Whou would have thought?

If you were to ask any of my friends what my feelings towards children were 3 years ago they would have said something like "John hates kids." Or "He has no experience with children at all." To my great shame they would have been right. I spent all of my time avoiding children. I thought they were loud, annoying, and all around not neccessary. This changed once I started attending Christ Church. Just to show me how much of a sense of humor he has God put me in a place that would get me past my child phobia. At first I had no intention of helping durring the childrens church, but I was asked to help with the Vacation Bible School last summer. I had a lot of fun. Then I was asked to help with the childrens service on sundays. I said I would help with one and hoped that would be enough. The first one was fun and the kids seemed to like me. So I prayed about it and felt that the childrens service was where I was to help out for a while, that is until the BIG GUY tells me other wise. I was also introduced to a new little friend who is the son of two of my very good friends. Being around him is a blast and I always look forward to seeing him. I even gave him a nick name. I just call him Squeeker. Now I can honestly say I, John D. G., like kids, for the most part.

Ghostbusters, and other things

I know this is not really God related, but it is one of the most important things happening to mankind this year. This fall Ghostbusters: The Video Game will be released this fall. I'm getting this game for my Wii, PS3, and DS. Words can't describe my excitement for this game. Mostly because all of the original cast is back for the game and the script for said game is being written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, both wrote the first two movies. This game is more or less the third movie.

I've also learned that my church will no longer be meeting in a movie theatre. I don't know all the details of why we are moving, but I can honestly say I'm very glad about the move. Don't get me wrong, thank God that we had space to worship, but if it means we don't have to rush getting everything together and back apart on sundays I'm all for it even if I do have to drive farther.

I've also recieved a new bumper sticker. It says "Another Pro-Life Democrat". Thats right I've decided that I'm more or less a democrat, but still very much pro life. I will put it on my car as soon as I remember to do it.

Any way God is God, I'm still me, and as long as I don't get the two confused I shoule be ok.

VBS, Brain surgery, Wall e, and going green

The past few weeks have been interesting to say the least. I volunteered for my church's one day vacation bible school, and got slimed. This was a dream come true. From the first time I saw Ghostbusters when I was 5 I wanted to get slimed. I was even able to wear one of my ghostbusters shirts. Then the following wednesday my mom had to go to the hospital for brain surgery. She had an aneurysm clipped. That was the longest day of my life, but she is ok. The day after the surgery I decided that I would get away from every one and see the latest PIXAR film WALL E. This has got to be the best PIXAR movie so far. I loved this movie and want to see it again. Go see WALL E. Finally, my family has decided that we are going to "go green" as they say. We recently added a new air conditioner which is better for the environment, uses less energy, and lowers the electric bill. I'm buying a hybrid next spring, we are starting our own compost and a few other things. All it all God is still God and that all that matters.

Stephen King should be a theologian

I don't think we should use his books to do a bible study, but he does make a lot of great points in many of his books. If nothing else his books are better then any of the crap that Joel Osteen or any of those other crackpots that sell Jesus to the highest bidder.
The consistant religious theme in King's books is doing the will of God no matter what the cost. This can best be seen in his amazing book "The Stand" which was made into a crappy tv movie. Every one should read this book, but I will give you the basic premise. The government creates a super flue that kills 98% of the world population. Those who survive begin having two sets of dreams. One involves a faceless man who instills fear into the hearts of the dreamers, while the other dreams are about a ver old woman (106 years to be exact) named Mother Abigail. She is kind and generous, who seeks the will of God. The survivors begin making their way to either the dark man or Mother Abigail. Those who go to the darkman form a new society that is very much a dictatorship with the darkman as its head. Those who go to Mother Abigail form a new democracy, but Mother knows this is not the reason for them to come together. She tells them that they must stand against the agents of hell. She sends four men to do just that, even though they at first want nothing to do with it.
If only the modern western church could be so bold. To really stand for the truth is not an easy task and may mean a lot of uncomfortable things. It may mean selling your stocks, house, SUV, and giving the money to the poor. It may mean leaving your family to follow him. After all HE left the throne for us, the least we can do is give up the little that we have.

