An Innocent Man Was Tortured And Murdered, So Let’s Celebrate!

( ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s not too often that anyone would actually rejoice and celebrate whenever someone loses their life in a gruesome way, especially undeservedly.  Worst yet, no one commemorates the day that the person die by calling it ‘A Good Day’.  Well Good Friday is just that.  It’s almost oxymoronic that the day Jesus was crucified is referred to as Good Friday.  Some might ask, “What’s so good about him suffering on a cross after being beaten and humiliated?”  Well the reason he did it makes it a celebratory occasion.  He died so we might live.  Yes, we do not necessarily condone the method he chose to obliterate our sins but it was his choice and because he did it, we have hope.  Isn’t that good? Good nuff for me.

So as we celebrate Easter and Good Friday, let’s remember what transpired on that fateful day.  It wasn’t just about HIM dying on a cross but what it symbolized.  Our sins were put on that cross.  Let’s celebrate and have a Happy Easter!

Amazing Grace

Music of Grace: Amazing Grace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few days ago, while listening to a Christian Radio, (chvn 95.1 fm),  the song Amazing Grace started playing.  For some reason, I found myself pondering the song and  the origin.  This is one of the most recognizable of all songs,  religious or otherwise.  I think even the devil sings it.  It is so popular that I’m sure many if not all of us,  sing it from memory without really paying much attention to the lyrics.  Here’s a little blog about the man behind the song and its origin.

English man John Newton,  was the songwriter of this historic song.  For such a deep and soul baring song, one would think that he must have been a deeply devout christian, testifying to the saving grace of God.  Well sort of.

John was forced into military service and later, on his own volition, became a slave trader.  Apparently, he had one of the worst sailors’ vocabulary that his captain had ever heard.  (He was the most profane man the captain had ever met). In other words, he cursed like a sailor and more than a sailor.

John Newton was not always religious, even though his mother tried to instill it in him.  In fact, he denounced God at one part in his life.  It took a near-death experience for him to return to the fold.  (He cried out for God’s intervention when the ship he was on was caught in a storm).  That incident marked a turning point in his life and one that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Contrary to claims, Newton did not write the song in a moment of clarity while on a slave ship.  In fact, after his conversion he continued to dabble in slave trading and only gave it up after being ill.  He wrote Amazing Grace some years after his last voyage.

Amazing Grace is a strong song.  It speaks volumes about God’s love and his forgiveness.  This blog is not to take anything away from John Newton or to judge him in any way for his participation in one of the darkest era of humanity, (Although I think he should have given it up after he found God but maybe his conviction and conversion was not fully completed).  He left us with a great song.

Years after hanging up his slave trader hat, Newton joined forces with abolitionist William Wilberforce in his fight against slavery.  For such a person like John Newton, it would have taken an amount of saving grace to redeem him from what he was.  A bad boy, a slave trader and a man who turned his back on God.  It must have really been an Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like him.  And me.  And you.

Amazing grace, how sweet thou art…

Related reads:

http://www.texasfasola.org/biographies/johnnewton.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton

It’s never a bad day, even when it snows early

On Tuesday, I went to the hospital to visit a friend who recently suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed the entire right side of his body.  I sat with him for a while even though we couldn’t communicate with each other.  He sometimes struggled for a breath of air and tried to speak during his brief moments of consciousness but was mostly incoherent. This was a man who was never lacking for words.  He was intelligent and a great debater.  Now here he was, reduced to a mumbling baby.

As I watched him, feeling useless and wondering if there was something I could do or say, I thought of my frailty.  I thought of how I would feel with my mind trapped in a body that refused to answer its will.  It was a dreadful thought that scared me.

The next day it snowed, prematurely by our expectations as we hadn’t seen snow before December for some time.  I joined the voices of the malcontents and questioned God’s bad timing.  It’s just the beginning of October! What kind of joke is this? How long is winter going to last this year?  This really sucks!  It was just a knee-jerk reaction as I am never one to really complain about too much snow, rain, heat or otherwise.

Then I thought of my friend in the hospital, (See the good thing about having an overactive mind is that it sometimes counters the negative thoughts by coming up with other thoughts, even while thinking).  I suspected that my friend would rather be out here navigating the snowy roads and feeling cold than lying on a hospital bed not knowing what his future holds.  That was a sobering thought that righted my ship.

Later, I was surfing Facebook and came upon the photo above, it was about being thankful for each day as someone somewhere is fighting to survive.  Coincidence?

As Thanksgiving approaches, there’s no better time to think of the things that are taken for granted.  The things that we feel we have earned.  A breath of air, health, possessions.  We feel that no thanks are necessary or saying thanks once should be good enough.

