"Sin and vice, is an evil of its own kind, and not to be confused with any other. Who does not feel at once the broad distinction between misfortune and crime, or between disease of the body and corruption of the soul? Sin, vice, is war with the highest power in our own breasts, and in the universe. It makes a being odious and repulsive to himself, and arms against him the principle of virtuous morality in God and in all pure beings. It poisons or dries up the fountains of enjoyment, and adds unspeakable weight to the necessary pains of life. It is not a foreign evil, but a blight and curse in the very center of our being. Its natural associates are fear, shame, and self-torture; and, whilst it robs the present of consolation, it leave the future without hope." 

William Ellery Channing. 

"To accuse a person of a pure life as having unholy motives for rejecting the gospel may be to judge rashly as well as unrighteously.  

To measure the responsibility of a person who doubts or denies Christianity, we must first know the history of his mind; his capacity of judgment, the early influences and prejudices to which he was exposed, the forms under which religion and its proofs were first established in his thoughts, and the opportunities he has since had to remove those deeply prejudicial errors, which struck root long before he had the power of testing them. Perhaps I could say that to reject Christianity, knowing only of its corruptions, is rather a virtue than a crime."

In many homes today they have never heard anything of Christ or His pure religion other than the mocking and unholy interpretations of it as displayed on Saturday Night Live, or the repugnant display of sappy priests and pastors, or corrupt pedophiles, or severe and unjust tyrants as they are portrayed in movies and television; or the representation of God as a weak and vain tyrant appeased by mindless belief under the threat of everlasting torture fore-ordained as the fate for the vast multitudes of humanity. 

Get more from your Bible reading

This little quote will help you get more out of your Bible reading; this is how a pastor approaches a passage, story or verse. In this case he's referencing Lazarus being raised from the dead.

Marilyn Monroe stretched out on the floor of the Osaka Military Hospital in Japan, to smile up at Private Albert Evans of Canton, Ohio, who was suspended upside down over his bed after breaking his back in a jeep accident.

1954

My Guess is he's reading the Bible, where else will you go to find true comfort when tragedy strikes. Not to dismiss or say that having Marilyn Monroe visit you wouldn't cheer you up, and as I look at her radiant smile I can only imagine how this suffering soldier was uplifted and amazed that she would make time for him. I'm sure he fed on the afterglow of that visit for days, but with time it will have faded and the need of the heart is to have an ever present friend, and oh what a friend we have in Jesus. 

 

 

 

A couple of years ago when I was done preaching at the mission, and they began setting up the tables, this black guy was helping and he kindly asked a white gal to move her backpack so they could set up the table. She was no doubt on something and she just had a meltdown! She began SCREAMING F--- you N-----!!!!! And she continued to scream the same thing over and over again, at least thirty times! I was about 20 feet away and kind of stunned, and expected him to scream back and see this escalate into who knows what? But he didn't, he kept his composure and continued to set the table up. Finally, after about a full minute of her screaming at him, I could see he was getting heated and he walked away from her while she was still screaming as they finally ushered her out. (no small task) When he came by me I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "that was the greatest display of Christian charity I've ever seen." We ended up becoming pretty friendly after that.

`Now an interesting thing is, there were thirty people lined up against the wall waiting for dinner, and almost no one there even glanced over to see what was going on, it was, "business as usual" no big deal. Street life exposes you to all of life's extremes. That really got me.

Some years back, we met this girl that was about 9 or 10; she was an acquaintance of mines daughter. We were drawn to her so strongly, so my wife and I befriended her and we would have her over once in a while just to go on a picnic and do fun things with her. Her mom was fairly good to her, but she was very unstable, always after some guy and spent no time with her, and she had been married and remarried a number of times. Anyway, I was teaching Sunday School, so we invited her to church and she just loved it, she was so drawn to Jesus! One day she heard they were doing baptisms at the church and asked if she could get baptized. I was so happy and introduced her to the pastor and he too was thrilled. So he got a paper for some basic information about her, and she began to fill it out with me by her side. The first question was - What is your name, first and last. She paused for a minute, and then turned to me and said -- "What name should I use?" Her mother had been with so many men she didn't know what name to use. It still saddens me so: no child should ever have to wonder that.

 

"In considering the life of the Lord Jesus Christ the student of Scripture cannot fail to be struck wth exceeding richness and many-sidedness of every event recorded. The simple fact means so much. The side-lights and cross-lights are as full of meaning and instruction as the front view on which the direct sunlight falls. The raising of a dead man may be to us a sign of power; it may be an evidence of the Godhead of the Eternal Son; it may be the wonder of a dead man recalled to life; it may be a symbol of the resurrection; it may be an act of pity for a mother's sorrow; it may be the expression of the tenderness and kindness of Christ. We may regard it as it affected the dead man himself; we may consider the effect upon those who witnessed it; we may try and spell out the motives in the mind of Christ which led to its performance; or we may endeavor to trace the impression which it produced upon the Lord Himself.                      The combinations and permutations are almost endless; and each carries its own special lesson."  Rev. H. N. Bernard, M.A., LL.B.

Are you creative? If so you will enjoy this passage. You may not realize the Lord calls some and fills them with His spirit to do creative and inventive work. 

 Exodus 35:25-35 "And all the skilled women spun with their hands and brought what they had spun, in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen. And all the men and women whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work, which the Lord had commanded brought a freewill offering to the Lord. And all the women whose heart heart stirred with a skill spun the goats hair.

The Lord called by name Bezadel, and God filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge, and in all work and craftsmanship; to make designs of works in gold and silver and in bronze and in cutting stones for settings, and in carving wood, so as to perform in every inventive work. He also has put in his heart to teach others." 

