My Desire performed by Heritage Mass Choir (korean)

A Year’s Worth of Conversation

Merry Christmas!

Wow! Can you believe another year has gone by? It’s been a year full of change, challenge, and the confrontation that is always necessary when you are working towards vision. One of the things that we often have to challenge is our old way of thinking. We can get so comfortable, that we stop thinking, stop evaluating, and stop asking questions. Life just becomes routine and things like church and career slowly lose their meaning. At the beginning of this year, I had to admit to myself, and to you, that personal relationship with Christ had become convoluted. Relationship can quickly become religious with rules and routine. What I had was rules and routine. What I wanted was relationship!

How do you move from religion to relationship? You rethink how you’ve come to that place. You begin by asking questions, confronting old ideas, and having honest conversations. One of the greatest joys of this year has been having this conversation with you. Some have emailed me directly; some shared their opinion on the blog, and yet still some have been offended and have chosen to disengage. It’s all good, real conversation which causes all sorts of reactions and emotions.

So in case you missed it, here are some of the top conversations of the year. Read them for the first time or read them again and rethink your position. Invite others to reevaluate and converse with you, or join the conversation on the blog. Thanks for being there. May the New Year bring you a renewed relationship with Christ and those around you. Here we go . . .

The Pastoral Conversation, I think this generated some hate mail.

Re-thinking Pastoral Authority — 25 comments

Re-thinking Pastoral Accountability — 11 comments

When Preachers Lie On God — 5 comments

Rethinking Who Speaks for God — 2 comments

Who can forget the Tithe Conversation, people get so passionate about money.

Tithe – Not what Malachi 3 is about — 16 comments

Tithe – The Heart of the Matter — 7 comments

Tithe – Support for the poor — 5 comments

Tithe – The original purpose — 4 comments

Tithe — The Eternal Principle — 3 comments

Tithe – The Disconnect — 2 comments

The Church As Is Conversation was very insightful

Questions About Church As-Is — 27 comments

Re-thinking the way we dress for church — 20 comments

When Christians Have Sex — 16 comments

Rethinking What We Sell — 11 comments

A Faith I Can Live With — 5 comments

The Theology Conversation

Rethinking What God Said — 8 comments

Christians’ Personal Responsibility — 4 comments

Rethinking Orthopraxy — 2 comments

Who’s Influencing Your Theology?

Thinking Theology

It’s been a great year! Thanks again for being a part of the conversation. You never know where the conversation will lead, so keep checking the blog often. I love your insight and input, so leave me lots of comments for Christmas. Happy reading and once again, Merry Christmas!!!

Just be good for goodness sake!

“Why believe in God?”

That’s the question posed by the American Humanist Association.  Just be good for the sake of being good, is the directive. Humanists believe that we are able and responsible to lead ethical lives and be personally fulfilled without theism of any kind. They also seem to believe that we should be motivated to be good without expecting reward or punishment after death.

My immediate thought is another question.

What is good?

Where does the idea of good come from? Good is thrown out as a universally understood and agreed upon concept. Is good something we humans all naturally understand and agree to? The idea that good is natural has obvious flaws, of which I am one. I am not naturally good and it is not for the lack of trying. I am not always responsible; again this is not due to the lack of desire. The simplistic suggestion of just being good is, I think, a bit naïve. Certainly the most evil men in the world would argue that there intentions were good.

Good requires knowledge, and knowledge requires a source of intelligence. Man cannot be the source of information and the innate morality that humanists seek to depend on for their goodness.

So, in answer to the question, why believe in God? It’s simply because you can’t have Good without God.

Good without God is like wet without water.

Only A Fool! Now Open…

The war on God continues!  Why do the people rage and these people imagine a vain thing?  Christmas customs now include anti-Christ slogans and insults.  The intolerant insist that Christians are intolerant for celebrating Christ!  The latest, of course, is “Why believe in God?  Just be good for goodness’ sake.”  One group has decided to continue the imprudent propaganda by creating t-shirts and giving them to the homeless to wear.

This season of my life is more and more about action.  I tire of talk.  I want more than talk.  I have decided to create t-shirts and apparel of my own.

Allow me to present ONLY A FOOL

Only a fool offers intelligent apparel for those tired of the ever increasing and ever more aggressive, yet illogical, agenda to ignore God or pretend that He doesn’t exist.

Here are a few of the first designs.  Enjoy!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.printfection.com/onlyafool

To my American Readership, one word