Nearly 5000 Christians Killed for Their Faith in Christ in 2014

Almost 5,000 Christians were killed while more than 1,000 Christian churches were attacked due to faith-based ideologies, with several Africa countries seeing the largest increase in Christian persecution, an annual report on religious freedom said.  

According to the World Watch List (WWL) 2015 report released by Open Doors International this week, about 4,344 Christians were killed and 1,062 Christian churches attacked from Nov. 1, 2013 until Oct. 31, 2014.

Read the whole thing.

Cuba: One Big Vintage Car Show?

I would like to go to #Cuba before everyone there gets rid of their old cars. Havana would be like going to a car show.
— Mark Daniels (@MARKJDANIELS) January 16, 2015

The Tragedy of Baga

The 'Charlie Hebdo' murders were horrible. But the ongoing murderous rampage of Boko Haram in Nigeria recently included a massacre of 2000 innocent people.

Until a few hours ago, the Nigerian government, apparently wanting to portray an image of stability to voters in the run up to an election, has been shy about even acknowledging the instability caused by the terrorist group.

And the international community's focus on Paris has kept the horrors in Nigeria off most radars.

Please pray for the people of Nigeria, asking God to give them safety and peace.

Please pray for the government of Nigeria, that it might protect its citizens.

Please pray for other governments of the world that they might provide appropriate help.

Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney (Live)

Right Wrong Girl by Peter Furler

I Will by The Beatles

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sad and amazing to remember that he was only 27 when this picture was taken and would only live another twelve years. He accomplished a lot in a few years and still inspires millions.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born January 15, 1929—here after arrest, Montgomery Bus Boycott (1956): pic.twitter.com/19SVx0eFDO
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 15, 2015

A Prayer for the Brokenhearted

God, in Jesus' name, help the brokenhearted and rescue those whose spirits have been crushed. Amen

[Not a fan of the 700 Club at all. But I like this picture.]

I Just Wanna Know by Steve Taylor (Psalm 139)

The prayer of a reluctant rock star, steeped in David's prayer in Psalm 139. Psalm 139:1-10 is the appointed psalm for this coming Sunday, January 18, at Living Water and most churches. One of Steve Taylor's best.

Song for Someone by U2

The Ohio State University, College Football's National Champions

The @EmpireStateBldg is lit up scarlet and grey to celebrate Ohio State's championship. pic.twitter.com/Iicqriqu3q

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 13, 2015

Without You by Harry Nilsson

What Does It Mean to Be "Churchy"?

Yesterday, I posted a link to an article called The Church is Called to Be Church, So Deal with It and then added some of my own thoughts that were triggered by it.

But, what I meant by saying the Church should be "churchy" and what I think the article meant by that term may not be what people--church people and non-church people--may think when they hear that term.

What does it mean to be churchy?

Being "churchy" has nothing to do with worship style. Through the years as a pastor, I have happily presided over worship services that were traditional and contemporary. One isn't "churchy" while the other isn't.

I've known a number of mainline churches, for example, churches from the the traditional powerhouse denominations--Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Lutheran, among others--that were slavish in observing liturgical traditions. Not a Kyrie nor a Hallelujah, not a bow nor a litany out of place. The creeds were recited flawlessly.

But the preachers haven't necessarily accepted the authority of Scripture over the life, faith, and practice of the Church.

In these liturgically-correct churches, no one is exhorted to a sense of holy guilt that people might really repent and receive the grace God gives in Christ.

No one is told to take seriously that Jesus is the way, truth, and the life and that life with God is only given to those who believe in Christ as God and Savior.

These churches are tradition rich, but God is hardly allowed in the building.

Christ isn't King in these churches. Tolerance--the sort of tolerance that is open to everything but suggestions that the Lordship of Jesus be taken seriously--is king.

These groups of people are churches in name only.

And virtually every church and many church bodies in the world are focal points of spiritual warfare testing whether they will be churches or social clubs, churches or political action committees, Christian fellowships in which people are invited to follow Jesus through the narrow way or "hail-fellow-well-met" "big tents" in which the only sin is being so impolite as to speak God's truth in love. (See Acts 4:12 and Ephesians 4:15.)

The Augsburg Confession, one of the basic statements of faith of Lutheran Christians, contains a great definition of the Church:

...The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered...

[for] the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Ephesians 4:5-6. 

So, to be "churchy" then, to be the Church is not about being traditional or contemporary. Differing worship styles are nothing more than different languages of love for God that the faithful and their guests may use when they gather to praise God, hear His Word, witness and participate in the Baptist of new children of God, and receive Christ's body and blood.

