Stairway to Heaven?

The sculpture, by Spanish artist Eugenio Merino (Madrid, 1975), represents a Muslim worshipper, a Catholic priest and a Rabbi. The three of them are immortalized in the act of praying, each one in his own fashion: the Muslim bending, the Catholic kneeling and the Jew standing. The piece comes with the controversial title “Stairway to Heaven”. To a closer look, we see that the books of the three religions are inverted: the Jew prays with a Koran, the Christian with a Torah ( תורה ), and the Muslim with a Bible.

The artist obviously defends his work: “It is not a work of art meant to offend. My idea is the coexistence of the three religions, joint in a common effort to reach God, in a literally way. I think the message is positive.”

Is the sculpture anti-Semitic, because it suggests once again the stereotype of the Jewish people ruling the world, standing on top of the column, closer to God? Or should that be taken as a compliment?
Maybe the sculpture is anti-Islamic, since the Muslim is crushed at the end of the pile. Or should that be taken as a compliment, meaning that Islam is at the base of world religions?
And what about poor old Catholicism, squeezed in the middle, the eyes closed? Or maybe the column is not meant to suggest a hierarchy?

How should we read this piece?

Do you call you call yourself a Christian?

Every week I read multiple Blogs and Bloggers opinions and I can tell you that there are some very interesting ones out there. This week I ran across an old blog from man named named John Smulo. He wrote a post entitled “Five Reasons I Hate Telling People I’m Christian”. As I read this simple post I was struck with this thought, I usually agree with most of his post this one I did not. So I wanted to spend some time giving my “Six Reasons I Love Telling People I’m Christian”.

It is conversation stopper, instead of a conversation starter.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not shouting “I’ve been saved!” I’m whispering, “I was lost. That’s why I chose this way”
It communicates something other than what I mean.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t speak with human pride I’m confessing that I stumble, and need Christ to be my guide.
I’ll lose out on potential friendships because of the stereotypes this word conveys.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not bragging of success I’m admitting that I’ve failed and cannot ever pay the debt.
‘Christian’ is associated with a lot of things, but almost none of them have anything to do with Jesus Christ.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t think I know it all I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught.
It provokes hurt, anger, and angst for people who’ve had painful experiences with Christians.	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not claiming to be perfect My flaws are far too visible.
	When I say, “I am a Christian,” I still feel the sting of pain I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name.

Despite the all of the preconceived notions that coincide with the word “Christian” I truly believe that it is my job to represent the one who saved us. The first known usage of the term can be found in the New Testament, in Acts 11:26: “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” The term was thus first used to denote those known or perceived to be disciples of Jesus Christ. In the two other New Testament uses of the word (Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16) it refers to the public identity of those who follow Jesus. I think that the word should be redefined and fought for by those of us who follow Christ. Because of my skin color many people have presuppositions on who I am and what I do/ sound like. It may not be fair but I refuse to accept those false assumptions as true, neither should we do that with Christ name. This is just my opinion I could be wrong!

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? With whom? Please comment below…..

May God test you!?!?

Recently, I was listening to the podcast from Cornerstone Church Simi Valley and Pastor Francis Chan asked a very intriguing question.

If Jesus stood up on stage and said:

Plan A: This year I will give you everything you want. You will prosper, your family will prosper, you will get whatever you want but by the end of this year you will not be any closer to me.

Plan B: This year will be the hardest year of your life. You may lose your marriage, job, and children. You will struggle in everything you do especially when it pertains to your relationship with God but by the end of the year you would be closer to me [Jesus] that you could ever imagine.

Which you would you choose?

I only ask this because I know that I’d want to choose Plan B but I’d most likely choose Plan A.

Why is that?

Why is it that when someone sneezes we ask God to bless him or her? Aren’t we already blessed? We:

Live in America
Make more money than most of the world
Won’t die or get sick by drinking dirty water
Have access to education
Relatively healthy
Etcetera

I’ve just noticed that we are very blessed and maybe need God to test us instead. Most of us could use God’s testing, including myself, and would not enjoy the testing but the outcome. The problem is that God gives us a choice on whether or not we want to submit to His will for our lives. So I wanted to wish you something that may cause you much harm but in the end will also bring you closer to the joy of the Father and His glory. May we choose Plan B and may He test us and do so deeply.