I don't want to believe it but I do

I wish I could say that I didn't believe in hell. I can't imagine a place where I am away from God. Even now that I've been a christian for well, I don't know how long, I just don't like the concept of hell. I don't like to think about friends and family going to that place, where God does not dwell, and that absence becomes a real physical pain. But I do believe in it. I believe in it because Jesus believed in it. However, that does not mean I have to like it. Lets be honest, do you think God likes the idea of hell. Does he want the beings he made in his likeness to be apart from him. Isn't living on earth hell enough for some people. I'm not just talking about people in third world countries who don't know where their next meal is coming from or when their last meal was, but the "average" middle class American who drives their gas guzzling SUV to star bucks to buy a frapuccino and then spend too much money on a crappy movie, and then afterwords going to a greasy sit down chain restaurant to buy crappy food for too much money. In case your wondering that is what I did on Monday night, minus the SUV part. I do those things to get away from the hum drum of every day life. The last thing on my mind is maybe spending some prayer time with God or actually opening my bible to learn and understand more about the one who can't be understood. The hell that I see is boredom. Others may see hell as the aforementioned hunger, or loneliness or depression, or addiction. Who knows? After seeing all this, I can't imagine what the real hell is like. Right now children are starving, a woman is being beaten, a man is getting mugged, another man is cheating on his wife, a wife is secretly getting an abortion, and I'm spending my time on this website at 3 o'clock in the morning typing my complaints instead of doing something. Other Christians are going on "christian" cruises, buying "christian" shirts, listening to "christian" music, watching "christian" television or movies. It seems that Christians are in our own hell right now. I think hell is a place of pure selfishness. People in hell are there because they cared only for themselves.

We Christians are selfish with the grace he has given us. To be sure, many evangelicals are more then willing to share the gospel with you by telling you about what was done on the Cross, but we seem to have a lot of trouble with the showing of that. Why are there hungry people in the world, when we evangelicals apparently have enough money to buy cruise tickets, new computers, or ghostbusters video games(I think that one applies to me alone)? We protest outside abortion clinics, because we believe life is being taken away from the innocent, and yet so many of us evangelicals criticized those who protested the war in Iraq, because we felt they were anti-American. When did Christianity become something exclusive to America? Since the Iraq war began over 4000 service men and women are dead, and who knows how many Iraqis. If we are pro life, shouldn't we have fought for their lives as well, or do we only care about people before their born and then afterwords just tell them to screw off? That is how the world sees us. And we wonder why church attendance is down. Couple all of this with the watered down Jesus that most churches preach now adays, and you can get a good look at hell without going their. I can't help but wonder if God wants us to go through some sort of hell before getting to our home with Him. If so, then WHY? Why are we in pain on earth, and then when we die to so many of us experience the REAL pain of God's absence? I just don't understand. I guess I'll get the same answer Job got.

I used to ask my self how many people are in hell because of me? I think of specific examples and think that I should have stood up for the gospel more, or I should have been so pushy at that moment. If you are like me you may ask those questions as well. I want everybody in to go to heaven, but I guess that just won't happen. My responsibility is to first love every one no matter what, and tell them that Jesus loves them. That sounds so ridiculous. It has to be more then just telling them. I can't go to a starving person and just say Jesus died for you and then walk away. Is the gospel so simple that I can preach it by feeding some one? Does it get back to that stupid faith versus works argument? I can't save my self, so how can I save another? How do we know about the Cross? It is because men and women gave up EVERYTHING to tell us. Today we can't even give up our SUVs. I see hell every day, and I don't know what to do. How can He expect us to change things, when we as the church are completely screwed up. Are our failures used against the ones we are supposed to love.

You know what it all comes down to? The will of God. I believe everything is in his hands, no matter how small. I guess we just have to do as were told. Even when it doesn't make since. I don't have the nail marks in my hands, and I have never been able to make a tree from nothing. I have yet to make a living being out of the elements. I can't control the currents or tides, and I can't see into the hearts of men. I can only try to do what he tells me. I do believe in hell, but I also believe that in the end it will all make sense, even though I can't make heads or tails of it now. Thankfully I'm not God. And thankfully I don't understand Him. If I did, then he wouldn't be much of a God.