And, in truth, people who object to the church being too churchy, whether they're visitors on Sunday mornings or churches and pastors striving to be "relevant" to an often unbelieving world, accuse both traditional and contemporary churches that really seek to be faithful to Christ of being "churchy."

The article that triggered this flood of posting over the past two days contained these final words of encouragement to churches trying to hide the light of Christ under a basket of "relevant" concessions and compromises that risk leaving people as lost and damned after they come to "worship" as they are before they darken the doors of such "churches":

Church, do not hide your scriptures, your sacraments, your worship, your preaching, your service, your call to repentance, you’re lament, your urgency, or your joy in Jesus.

“But what if non-Christians don’t like us?” I hear.  If someone doesn’t like us, then that’s no reason to change who you are.  Now, if you’re a jerk, then, by all means, stop being a jerk.  But, don’t stop being the church.  Those who don’t like us must not dictate who we are.  That’s like allowing a blind man to lead a seeing man through the gauntlet.

If the church really can see, then she must lead the way.  She is to dictate the culture, not the reverse.  She is to tell media what’s cool, not the opposite.  The church is to set the trends, refusing to be a flea on the back of a dog, who merely sucks life from another organism.

Have you endured the cruelty of this world?  Have you seen evil face to face?  Are you aware of how dark life can get?  Have you held a man in his brokenness?  Wiped the flood of tears from a tormented woman?  Looked into the hopeless eyes of a child?  Stop messing around and get to Jesus as fast as possible.  Jesus is our only hope.  Jesus is the cure, the feast, the joy, the solution, the meaning, the purpose, the hope, the life, and the way.

To display Jesus is to be the church.    

So stand firm.  Be churchy.  Be Jesusy.  Be the light of the world.

Jesus says: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32-33).

When we acknowledge Jesus, Christians are being "churchy," faithful, God's guide lights in a world darkened by sin, darkness, selfishness, and need.

Some will definitely not like our churchy faith in Christ...after all, the world killed our Savior because they didn't like Him.

So what? Jesus rose from the dead and gives life to all who will endure with Him.

Christ's approval, given to all who trust in Him, needs to trump the world's disapproval.

Many in eternity, there with God because they hear and believe the message of new and everlasting life for all who repent of sin and believe in Jesus Christ from us, will thank us for remaining faithful to Christ; they'll be filled with exuberant, eternal joy because we were churchy. And so will we. 

God help me. God help all of us in Christ's Church. God help all Christ calls the Church to reach others in His Name to be faithful in our churchiness.

 

First, There'll Be a National Geographic Special, Then a Nicolas Cage Movie

Divers have found a metal the ancient Greeks said came from Atlantis:

Previously, researchers only knew orichalcum from ancient texts and ornamental objects. The metal is mentioned in the writings of Plato...— he described Atlantis as flashing "with the red light of oricalchum," adding that its value was second only to gold.

"The Church is Called to Be 'Churchy,' So Deal with It"

The church is called to be "churchy," charged with proclaiming God's message for the world--Law and Gospel--whether the world likes it or not.

I don't like it much of the time. It's an unpleasant punch in the gut to realize that I am not self-sufficient and that I'm not "all that." I need God and what He offers as a free gift to all who are willing to repent and believe in Christ as their only Lord and the source of their only hope.

Its frequent unpleasantness doesn't alter the fact that I need this message, now and eternally.

Or that Christ commands that we Christians share it.

Or that this message and this message alone and our belief in it and the Christ Who is the message, saves us from sin, death, and darkness.

Saint Paul wrote: "...I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16). So, why should the Church be afraid to proclaim God's truth?

This article is a slap in the face to all of us--including myself at points in my life as a pastor, who try so hard to be palatable to the world that we effectively cease being Church, God's people on a mission. We just try to blend in. We try to avoid rocking the boat.

When we act in these ways, Jesus says, we fail to be "salt of the earth," people God uses, to preserve His kingdom until Christ's return and people who bring God's seasonings of grace, love, Lordship, and power to the world today.

Jesus warns the Church of the need to stay connected and true to Him in order to fulfill our life's purpose, to remain His salt: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." (Matthew 5:13)

Check out the article, The Church is Called to Be Churchy, So Deal with It.

Knowing God

"God acts through his words, the Word is 'alive and active' (Hebrews 4:12), and therefore the way to have God dynamically active in our lives is through the Bible. To understand the Scripture is not simply to get information about God. If attended to with trust and faith, the Bible is the way to actually hear God speaking and also to meet God Himself." (Timothy Keller. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God.)

Tremble for My Beloved by Collective Soul

Too Much Rain by Paul McCartney

Love and Peace or Else by U2

A Certain Softness by Paul McCartney