what you believe about God, religion, or life, there is no right answer to the question asked. It’s a trick question.

Your personal faith is your world view. It is how you believe the world works, and what you believe your place in it is. It is what you use to decide right from wrong, and it is what you use as a measurement and guideline for everything you do. You can’t divorce it from your decisions. So how can you even question how strong a role it should play?

The majority of the participants in the poll voted that “It should not play any role.” Most of them posted comments to go with their vote that expressed sentiments stating the President should do what is best for the country. Or that he/she should attempt to be fair to all religions. But aren’t those both aspects of personal faith?

How does the President decide what is best for the country? What does he/she use as a guideline to know what is best? The President uses his/her belief about how the world works. And what he/she believes is right or wrong. There isn’t any other way to decide what is “best” than to use what he/she believes about the world.

And as for fairness towards all religions, isn’t that also an aspect of personal faith? A belief in personal responsibility and the freedom of religion is the only thing that can ensure “fairness” towards religions that are not your own. That belief comes from your world view. Which is entirely based on your personal faith. This applies even if your “personal faith” is Atheism.

Your personal faith is what you believe about how the world works. And whether you believe in Atheism, Humanism, Christianity, Islam, or any other belief system, it will and must affect every decision you make. It isn’t possible to divorce it from your decision making process. Because it is part of how you think!

Aside
I know some people will say that Atheism should not be included as a “personal faith.” The objection being that atheism is a belief in nothing, or is an absence of belief. And they may be right, but it is still a decision about how the world works. And it still affects all decisions and aspects of a person’s life. So I think in the context of the question in the poll, it fits right in.