Continuing with my focus on Christian outreach, I want to give you an extended quote from Rick Richardson in his book “Evangelism – Outside the Box” I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is truly willing to look outside his personal or his churches box. Religious people tend to create programs and ministries that meet the needs of other religious people. Jesus knew that. He chose a different way. At the cost of his life, he chose to find the lost, to heal the sick, to cure the sinner. He wants his church to fulfill his ministry and … Continue reading Lost People matter to God.

Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Wow, it sounds like we have to choose between God and money! How can we do without money but then again how can we do without God! This seems like an impossible choice to make. The key word here is “serve”. When we serve God we are constantly seeking his will and living our lives as he taught us. If we serve money … Continue reading God & Money

Luke 4:16-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  These were some of the first proclamations that Jesus made when he started his three year ministry. Isn’t it interesting that the first group he targets are the poor and those with disabilities. It is actions like these that make it hard for some of us to try and … Continue reading Opening His ministry

As you can see from the last few posts I have been somewhat down the last few weeks. I have always found that reading Beatitudes is able to pull me up when I am down. I prefer Luke’s version to that Matthew’s. So, here goes: Luke 6:20-22 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name … Continue reading Lifting up Christian’s Spirits…

 I don’t know how many of you have read President Obama’s talk at the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago. In that talk he told us how he came to faith in spite of not being raised in the active Christian household. And , no he was never a Muslim. Yes, his estranged father was at one time a Muslim before he became an atheist. Here is his account of why he came to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim … Continue reading Coming to Faith -Presidential Style

Since I have been doing book reviews for a while I wanted to break it up with something I have been pondering lately. Is there such a thing as a “couch potato Christians”? Of course there are, so maybe I should say “should there be such a thing? A verse from Ephesians is used frequently by many denominations to show us our salvation is a total gift and has nothing to do with what we do. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not … Continue reading Couch Potato Christians???

This is a continuation of the last post where I covered George Washington’s religious beliefs. I will conclude this topic by talking about Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson — Jefferson was undoubtedly the strongest advocate for religious freedom of the Founding Fathers. This was quite evident when he composed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1777. Jefferson was definitely raised in a Christian household. He seemed to have also been brought up in the rituals and customs of the Anglican Church as it existed in colonial Virginia which was much less a high church institution than its England counterpart. He … Continue reading The Faith of our Founding Fathers – continued

 I know I promised another book review for this post but I want to slip in a personal lesson I recently learned. At the Ash Wednesday service at my church our pastor’s sermon was about some of the things we Christians do during the Lenten season. He mentioned that a common sacrifice for Catholics, he was one as a child, was to not eat meat. Other people try to give up things like chocolate, special foods, TV and such. But pastor suggested something entirely different. Why not try to live out part of the Lord’s prayer and truly forgive someone … Continue reading Sacrifices for Lent?

I am going to spend this post studying John Howard Yoder and particularly his book The Politics of Jesus written in 1972. Here is what Wikipedia says about him. John Howard Yoder (December 29, 1927 – December 30, 1997) was a Christian theologian, ethicist, and Biblical scholar best known for his radical Christian pacifism, his mentoring of future theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas, his loyalty to his Mennonite faith, and his 1972 magnum opus, The Politics of Jesus It is obvious from his books that Yoder is a pacifist who strongly believes that it is not God’s will for us … Continue reading The Politics of Jesus