Who Cares?

Came across a new religious phenomenon today. From Wikipedia:

"Apatheism (a portmanteau of apathy and theism/atheism), also known as pragmatic or critically as practical atheism, is acting with apathy, disregard, or lack of interest towards belief, or lack of belief in a deity. Apatheism describes the manner of acting towards a belief or lack of a belief in a deity; so applies to both theism and atheism. An apatheist is also someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that gods exist or do not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to his or her life."

And from apatheist.tribe.net:

"Every religion has dogma, and insists that their particular version answers the question of whether one or more gods exist. Apatheists insist that the question itself is irrelavent.

"If you get frustrated trying to decide if you're really an Atheist or an Agnostic, or a member of any other religion, and also realize that, in your day to day existence, it doesn't really MATTER which religion you belong to, then you might be an Apatheist!"

More commentary later.

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do! (But Which One?)

2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."

I was reflecting this morning on some past experiences and this verse came to mind. One of the warning signs when you step into any ministry--whether joining a church, visiting another ministry, listening to an evangelist or special speaker, or signing on to work with a church or para-church ministry--there is a warning sign you need to watch for. Over the years I have learned how to spot it. Unfortunately I had to learn the hard way. Several times.

If the people involved in that ministry are driven even a little bit by fear of the man in charge, you need to run--don't walk--away from there. I don't care how many gazillion people they've seen saved and baptized, how many missionaries they support, how many attend their services, etc etc ad nauseam. If you see people freely sharing ideas until they're in the leader's presence, at which time they immediately shut down, get out now. If a man's name is all it takes to win an argument ("Well, Dr. So-and-so would/would not like that.") turn your knees to the breeze. That fear is unhealthy. It is a sign that God is only in control insofar as that man allows Him to be.

It won't seem all that bad at first. That's the nature of a honeymoon. You'll find ways to rationalize things that you see that bother you deep down. Don't do it. Leave now. Get out. Don't even stop to collect your red Swingline stapler from your desk. There's something wrong. Respect for a Godly man doesn't make people clam up. It doesn't produce forced conformity in nonessentials. That's fear. And it's not of God. There's something seriously wrong -- get out before you get hurt.

Pragmatism is another warning sign. I may post on that later, but only if it will get me more readers.

Welcome to Reality. We Hope You Enjoy Your Visit.

Forget the DOW and NASDAQ. Western civilization hit a new low today, as reported in the London Daily Mail. In an article titled "Challenge Churchill!" the results of a recent poll revealed that one in four Britons polled believe that Winston Churchill was a fictional character. Other "fictional" characters included Richard the Lionheart, Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles Dickens and Cleopatra. On the other hand, the respondents knew that Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, and Sherlock Holmes were real.

Of course, in a postmodern society, who's to say?

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

A friend of mine just sent me this plaintive cry from a seminary student. It reminded me of when I was in Bible college, and the theory of relativity took on new meaning as one second in a certain prof's class lasted 1,527 times longer than an equal amount of time talking to my fiancé.

"I’ve recently fallen into a paradoxical blip in the time-space continuum. That is, to me, each day lasts for one week (7 days; 168 hours; 10,080 minutes; 604,800 seconds) while each week is as short as a single day (24 hours; 1440 minutes; 86,400 seconds). Wrap your firing synapses around that one. Believe me; I’m just as bewildered as you are. As far as I can tell, for the rest of humanity, time crawls by second-by-second, minute-by-minute, hour-by hour, and so on. For me, however, the past two months—I mean years, no, minutes—have been the slowest, fastest months I’ve ever encountered. Imagine: in the same amount of time (I struggle to use that term with a straight face) it takes the earth to make one 360° rotation, I’ve aged a full week. Yet, after the same earth has completed the same 360° rotation seven times, I’ve only experienced one 24-hour period. At this rate, I will have aged approximately sixty years in the next ten; but I won’t celebrate my 24th birthday until the year 2014, 25th until 2021, and so on. This doesn’t compute.With all of my extra free time (that I keep running out of) I have been trying to pinpoint the exact moment this paradox began. I ate some stale cheese a while back. I knew it wasn’t healthy, but extreme hunger (just like extreme boredom, lust, fatigue, obsession, and temperatures) cause one to do things outside of one’s character. I figured the worst that would happen to me is an upset stomach, a doctor’s visit, or a stomach pump—nothing too serious. How was I to know that some green cheese was would cause a catastrophic lapse in time? I doubt that was the cause."

Men That We Need

I've been reading Erroll Hulse's book The Great Invitation. Last night my father-in-law sent me a link to an article by Hulse. Here's the cap-stone of the article:

Let us intercede earnestly for:
1. Men who have burning hearts of love for God and men, who fear God and nothing else but sin, who have an inexhaustible zeal for God's glory, and who are ready to die, if need be, for Christ.
2. Men who possess a thorough knowledge of Scripture and who are able to expound any text in a systematic and convincing manner.
3. Men who are gifted in doctrinal comprehension and who love the tried and tested doctrines of the faith.
4. Men who love and study church history, who specialize in the history of evangelical reformations and revivals, who know what the martyrs believed and died for, and who can competently apply an extensive knowledge of church history to the present day.
5. Men who are humble enough to apply themselves to small spheres of labor but who, at the same time, have a world vision, following missionary movements everywhere, doing everything in their power to help fulfill the Great Commission.
6. Men who know how to meet the evils of the age, who have a plan from God for our day, who are competent and aggressive in evangelism, and who are sons of thunder rather than showmen.
7. Men who do not follow infidels but concentrate like the apostles on power in preaching the gospel.
8. Men who will not compromise the truth for the sake of expediency, who have the courage to discard that which is merely traditional, oppose that which is unscriptural, and yet be respectful of those who do not measure up to the spiritual dimensions here described.

And may the Lord grant that we would be such men.

Butchering Longhorns

Chuck Swindoll posted an excellent comment on Longhorn Sermons on his blog "The Pastor's Soul". Here's a quick exerpt. Be sure to check out the entire post.

"There are all kinds of sermons: topical sermons, biographical sermons, expository sermons . . . and longhorn sermons—a point here, and a point there, and a lot of bull in between! It’s easy to preach those kinds of sermons, isn’t it?
A mentor of mine told me about the time he worked for an older pastor who used to come to the pulpit unprepared. So he would try to prepare during the song service. “Lord, give me something to say,” he’d pray. “Give me Your message.” After another song he’d ask again, “Lord, give me Your message.” Every Sunday it happened.
“One day,” the pastor said, “the Lord finally gave me His message. God told me, ‘Ralph, you’re lazy. That’s my message.’”
To be blunt, the issue of pastoral sloth is one of the major battles we must fight as pastors. It breeds longhorns."

Parents are Geniuses

Check out this mind-blowing revelation from ABC News.

WELL, DUUUUUUHH!!

Welcome to my catharsis.

I had always thought that blogs were little more than a catharsis for 21st-century Travis Bickles trapped between the Scylla of narcissism and the Charybdis of agoraphobia. I guess I was right to some extent (he says as he looks into the mirror and practices his "Are you looking at me?"), because after a visit to one of the Bible-belt's infamous uber-churches it was either start blogging or pray that over-the-counter Valium gets FDA approval fast. And, hey, this is free.

More about my field trip to B.B. Warfield's worst fever dream later. For now, I'll pause to let you wiki Travis Bickle, Scylla, and Charybdis.

Seeya.