Christless, expounding on nothing…

I love that a whole crop of young men and women that are passionate about the Gospel of Christ and sharing it everywhere. I have wanted to share this for awhile and hope that you enjoy this short clip of Pastor Matt Chandler and check yourself as your lead and teach others towards Christ

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YzI7b92L8]

This was an excerpt from a sermon called “A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep”
from the 2009 Desiring God Conference for Pastors please download and watch the rest of the sermon @ http://www.desiringgod.org/…

“Missional…….is that a tire or something?”

This one hits me personally since I am in seminary and we speak “Christianeeze” everyday. Christianeze or Christianeeze is a completely made up word just like many of those that we use within Christendom. Usually we define words as we introduce them into culture but lately we have been becoming lazy. Let me give you an example. A few years back, I was sitting in a local coffee shop amongst friends discussing how we can help improve discipleship within our context (darn-it I did it again, stupid buzz words) area at church. We were talking about a piece that will help us to communicate how strategy for spiritual growth in our church (mainly because every church is different). As we sat there 3 words seemed to emerge as the focus on conversation, which centered around the clarity of the piece.
The 3 words were:

Missional
Relational
Transformational

I assumed that we each understood what was being communicated but objected because I realize (not all of the time) that the language that I speak isn’t always palatable to most people. So we were discussing and the question came, “Missional….. is that a tire or something?” At that very moment I realized something, I realized how absolutely, completely, ridiculous, I sound when I use terms that are not used in common vernacular and also not defined.
The word “Missional” or the term “Missional living” are Christian terms that describe

“a missionary lifestyle; adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message”.

The use of this term has gained recent popularity due to the Emerging church movement to contrast the concept of a select group of “professional” missionaries, with the understanding that all Christians should be involved in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. If you don’t like that definition then try this one,

“Missional” is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God (Missio Dei) to proclaim the good news of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

See what I mean this is silly, but this is the language of the modern Church…I think. So here is what I would like for you to do, when you are finished reading this help me out. I know that there are so many Christianeze words out there let me know what some of them are and provide a definition. Please don’t get me wrong, when the Apostles in the New Testament introduced a word within the common language they defined it, there is not an instance where a new word is given without an explicit definition. I want so badly for Christians to engage culture and affect it in a way that we all joyfully submit to Christ, but if the culture that we are engaging does not understand the words coming from our mouths then they may never come to understand the truth of Jesus Christ. Just think about it.

Right Theology

Everyday on thousands upon thousands of people tune into Dave Ramsey and listen to him say his tagline almost every time he answers a phone call by answering the now famous phrase “Better than I deserve”. I adopted a variation of this response, much to my wives chagrin, and use it almost everyday. Most people when they first hear this response are surprised, then they will respond with something like “No, you do deserve what you have.” A young lady who says that she is a believer in Christ, by far, uttered the most annoying retort. While at work I said my usual response to the everyday pleasantries, she stopped me and asked if I was a Christian I answered yes. She answered by saying since I was a “child of the King I deserve” So I wanted to spend a quick minute defining some terms.

De·serve: to have earned or be worthy of something, in other words merited favor

Vs.

Grace: the infinite love, mercy, favor, and goodwill shown to humankind by God, in other words unmerited favor.

C. J. Mahaney (who first made this a popular term) is famous for making it a habit to answer, “Better than I deserve.” As I think about my life, I am more and more convinced that is true of me. It’s strange how often we allow ourselves to compare our situations with some imaginary perfect one and get dissatisfied. But when I stop and think about it, I am very fortunate.

My job is far better than I deserve—allowing me to spend time with the family God has given me—that is in itself much better than I deserve. I earn enough to pay the bills, and yet like so many of us, I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking “just a little more would be enough . . .” My wife truly is my best friend, and is more understanding towards me than my treatment of her warrants. Most of the time my child is obedient and a delight to have around.

I live in a far better home than most, even in this country, let alone in the rest of the world—it, too, is better than I deserve. Of course, the next breath that I am going to take is not something that is mine by right, any more than the pulsing of my heart is anything that I have done something to earn. So being allowed to live—let alone being saved by the sacrifice of Jesus—is much, much, more than I deserve.

So given all these things for which I have to be grateful, why is it that the quality and extent of my worship of Jesus remains so much less than He deserves from me? To be honest I’m not sure but I do know that my worship of Christ, in my life, emanates from right theology about Him and knowing my place within His Kingdom. I pray that we begin to try and grasp at His grace on our lives and that we truly deserve nothing that He grants us.

“Total depravity is the only doctrine that we have thousands of years of history to support it.” – G.K. Chesterton