Lord Save Us from Your Followers

We watched a movie in Bible class called Lord Save Us from Your Followers.  It was all about evangelism in America and how we do it wrong as Christian's.  It shows this guy walking around in a white suite thing with some sort of religious/ anti religious bumper stickers all over it.  It caught people's attention really fast. The guy would walk through a town and ask random people questions about what they believed about Jesus and which bumper sticker was their favorite.  It was surprising about how many people didn't know that much about Jesus. A lot of them knew He saved us, but that was about it.  Growing up in the Bible belt, I really don't notice how many people there are that do not know anything about God.  I am not saying that everyone is a Christian in the Bible belt, but most people do know some things about Jesus.  Also in the movie a group of teenage evangelists went to a place very close to homosexuals hearts and protested against them.  My personal opinion gathered from reactions of people to protesting is that is does not really work.  I think one of the main things it causes is more anger and resentment toward the church.  People who are protested against cannot feel loved.  They probably feel somewhat humiliated and for sure mad.   I think the best way to get your point across to them is to start a relationship with them and minister to them through what you do, say, and how you treat them.  The movie also showed the guy in the bumper sticker suite go to a homosexual parade and gathering and set up a confessional building for those who wanted to confess their sins.  That was not the only reason that they put a confessional there.  Through the confessional, the man was able to talk to these homosexuals and tell them that he was truly sorry for what the Church has done to them, and what even he himself had done to them.  I thought this was a very good idea.  Way more people were probably touched by his loving manner of evangelising compared to the method of protesting where it just made everyone want to fight.  I think people should watch this movie to see some effective and maybe some not so effective ways to evangelise.  Think about it this way... if someone was very rude to you and hurt your feelings, would you want to be like them? Would you think oh man, I wish I had what they have? NO! You would probably be pushed away from them with your unappealing attitude.  But if someone came up to you humbly and started having a genuine conversation with you, you are much more likely to want to be like them than the other person.  This movie was a very good movie and it really opened my eyes to the feelings of others.

Jesus Camp

At first when I began to watch the movie, I thought these people were crazy! Then I began to realize that much of what they are saying is the same thing I believe, they are just more radical. I do not agree with everything that they think, but in some ways I want to be like them. All the kids are so on fire for God and they seem like they would do anything for Him. Like the little girl who gave the tract to the lady in the bowling alley, or the boy who got up in front of all those kids to preach, or even the lady to devote her whole life to ministering to kids. I would have a hard time doing any of those things. I wish I would get out of my comfort zone like those kids did. But that is too uncomfortable and scary. Which is ridiculous when you think about what all God has done for us and not sharing it. All it is is selfishness. I was really convicted of this while watching this video. I thought if a little 8 year old girl (maybe) could go hand a tract to some stranger, I can talk to a friend about God. There were many good things about this video and the people at Jesus Camp. They were taking a stand for what they believed in. They strongly disagree with abortion, as do we. But they are trying to do something about it. They went to the white house to petition and they committed to pray for the decisions of government. Yeah, somethings they did were kind of crazy and maybe not completely right, but they are doing a lot of things right that I do not.
There are quite a few things that they did that I do not agree on. Like when the little girl was talking about "dead churches" and how if the people at the churches don't stand up and raise their hands during worship time, that God isn't there. I think that what she said is definitely not true. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. You do not have to stand up and raise your hands to be Christians. Also another thing that I am not sure about is when the kids started talking in tongues. In the Bible in 2 Corinthians, it talks about when someone is speaking in tongues, there needs to be a translator present. In this video and at this camp there was not. There were just a ton of kids speaking in tongues. I don't think tongues is necessarily a bad thing, but I think that people need to be careful doing it. Another thing I am weary of is when the main lady said that Christians have a "spirit-man" living inside of them, and when the read the Bible, pray, or spend time with God, their "spirit-man" gets stronger. I can understand kind of what she meant, maybe that we each have a relationship with God and when we do those things we get closer... I don't know, but I am not sure what she meant by "spirit-man". And in one part of the movie it showed a kid laying on the floor convulsing. It never explained it though and I want to know why. One last thing I disagree on is when the little girl was bowling and told her ball in the name of Jesus to get a strike. This makes me think that the girl heard people throw around that term WAY too much. I hope she doesn't think that you can command something in the name of Jesus and make it happen.
One last thing that we do need to keep in mind is that this was only an hour and a half so movie. And think of much we have not seen. I am pretty sure that if I were the directors of this movie I would have chosen the craziest things I could find possible. We have probably missed a ton of stuff. It could have been different than what the movie portrayed completely. We should not judge them, we should just pray for them and that they will be teaching the correct doctrine and  that we do also.

Don't Waste Your Life. Chapter 3

#1. Boasting in the cross only happens when you are on the cross. This means pratically in my life right now, that I need to look at the world with the cross in mind. If I look at the world with the cross in mind, my whole view point on my life would change. To boast in the cross, we need to sacrifice ourselves, put ourselves on the cross. Until we do that, the only thing we will be boasting in is OURSELVES.