Conservative vs. Liberal

So are you a conservative or a liberal christian? As for me I'm neither, and I think people who add the terms liberal and conservative infront of christian should be ashamed of themeselves. If you read some of my other posts you will know that I am voting for Sen. Obama. For this I am classified as a liberal. However, I am also very much pro-life and pro-family. This would make me a conservative, as if all liberals hate babies and families. I have come to the conclusion that the terms liberal and conservative are the reason the american church has failed, yes failed. If we get past the fact that we don't get any unchurched person into worship on sundays let alone get them into a relationship with Christ. We make two mistakes. We either one, spend all our time telling people they are sinners who are going to hell as if we're god, or we tell them there is no hell or punishment and they can do what they want. both are wrong and must be stopped. Love without question, but when someone comes into the church they must know that God expects change from those whome he redeems.

I think another reason for all of this is something as simple as a lack of unity and organization. The protestant model is wrong and unbiblical. The idea of the local congregation being the center is just not in the bible. The church is a union of souls which form a congregation. However they are not alone and need leadership. This leadership should be from bishops in the succession of the apostles. This model of course is by no means required for salvation, but it is the model of the early church. The church today does not follow this. The three churches that do follow this: Roman, Anglican, and Easern , do have their problems to be sure, but they have much more unity then others, and a greater chance of unity with each other.

Don't get me wrong, the church is one body and nothing can separate us from each other. What I want to know is why so many protestant christians spend their time criticising other denominations. The one that gets hit the most is the Roman Catholic church. Let me go on record as saying I love the roman church and and love the people that are part of it. Some may say they are Mary worshipers who pray to statues. In response to that I would say that those who say those things are wrong. They don't worship Mary and they don't pray to statues, this is just crazy anti-catholic propoganda. Roman catholics carry the gospel to millions all over the world. As for me and my fellow anglicans, apparantly all of us are gay and are to afraid to tell any one about Jesus. I am not gay and the majority of anglicans which exist in africa and south america boldly stand for the gospel.

Any way, I don't realy know what this post is about any more, but I just needed to say this stuff.

Screwtape's first letter

Cloverfield

So the Cloverfield DVD comes out next week, and it got me thinking. What would happen if something like that were to really happen. I mean we have no clue what is in the deepest parts of the ocean. We've seen giant squids and octopi. Do a google image search for "giant isopod" and see what lives near the bottom. Its basicaly a giant potato bug, God knows what else is under there. Any way if you haven't seen Cloverfield you should rent the DVD or be like me and buy it, and then hope that a rifftrax comes out for it soon.

Bad Things Happen

People, my self included, often ask why do people do the things that they do and the ever popular question why do bad things happen to good people. To be honest, I have no idea, and to say that I don't question God would make me a liar. I do. I doubt my faith and I doubt mankind. However, God in his infinite wisdom always has a way of smaking me on the back of the head. I guess I get the same answer as Job in the old testament. If you want to know what it is, then read the Book of Job. As always, I could be wrong, but thank heavens God isn't.

The Best Choice for 2008

Where we differ

In terms of social politics I am very much a progressive christian. In fact a great many of my heroes were progresive in terms of social action. Martin Luther King jr., John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Paul II, St. Francis, all not only preached the gospel, but lived it. We as christians should continue in their path and stand up for the poor and neglected.

However, modern progressive christians have made one very big mistake in my opinion. It appears that many of them do not believe that salvation is found ONLY in Jesus Christ. I have a great deal of respect for all faiths, and I think there are good things and some truth to all of them. However, I can't pick and choose which parts of my faith to believe and follow. The scriptures are very clear about salvation; it can't be found in any other person except Jesus Christ. This is not to say that christians who believe salvation exists outside of christ are in any way less christian then me. I feel that Christians should be as my good friend says "consistant".