When we have our health and our lives, there is no such thing as a bad day.  Snow falling when we think it’s not supposed to, does not constitute a tragedy.  So now I am thankful that I could experience another winter.  I could feel the cold and trudge through the snow and that’s  more than some could say.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Exercising and testing your faith

One of my Facebook friends uses her statuses to testify about her love of God and her relationship with him.   Her statuses are all to glorify him and I have yet to read one that was just about her.   I have always admired her for giving props where it was due.  As a local entertainer,  it would have been easy and excusable for her to exalt herself  but she chose to put God on the pedestal instead.  As I often do when I am touched by what someone did or said, I made sure to let her know how refreshing her statuses were to me.

Reading her last couple statuses however, I got the impression that she was going through a personal struggle of sorts, one that was apparently pushing her faith to the limit and raising questions about God’s plans for her.

Today, her status read, “ Sometimes, I wonder what GOD is doing …when things that make no sense happen in my life. When a problem arises … without any warning.This is when my faith is tested and I am tempted to give up. But, then I remember that … “Faith is being sure of what I hope for and certain of what I cannot see.” Re-assuring me, that even when problems arise, GOD is fully aware of my situation … and HE will work out everything for me … in His perfect time”.

Even though she surprised me with the line, ‘tempted to give up’, I was happy to see that she remembered what faith was all about.  Too often, we as Christians forget that like non-Christians, we are also prone to temptations, disappointments and other heartbreaks of life.  Having a deep relationship with Christ does guarantee us immunity.  It helps us to face  and overcome these setbacks. With faith, we know and believe that God will see us through.

As I commented on my friend’s status, faith is like your muscles.  It also needs to be exercised.  So think of temptations as the weights that our faith must carry to get a workout.  Without these hardships, who needs faith?  How would we know if we have faith if it’s not exercised and tested?  I can say I am a great at math until I am actually tested and prove I suck at it.  So too, we can say we have faith but it’s time to test it, we have little or none.

God never promised us a bed of roses.  He never said, ‘Follow me and you will live a stress-free life with everything you want.’  If we keep this in mind, we will be ready for the next hiccup or road block that comes our way.  We will say, ‘Oh here comes another test.  Let’s see how I do on this one.’  Remember, we have never seen a problem that HE couldn’t fix.  And really, if we REALLY DO believe in him and have faith in him, there is no room for worry as faith and worry cannot co-exist.

How strong is your faith?

Related articles

• What is Faith? (sthaelrazor.com)
• Let your faith remain strong… (the1savedbygrace.com)
• Defending the Faith Requires Definitions (pjcockrell.wordpress.com)
• On The Importance of Faith in Action (cardboardmagazine.wordpress.com)
• Why and What Do You Believe? (ising4god.com)
• Hmmm… Keep the Faith! (myhmmmcollection.wordpress.com)
• Close Your Eyes to Open Your Faith (gggceo.wordpress.com)
• because he trusted God, and had faith. The faith of a mustard seed. (transientreflections.com)
• Is the Bible’s definition of faith opposed to logic and evidence? (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
• Have Faith within (jilljacobs7.wordpress.com)

Snake bitten pastor dies

Seriously, what is wrong with some pastors these days?  The length they go to further their own selfish means is astounding.  Taking passages out of the bible and interpreting them literally and practicing made up rituals, it’s definitely a sign of the times folks.  This latest one involved a pastor who was engaging in a ritual with a poisonous snake.  Snake bit him, pastor dies.  To top it off, he had seen his dad died years before under the same circumstances.  Twice bitten….  Is God trying to send them a message here?  Folks, hold tight to your faith because snakes walk among us.

Read on…

‘Serpent-Handling’ West Virginia

Pastor Dies From Snake Bite

• 

  ‘Serpent-Handling’ West Virginia …

A “serpent-handling” West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before.

Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event.

“I am looking for a great time this Sunday,” Wolford wrote May 22,according to the Washington Post. “It is going to be a homecoming like the old days. Good ‘ole raised in the holler or mountain ridge running, Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers.”

Robin Vanover, Wolford’s sister, told the Washington Post that 30 minutes into the outdoor service, Wolford passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him.

“He laid it on the ground,” Vanover said in the interview, “and he sat down next to the snake, and it bit him on the thigh.”

Vanover said Wolford was then transported to a family member’s home in Bluefield about 80 miles away to recover. But as the situation worsened, he was taken to a hospital where he later died.

Jim Shires, owner of the Cravens-Shires Funeral Home in Bluefield, told ABC News that Wolford died Monday. Wolford’s church, the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, will host a viewing Friday and a funeral service Saturday morning. Wolford will be buried at the Hicks Family Plot in Phelps, Ky.

Officials at the Panther Wildlife Management Area had been unaware of Sunday’s event until they were notified by callers after the service.

“We did not know that this event was happening, and if we had known about it or if we had been asked for permission, permission would not have been granted,” Hoy Murphy, public information officer for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, told ABC News.

