Martin Luther

Martin Luther is one of the most famous protestant figures of all times.  He basically took all the current beliefs in Catholicism and turned them upside down.  His first documented, defining moment was when Martin Luther nailed his ninety five thesis to the wall of the church in 1517.  This took him from an obscure monk to an open defiance of the catholic church.  With this defiance he flipped the Catholic church on top of itself and started one of the greatest religious revolutions since Jesus Christ.  It took a specific type of man for this job.  The man needed to be extremely strong in his faith, charismatic, and not afraid to die.  I believe Martin Luther was the man for the job.  When Martin Luther went before the cardinal to plead his case.  He knew what to say to free himself however, he was strong enough in his faith to defend himself.  Luther also had to plead his case in front of the emperor.  This man was all about ending the rebellion; so, Martin Luther had to have guts to tell him he did not want a rebellion even though he had started one.  Martin Luther's final turning point was when the catholic church accepted his doctrine.  All his life he had hoped to end the reign of the catholic church on the people and he had finally done it.  I personally have great respect for Martin Luther.  He is one of the men who decided to change history for the better.  Without him the catholic church may still be a superior power taking money from peasants.  However I've seen several churches that sell their own form of indulgences.  History repeats itself; so, we need to watch ourselves.  I also noticed Martin Luther is extremely charismatic, as most major reformers have to be.  As a random side note Martin's hairlow was a sign of a servant and of old age and wisdom.  Hie was a great example of both.  I enjoyed the movie.  It was better than the average catholic documentary.  It kind of had a robin hood vibe due to the same time period.  I hope I have half the spiritual strength of Martin Luther.  (www.pbs.org/empires/martinluther) (Luther)

DWYL Chapter 8

Chapter eight in Don't Waste Your Life talks about honoring God with your life.  This is a concept I have been taught since I was a kid.  My parents were never fans of missionaries who begged for everything and never showed any progress and welfare was not part of my vocabulary.  The book talks about taking the vocation, or calling of the secular world and incorporating it into your christian life.  John Piper says not to immediately change jobs to a missionary just because your saved.  You can be just as good a christian where you are.  The book also talks about not separating your time at work and your time with God.  You are worshiping no matter what your doing; so, don't be slothful at work and claim to have a good spiritual life.  The book goes on to say that work is not a punishment.  This is a concept that is not easily grasped in this society.  What is pathetic is the time I see people complain the most about work is in my church.  Anytime something has to be done that involves manual labor the buck is passed.  Then I realized working hard is not often preached in the church.  Prosperity and wealth have plenty of room in the sermons, but I guess Christians are hoping to win the lottery or have money fall from the sky.  However we are not supposed to only labor for money or material gain.  We are supposed to work for the sake glorifying God.  If we aren't getting paid for something that doesn't mean we should just not care.  We should still do our best.  Finally we have to work to have money to give.  I've been told that money is a great tool and a terrible master.  I believe this is true.  Money can help accomplish things that otherwise couldn't be done.  And the only way to obtain money with a clean conscience is to work hard for it. 

Secret Millionare

This week we watched the secret millionare.  It talked a lot about skid row and the missions invloved in it.  I really like the idea of multi millionares giving back something to society.  We all gave the guy a whole bunch of credit for his donation of one million dollars.  Then I reallized, if he sold his company for five hundred million dollars then we are giving him a T.V. show based on the giving of a donation of point two percent of his income.  Let's all clap.  However, the guy seemed really comitted to try and help the people around.  He seemed to help out charities who really diserved it.  They were regular people, not millionares trying to change the world one bilion dollar check at a time.  I was really shocked at the magnitude of the homelessness on skid row.  I knew it would be bad but, not that bad.  I'm really impressed with the publicity it got.  Maybe it will spark some interest.  So I give this guy credit for living somwhere totally out of his comfort zone for a week, but I think he could of done a little better with his five hundred million. 

DWYL Ch. 6 and 7

T.V.'s greatest problem is probably the fact that it's quality of programing is continually declining.  When T.V. first came out it was used for shows like the presidents speech and lassy.  Not alot of sinfulness going down there; however, as time went on T.V. gradually got worse allowing more language, nudity, etc. 
1. The first negative effect of T.V. on me is it's amazing amount of materialism.  In a thirty minute session there is aproximately ten minutes of crap being sold that I don't need and sometimes don't even want.  For instance, the snuggie. put sleeves on a blanket and you make more money than you can ever imagine.  Did we really need that.  Also the mustang commercials have to be the best comercials on earth put some cool music with and awesome car doing some doughnuts and drifting and you have, my attention. 
2.  The second negative effect T.V. has on me is the aiding in my ability to put people down.  I have a tendency to tel some pretty harsh jokes and comedy central really doesn't help the cause.  Even kids shows have a desgnated fat/ugly kid that it is perfectly okay to make fun of and beat down in any way possible.
3.  Third and finally T.V. really doesn't help me gain much spiritually.  Lots of T.V. preachers could be classified as thieves so, I really don't like to watch any of them.

