Playing Church? Or Worship?

By: Mary Southerland Girlfriends in God

Come, let’s worship him and bow down. Let’s kneel before the LORD who made us, because he is our God and we are the people he takes care of and the sheep that he tends. Psalm 95: 6-7, NCV

When I was a little girl, I loved to play church with my friends. We would line chairs up in rows and pull out a cardboard box we used for the pulpit. Then the great debate began over who would preach and who would sing. The more aggressive kids wanted the up-front jobs while the quiet ones were happy to just sit and watch the “show”. Sometimes one of the kids would pretend to be the Holy Ghost walking around the chairs saying “Boo!” If the leaders did a good job, we would play church for hours. However, if they were not entertaining enough, the kids in the chairs would soon get bored and go in search of more exciting recreation in the front yard. All in all, playing the church game was great fun and a delightful way to pass an afternoon.

Playing church is, however, a pathetic and meaningless way to pass a lifetime.

Every Sunday, churches are filled with those who are simply “playing” games with God. They line up in rows to watch the “show”. If it is good enough, they stay and even come back occasionally. However, if it is not entertaining, they will drift off to play some other game in life. continue reading

Prepare to Meet God

Christian Group Barred From Sidewalk Handouts at Arab Festival

Associated Press – 6/20/2009 4:10:00 AM

DETROIT, MI - A federal judge has denied an evangelical group’s request for permission to hand out Christian literature on sidewalks at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Anaheim, Calif.-based Arabic Christian Perspective’s request for a temporary restraining order. The group describes itself in its court filing as “a national ministry established for the purpose of proclaiming the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims …(that) travels around the country attending and distributing Christian literature at Muslim festivals and mosques.”

 A lawyer for the group said it would seek a permanent injunction against the city of Dearborn. “It’s not over,” said Robert J. Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, an Ann Arbor-based Christian rights advocacy group.

Another lawyer on the case said the Dearborn officials action could be part of what he described as a broader Muslim legal attack on critics of Islam in our “Judeo-Christian nation.”

 ”Muslims are using the courts in this country to stop our free speech rights,” said William J. Becker Jr., a Los Angeles attorney who has represented a number of prominent critics of Islam. Continue reading

God Saves Bad People by Art Azurdia

HT: Spirit Empowered Preaching

U.S. Military Destroys Soldier’s Bibles

Fred Jackson – OneNewsNow - 5/5/2009 10:40:00 AM

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.

 Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty — including those based in places like Afghanistan — from trying to convert people to another religion.

 Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said “I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera’s clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed.”

 According to the military officials, the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. Reuters says the soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, told a Pentagon briefing Monday that the military’s position is that it will never “push any specific religion.”

John MacArthur – Christianity’s Greatest Threat

Thanks Wretched Radio!

Here is a four and half minute eye opener from the introduction of the second hour of Wretched Radio (04/28/09). A must hear for all of us called to preach the Gospel.

God Still Has A Remnant!

In a time of spiritual blindness, where Evangelicalism is being side tracked and de-railed by pastor’s who want to be cool, relevant and fashionable rather than students and proclaimers of the Gospel, Lillian Kwon of Christian Post writes about the “Gospel Coalition Conference” calling pastors back to a Christ centered gospel.

“…Leaders of the coalition got right down to business on Tuesday as they opened the 2009 conference with Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Expounding a passage from the New Testament book of Acts 19, Keller spotlighted the apostle Paul whom Christians recognize as one of the most effective and faithful preachers of all time.

Paul preached in such a way that changed the lives of those who converted to Christianity and ultimately affected the culture, Keller told thousands who packed the Donald E. Stephens Conference Center in Chicago as well as those watching the session online through a live webcast.

In most cases today, however, there are many people having born-again experiences and making decisions for Christ but not living any differently from anyone else in the culture, Keller pointed out.

He called it “one of the scandals of the church.”

Part of that failure to produce changed lives points back to the church or the preacher.” continue reading

Post-Christian?

HT: The Sacred Sandwich

Can You Spot the Biblical Ignorance?

The crowd couldn’t!