Hoy said West Virginia state park rules prohibit animals other than dogs and cats on the property.

While snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, other Appalachian states, including Kentucky and Tennessee, have banned the practice in public spaces.

Snake-handlers point to scripture as evidence that God calls them to engage in such a practice to show their faith in him. Mark 16: 17-18 reads, “And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Wolford told the Washington Post magazine in 2011 that he is carrying on the tradition of his ancestors by engaging in snake handling.

“Anybody can do it that believes it,” Wolford said. “Jesus said, ‘These signs shall follow them which believe.’ This is a sign to show people that God has the power.”

Wolford said watched his own father die at the age of 39 after a rattlesnake bit him during a similar service.

“He lived 101/2 hours,” Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine. “When he got bit, he said he wanted to die in the church. Three hours after he was bitten, his kidneys shut down. After a while, your heart stops. I hated to see him go, but he died for what he believed in.

“I know it’s real; it is the power of God,” Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine last year. “If I didn’t do it, if I’d never gotten back involved, it’d be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real.”

 

Related articles

• “Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
• Another snake handler goes home to Jesus (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
• Serpent-handling pastor dies from rattlesnake bite (bangordailynews.com)
• Pastor who handled snakes dies from a predictable cause (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• God smites snake-fondling pastor (secularnewsdaily.com)
• Snake handling fundamentalist pastor dies from rattlesnake bite (americablog.com)
• Snake-handling pastor gets bitten by snake, dies (theblaze.com)

US Pastors lead open season on gays

In a rant delivered just days after President Barack Obama’s historic public support for same-sex marriage, the pastor, Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C., suggested rounding up all “queers and homosexuals” and quarantining them inside an electric fence.

“I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers,” Worley told churchgoers on May 13. “Build a great big large fence—50 or 100 miles long—put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. And you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce!”

“It makes me pukin’ sick to think about,” Worley added. “Can you imagine kissing some man?”

Worley’s comments—while shocking—are sadly not uncommon for pastors in North Carolina, a state that voted overwhelmingly in favor of a constitutional amendment defining marriage “as solely between a man and a woman.”

Earlier this month, Ron Baity, founding pastor of Winston-Salem’s Berean Baptist Church and leader of Return America, said gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people should be prosecuted.

“For 300 years, we had laws that would prosecute that lifestyle,” Baity said. “We’ve gone down the wrong path.”

Before the state’s vote, Pastor Sean Harris of the Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville instructed parents to use force if their kids start acting gay:

So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, ‘Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,’ you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed. Can I make it any clearer? Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. OK?

My Take:  On behalf of real Christians who worship a forgiving and accepting God, I apologize for these ignorant war crusaders and their hate mongering.  They falsely claim to be Christians but practice hate and intolerance.  Their sentiments do not in any way reflect those of us true believers.

Calm down, it’s only a T-shirt!

A Grade 12 student in Nova Scotia was suspended for wearing a T-shirt with ‘Life is Wasted Without Jesus’ written on it.  Read here.  I totally agree with that sentiment BUT that’s my opinion that reflects my beliefs.

Now here is my take on this growing censorship of religious freedom by schools.  Schools are places where children of all race and culture mingle.  There are many beliefs and practices that must be respected and appreciated unless forced upon another.  Wearing a shirt that publicize ones beliefs is much the same as wearing a turban that reflects the wearer is a Sikh, which is also a religious group.

Have you seen some of the T-shirts worn by students lately?  They advertise everything, sex, drugs, guns, etc.  The schools seem to be ok with this.  And how about the attire worn by some of the school girls?  Too revealing, too short, too sexy but it’s ok as long as they show no visible signs of religious affiliation.  Right?

Why the increasing crackdown on christian-based practices in schools and public places?  Smothering the truth does not make it go away, it in fact makes it more relevant.

So who are the real bullies here?

Related articles

• N.S. student suspended for wearing religious T-shirt (theglobeandmail.com)
• Student’s ‘Jesus’ shirt sparks feud with school (cbc.ca)
• N.S. school board turns to mediation in fracas over ‘offensive’ Christian T-shirt (vancouversun.com)
• Canadian student suspended from school for wearing a ‘Jesus’ T-shirt (mysteryworshipers.wordpress.com)
• Jesus lobs a controversy bomb into the Nova Scotia school system, leaves, says, “Deal with it, people.” (cafewitteveen.wordpress.com)

‘Playing’ Jesus

A mega church in Winnipeg is attempting to make church more appealing by re-enacting biblical events in a contemporary form.  Their Easter messages are delivered using props and costumes of popular figures and movies.   This past Easter, their Message was entitled ‘Batman: The Dark Night’.  The ‘actors’ including the pastor, were all in full and authentic costumes.