#2. I died, and yet I live. Some people read this and have no idea what it means. It is confusing. But I think it means that when we accept Christ into our heart, we are dying to ourselves. We now are dead to ourselves, but in return we become alive through Christ. He is in us. And since He is in us, we are now alive. Some key words that I think help differentiate the "I's" are in bold. "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me."
  -Galatians 2:20

#3. Living by faith is really hard for me. I want to trust God, but I find myself worrying. I have faith that God will fulfill every one of His promises. I trust that He will do what He says. I do not live by faith in ALOT of things: school, health, and many others. I really would like to change and have faith in EVERY part of my life.

Lyrical Study

I chose to do a lyrical study on "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars.  I like this song.  I like it because of the singing, the music, and I think that it is cute.  I think it is cool that this song is not inappropriate.  I think that in this time, and in that style of music, it is cool to be inappropriate and suggestive.  But it isn't.  All they are doing is exposing young kids and teenagers to things that aren't right. They are teaching them that it is cool to go to bad stuff.  I like this song because all he does is compliments his girlfriend.  He is telling her she doesn't need to change anything about her, and that she is perfect just the way she is.  Of course she isn't perfect, none of us are.  I think girls should hear this more often. Not always from a boy, but even from media.  This is not what the media is telling us at all. The media is telling us that we need to look a certain way, dress a certain way, be a certain weight, and height. This really causes problems in teens.  Many people get discouraged about themselves. Even going too extreme.  I like this song because it is taking a different stand to the music industry.  It is also probably successful because of all the teenage girls who listen to this song, and want a boy to say that to them.  Which gets me onto a different subject of where someone's fulfillment comes from.  But from a buisiness stand point, the words really do reach the teenage age and girls. 

Come on Down!

Many evangelists use a technique called the altar-call.  This technique is used to get sinners to come to the front of the church to confess their sins and repent.  It also is used to show the preachers how their sermon turned out and how the crowd received it. The more people to the front, the better the sermon. This method has not always been around.  Many great evangelists, such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards did not believe in this method. They didn't even know what it was. They believed that private inner change was how it should be done. The question is, which method works?  I think that both methods can work. God can work through anything. I also think that it depends on the person and how they feel lead. Some people are turned off by getting in front of people. Many people have definitely been saved by the altar-call method.  I think some people view going to the front as getting saved, instead of believing in Jesus and confessing their sins.  Of course there are people who are actually saved during altar-calls as well.  We also have to think about how people think by getting baptized they are saved, and in the old times people thought by sacrificing, and getting circumcised saved them.  Any method in evangelizing can be taken in a wrong way. I don't think this method is bad. I just think the pastor should make sure the people understand how they are really saved. God can use any situation to bring people to Him. We just need to listen to Him and determine what way He wants us to do things.

Salt and Light

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount.  In this sermon He talks about many topics.  One of the topics was "Salt and Light".  This topic is very convicting to me.  Jesus talks about how Christians are the salt of the earth, and if we lose our saltiness how can we become salty again.  He also said, what good does unsalted salt do? NOTHING! Jesus said that unsalted salt should be thrown on the ground and trampled on. "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."  (verse 13) This is very convicting. It makes me think about what I am like. Am I "salty" or not? I really need to work on spreading God's word to people. "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (verses 14-16) I need to stop thinking selfishly and all about myself. I need to go out of my comfort zone and share the gospel with people. We as Christians need to get out from under the "bowl" and let our light shine. I think that my "bowl" is, I am too scared about what people will think about me, which is ridiculous. I do NOT want to be unsalty salt to where the only good I am is to be thrown on the ground and trampled on. I want to be used to further the Kingdom and be a tool God can use to show people about Him. I think a way that I can do this is set a good example for younger people. I know that when I was little I would look up to the older kids. I should build relationships with younger kids that others aren't reaching out to. This can be a very humbling thing. It will help me get out of my comfort zone and it will make me stop worrying what other people think about me.

Halloween

I do not think Halloween is a bad thing.  I think it is just fine to dress up in fun outfits and go Trick-or-Treating.  There are many people who view Halloween as a devil holiday, and that there is more demonic activity on Halloween, and that by participating in its activities they are participating in devil worship.  However it was really a Celtic holiday to celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest season.  During the same time, they would celebrate the "festival of the dead" this is when they believed that the evil spirits came out.  they would wear scary masks and outfits to ward off the spirits.  They would also carve faces in turnips and put candles in them, which is where we get the idea of jack-o-lanterns.  The Celtic children would go from door to door entertaining their neighbors with songs, in exchange for candy or money.  This is where we got trick-or-treating.  If Christian's are going to boycott Halloween because it is a pagan holiday, we need to rethink our other holidays, such as Christmas and Easter.  These holidays were both originally pagan holidays that Christians put a spin on to make it okay to celebrate them.  It is kind of hypocritical to boycott one holiday, and not the other.  Some people really do participate in devil worship on Halloween, and I obviously think this is very wrong, and that people should NOT participate in those activities.  But I still do not think that it is wrong to trick-or-treat.