 Jesus said - "If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him."  Jn. 12:26

Am I really following Jesus if I'm separated from the very people He walked among? My heart thrills to see Jesus move in compassion, love and action among the last, the least and the lost of His world. In this verse Jesus commands us to follow in His footsteps. We too, are to be among the hurting, the destitute, the suffering and oppressed, without neglecting our own families. Christianity can never be removed from the downcast, poor and outcasts of this world and truly be said to be "walking in His steps." 

Portraits of Christ

 

 

"Jesus was made up of contrasts; he was a union of excellences which are not easily reconciled, which seem at first sight incongruous, but which, when blended and duly proportioned, constitute moral harmony and attract with equal power, love and veneration. 

For example, we discover in Jesus Christ an unparalleled dignity of character, a consciousness of greatness never discovered or approached by any other individual in history; and yet this was blended with a condescension, lowliness, and unostentatious simplicity which had never before been thought consistent with greatness. In like manner, he united an utter superiority to the world, to its pleasures and ordinary interests, with suavity of manners and freedom from austerity. 

He joined strong feeling and self-possession; an indignant sensibility to sin, and compassion for the sinner, an intense devotion to His work, and calmness under opposition and ill success; a universal philanthropy, and a susceptibility of private attachments; the authority which became the Savior of the world, and the tenderness and gratitude of a son. And is His character to be explained by imposture or insane enthusiasm? Does it not bear the unambiguous marks of a heavenly origin?" William Ellery Channing.

 

 "You will of course, read other books besides the Bible; but beware lest these diminish your power. Perhaps in no department of literature are works of vigorous and original thought rarer than in theology. No profession is so overwhelmed with common- place, weak, worthless books as our ours. No text has been so obscured and oppressed by undiscerning commentators as the Bible. In theology, as in all branches of knowledge, confine yourself very much to the works of men who have written not from tradition, or imitation, but from consciousness, experience, reflection, and research; and study these, that your own faculties may be roused to a kindred energy." 

  I might add that my blog is an attempt to gather this kind of Christian thought.  

  

"Study laboriously, for much is to be learned. Do not destroy your intellectual life by imagining that all truth is discovered, and that you have nothing to do but to repeat what others have taught. It is intended by our Creator that truth should be our own discovery, and therefore He has surround us with fallible beings, whom we are impelled to distrust. Paradoxical as it may seem, we ought to discover the truths which we have been taught by others; for the light which our own earnest free thought will throw on these, will make them so different from what they were when first passively received, that they will be virtually rediscovered by ourselves. 

  Study laboriously, for much is to be learned. Do not feel as if Christianity had spoken its last word, and had nothing more to say. It is the characteristic of Divine Truth that it is inexhaustible, infinitely fruitful. It does not stand alone in the mind, but combines with, explains, irradiates our other knowledge. It is the office of a great moral truth to touch the deep springs of thought within us, to awaken the soul to new activity, to start a throng of suggestions to be followed out by patient contemplation. An arid, barren religion, which reveals a precise, rigid doctrine, admitting no expansion and kindling no new life in the intellect, cannot be from God. It lacks an essential mark of having come from the Creator of the human soul, for the great distinction of the soul is its desire to burst its limits and grow forever." William Ellery Channing. 

I read this survey in Brian McLaren's book and thought it was so interesting. He asks to rate yourself using this 0-5 scale: 

0 = absolutely untrue

1 = strongly disagree

2 = disagree

3 = somewhat agree

4 = agree

5 = strongly agree  

 __ 1. Validity: My Christian faith is highly significant to me because it adds true meaning and value to my life. 

__ 2. Intentionality: For me, Christian faith is not merely an unchosen inheritance, a social custom, a matter of convenience, or the path of least resistance; it is an intentional commitment that I uphold and practice by conscious choice. 

__ 3. Durability: I plan to remain at least as committed to my Christian faith as I am now, over the course of my lifetime, through both hard times and easy times, and I hope to pass vital Christian faith on to my children and grandchildren. 

__ 4. Intensity: My Christian faith is so central to my life that it requires of me sacrifices and commitments that are sometimes costly and even painful. 

__ 5. Purity/Consistency: I conform to the beliefs, behaviors, habits, examples, prohibitions, ideas and values that are consistent with my Christian faith, and I resist or reject their opposites as inconsistent with my Christian faith. 

__ 6. History: I consider myself to be part of the history and traditions of my faith community; Christian history is in some real sense my history. 

__ 7. Responsibility: I feel responsible for the health and wellbeing of the Christian community, now and in the future. 

__ 8. Missionality: I invest my time, energy, money, and abilities to participate in the Christian mission as I understand it. 

__ 9. Loyalty: I feel a special sense of loyalty to my fellow Christians because we are connected to one another through our shared faith and mission. 

__ 10. Hostility: I see other faiths as wrong, false, or evil, and I maintain a posture of opposition to all faiths but the Christian faith.

His emphasis is on question 10. He poses the question, "Is number 10 essential to the list? Must you as a Christian maintain hostility to other faiths if you are going to hold a strong Christian identity?"

He then goes on to suggest an alternative number 10 and replaces the word Hostility with Solidarity describing it as follows -- 

"My understanding of Jesus and His message leads me to see each faith tradition, including my own, as having its own history, value, strengths and weaknesses. I seek to affirm and celebrate all that is good in each faith tradition, and I build intentional relationships of mutual sharing and respectful collaboration with people of all faith traditions, so all our faiths can keep growing and contributing to God's will being done on earth as in heaven."  

If hostility could be replaced by solidarity, would any of the previous nine items need to be changed? 

This comes from his book, "Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road." I find it to be a very challenging book and very relevant.