The point has also been asked how much T.V. we watch relative to time spent with God.  At this I am asamed of.  I don't even know how much time I spend of facebook and I don't even like it.  You never hear of a kid quickly checking a gospel, but you can sure see a kid checking facebook.  All in all the T.V. is a very usefull tool that has been made into a weapon.  It should be a great way for learning and comunication within the church but unfortunately it is not.

Lord Save Us from your Followers

This week we watched a video about evangelism in America.  This video wasn't about how good we were doing or even the numbers we are bringing to Christ it was about how stupid we are when we evangelize.  I believe this is very evident in the church today.  The suite of stupid bumper stickers was a great idea.  It got people's attention.  I hate bumper stickers they are useless and quite frankly depreciate the value of a car.  I think bumper stickers are people with out facebook's way of communicating their philosophy with the world.  This movie had several great points illustrated in unique ways.  First was the Jeopardy mach between Christians and non-Christians.  It is absolutely pitiful that we know so little about what actually goes on in the lives of non-believers.  I hope I would do better on this quiz but, I don't know.  Christians seem to go on the defensive awfully fast.  We only want to hear from people who agree with our point of view.  This view is demonstrated by one of the best SNL skits ever Church Chat with Church Lady.  But back to the report this shows how little we listen to other people's problems.  We just tell them what they are doing wrong and wish them a happy day in Jesus.  I hate when people sign letters like this, usually letters signed in Jesus or another form of his name are either asking for donations or on rare occasions actually legitimate.  The movie later talks about a contemporary church group protesting homosexuality.  It's nice to see we are taking kids off the street and putting them into riots.  This is ridiculous there is no worse way to show God's love than to protest.  Protesting at is purest is saying, I don't agree with what you believe and I'm shouting it through a megaphone which is a device great for making my mouth louder but does no good for my ears.  I will admit I have said my fair share of bad things about homosexuality.  This video shows their side of the video and it shows what happens when you apologize for something.  I still don't agree with the lifestyle; however, it's no worse than lying or cheating or any other sin so, we are all in the same sinful boat.  This movie opened my eyes to a lot of hypocrisy and I really enjoyed it.  P.S. the title of the movie would make a great bumper sticker.

Jesus Camp

Well just from the title of this movie I could tell it was going to be about a border line cult, and it was.  Of course, the movie depicts the most radical view of the evangelical churches.  I have some problems with this movie.  First of all the movie only deals with children which is a good sign they are trying to brainwash them.  Children are the most easily influenced and they will believe anything if someone will present it to them in such a way that they can understand it.  The entire religion seemed to be a little too melodramatic for me.  I go to church where we all set down and be quiet to the point where you can hear a pin drop.  I do not believe this is the only way to worship because, I think worship is a mindset not an action.  So when the little girl says a church is dead and her only reason is that they are quiet when they worship I believe she is wrong.  I also think that the entire organization is way to obsessed with the spiritual realm.  Using a hammer that represents Jesus to smash a coffee cup is no more religious than using the "spiritual shotgun" to shoot down the "pagan pigeon."  However the movie was not all bad.  First, I'm sure it would make a great Saturday Night Live skit.  Second, they are teaching evangelizing to the masses.  This is a good thing in general; however, I don't think they are understanding the context of most of their verses.  Third, they are anti-abortion.  This is a very big subject with the church today and I believe this problem should be addressed.  They sure did a good job telling the cardboard cut out of George Bush how he should do his job.  They made a comment during the movie that said something to the effect of this generation will make a big impact. That is about as broad as it gets.  Well duh this generation will make an impact just like the one before it ant the one before that.  I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say the generation after us will make a big impact.  This group seems to be in the wrong place.  They really make better motivational speakers than they do preachers.  During one of their seminars they got the crow to chant much like Hitler's followers.  So it really shows whose methods they're using.  In conclusion I really hope this religion doesn't take off.  They have some biblical views out of context, proportion, and control.  These people probably just want a name for themselves and sounds like Ted Haggard did make a name for himself. 

Don't Waste Your Life

1.  Well it turns out that we can only boast in the cross.  The only place you can boast is on the cross.  So essentially this means we cannot boast at all unless we are suffering for christ.
2.  It makes sense that I died so I could live because, it means I have put off all of my sin onto christ and now he lives in me as me.  Crucified, who lives in me, no longer live are key words hinting the difference of the I's
3.  Right now I am probably living by faith in the face that I don't know what my future will be like in this economy.  Unfortunately I do not live by faith in the area of school work.  I try to take it into my own hands.