Now I am not sure how I feel about this.  Reading the comments, not too many are ready for something such as this.  Blasphemy is used a lot to describe it.  I can see how something like this could attract people to the church but what happens next Sunday when the biblical stories are delivered raw, uncut and without the trimmings?

I am old school.  To a point.  Tell me the story of Jesus the way it is.  Don’t package it in colorful wrappings.  I don’t want to imagine him as the Dark Knight, no matter the good intentions.  But that’s just me.  Like I said, I am old school.  I do however, enjoy contemporary worship over the traditional hum-drum hymns singing.

On the flipside, Jesus did use parables to drive home his points.  The Bible is filled with stories that he used to make us understand.  So maybe what the church is doing is not all that bad.  If even one soul is gained through this, then who am I or you to talk?

Read all about it here

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GCB – Good Christian Belles

What do you get when Daddy joins Mommy while she watches her tv shows? A Daddy hooked on shows like Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and GCB.  Well GCB was kinda my idea after I saw the trailer but you get my point.

Good Christian Belles or GCB as it is called, is a show about the ‘other side’ of church goers, the underbelly if you may.  The side that is there but we don’t see unless we go home with our fellow Christians after church.  Although in some cases you don’t need to.

I had a negative reaction to it at first.  I thought it was making fun of Christianity and bordering on blasphemous.  I however decided to give it a try and watched an entire episode.  I was glad I did.  Many may not agree but I like the premise of this show.  It’s funny, witty and very much poignant.   The truth does hurt and it’s time we accept it.

Sometimes it is not a bad thing for us to see ourselves the way we really are.  Our shortcomings and our flaws.  It could make us take a long hard look in the mirror and ask, ‘Am I like that? Am I guilty of being selfish? Am I really living the life I preach?’.  Many times we think that accepting God as our savior and attending church regularly give us a free ticket to do whatever we want without paying the price.  Alas, this is not so. We are not exempted because we are Christians.  We are still judged by the same jury as the non-christians.

I am a Christian. I attend church regularly.  GCB does nothing to undermine my faith nor do I feel threatened in any way.  In the same way that showing sleazy, conniving, backbiting men on tv shows does nothing to undermine my manhood.

Did you know that  GCB was originally called Good Christian Bit**es?  Watching the show you could see why but I agree that this was a bit too much.

My take, don’t watch tv with your wife.  You never know what you’d end up being addicted to.  Now I’m off to watch ‘The Bachelor’ that we PVR’d.  I need a good cry.  jk, lmao!   oops! I meant

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• My Take: New TV series ‘GCB’ portrays Christians as caricatures (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
• Watercooler: Is GCB a Divine Comedy or a Damned Letdown? (seattlepi.com)
• Why Good Christian Bitches Belles Is Now Called GCB! (lukewilliamss.wordpress.com)
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Confessions of a Tebow-er

Image by Jeffrey Beall via Flickr

On a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, there was a skit poking fun of Tim Tebow and his Christian practices.  My first response was to laugh at the humor of it. I failed to see it for what it was, an unacceptable mockery of someone’s religious beliefs and practices.

Tim Tebow is an NFL Quarterback who is garnering praises for his late game heroics.  Lately, his unwavering faith in God has been the topic of discussion.  Tebow celebrates his on-field successes by dropping to one knee in a praying position.  He does this despite criticism from fans and players alike.  He also never fails to give God all the credit for his wins.

Back to the skit.  The skit had an actor portraying Jesus.  ‘Jesus’ enters the locker room and confronts Tim Tebow (another actor) and his team.  He takes credit for their last win and told him to ‘tone it down a notch’. (his christian practices).  Suffice to say, it was of poor taste.  It is wrong on all fronts, to poke fun of other people’s beliefs. Could you imagine the fallout if this had been another religion, say Muslim, that was made fun of? There would have been world-wide protests.

As a fellow Christian, I find it very noble when Christians fearlessly practice their faith publicly.  It is not an easy thing for someone in Tim Tebow’s profession to stand up for what he believes in.  How much easier it is for an atheist to tell the world that there is no God yet the voice of the Christian is muted?

I am a Tebow-er and this is MY TAKE.

Related articles

• Why the Hostility to Tim Tebow? (gratiaetnatura.wordpress.com)
• VIDEO: Tim Tebow Skit On Saturday Night Live (denver.sbnation.com)
• Pat Robertson Slams SNL: Tebow Skit Fueled By ‘Anti-Christian Bigotry’ (mediaite.com)
• Toucher & Rich: Tebow Fan Upset Over SNL Skit (boston.cbslocal.com)
• In SNL Skit, Christ Asks Tebow To Tone It Down (lezgetreal.com)
• God Visits Tim Tebow on SNL (patheos.com)
• http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/15/2-riverhead-high-school-students-suspended-for-tebowing/