God Is Enough

Oh My God

Not an Organization

I've decided that I know longer care if I am in communion with the Archbishop of canterbury. I just want to stop worrying about what us crazy anglicans are going to do. Those who are faithful to the gospel will remain as such and those who are faithful to the changeing culture will remain as such. I am a christian an part of the church of Rwanda. I don't care who is or is not going to canterbury any more. My church is not worried about it and neither am I. We are concerned with spreading the gospel.

The church is not any one man or organization. It is all followers of Jesus Christ.

Single Issue no More

After thinking about it for a long time and arguing with myself non stop, I have decided to give my support to Barack Obama. I feel that it is time for the republican party to take a few big steps back and examine their political beliefs. If you were to ask any of my friends they will tell you that I am more or less a libertarian in terms of my politics. Recently however I have been spending time learning and growing in my faith. As a result, my views on almost everything have been changing for the past year or so. The blame has to rest on my new church. They actually preach the bible and spend their time loving all of God's children and reaching out to them with his love.

If you were to ask me why I was voting for George W. bush, I would have said because he is a christian and he was pro-life and against gay marriage. Those two issues were the most important thing to me at the time. I thought that if abortion were to remain legal and it gay persons were given the right to marry then america as we know it would cease to exist. In other words my patriotism and my faith were one in the same. I equatted christianity with america. I felt that good christians would only vote republican. I am ashamed that I even thought that way. I ignored so many other issues. Poverty, the war in iraq, the environment, corruption in every branch of government. I started reading my bible and then examining myself. What I saw was depressing.

I am still 100% pro-life. I believe that a human being is created at the very moment of conception. Why do I believe this? The answer is the incarnation. As a christian I believe that God became man through the the Blessed Virgin Mary. That means that when Jesus was a group of cells in the womb of the Blessed Mother, he was God. If God could humble himself to be in that form then all people are to be respected no matter what stage of life. I mean ALL people. To often those of us on the pro-life side worry about saving the child from the abortion clinic but forget them after they are born. We also seem to forget those children who are already born. Many of them are hungry at this very moment. Some have parents who don't care about them. They are ignored by politicians, neighbors, and worst of all the church (the church is not any one denomination but all people who profess faith in the risen Christ). We as christians have failed them. I have come to the conclusion that even if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, abortion would still take place. The way to end abortion is not through legilstion, but through education and providing for the countless number of women who have nothing, not even hope. Can we really blame them. As republicans we want to take away their welfare, because so many of us feel that it is not the taxpayers job to pay for thos who can't get a job. We demand that the poor pull themeselves up by their boot straps and do like so many others have done. I'm just glad that the God that I serve does share this same belief. I can't pull my self out of sin. God had to pull me out.

Pro-life has to mean more then just anti-abortion. Poverty kills, war kills, the death penalty kills, pollution kills, ignoring those who suffer kills. We have to stop all of these to be truly pro-life.

The scriptures are quite clear about another issue. Homosexuality is a sin. However, pre-marrital sex is also a sin, and we do not out law that. God gives us the freedom to sin. He doesn't want us to, but we do any way. If two consenting men or women want to have the same legal rights of a man and women then they should. Simple as that. Again christians have failed to do the one thing that we are commanded to do. We have not loved as Christ loved us. As soon as we see someone who is gay we immediately condemn them to hell and do nothing to show the love that God has for them as his children. Other christians have gone to far however. Many have begun to wrongly teach that homosexuality is not a sin, and should be accepted by the church. This too is very wrong. Many times after Jesus healed some one he would tell them "Go and sin no more." We do not have to be perfect to approach the cross, but we must be willing to confess our sins.

It looks as though the republican choice for president is going to be John McCain. After researching him I can't vote for him. He is not pro-life the same way I am. He supports the war in Iraq which has killed nearly 4000 U.S. troops, and over 300,000 Iraqi civilians. He ignores global warming, and the poor. He not pro-life.

Senator Obama admits to being pro-choice, but he is against the war, wants to end global warming and wants to fight poverty. In my opinion he is more pro-life then Senator McCain. I am voting for Barack Obama.