Children's Easter Egg Hunt

Today is Easter!  He is Risen!

This week, on our block, there was a children's Easter Egg Hunt party.  The flier which was sent out to announce the party had, in large bold letters, "BYOB!" Then the anagram was explained: "Bring your own basket." Then, in parentheses: (Adults, bring your own bottle if you wish.)

Some Christians believe that the current observance of Easter in the West is totally pagan. What do bunny rabbits, baby chickens, and Easter Eggs have to do with the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead? Others believe that the secular trappings of Easter are harmless and a fun time for children. Regardless of what you think about the current Western observance of Easter, why would adults feel that they must bring alcoholic beverages to every gathering? Even to a children's party?

Christian Tattoos?

This is the well-known Serenity Prayer, first seen in a 1943 sermon by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971).

  

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
 The courage to change the things I can,
 And wisdom to know the difference.”

Here are photos of an unusual way of presenting the prayer.

http://creativefan.com/serenity-prayer-tattoo/

In the ancient world tattooing was a pagan religious practice but now, many people, including some Christians, see it is no more significant than piercing ears for earrings. Some see tattooing as a way to begin a conversation with non-Christians, in other words, an act of evangelism. Other Christians see tattooing as a horrible offense toward God.

Biblical references:

Leviticus 19:26-29

Romans 7:1-4, 14:23

1 Corinthians 6:12

I believe that tattooing falls into the category of meat offered up to idols.  We are not bound to the Old Testament Law for our salvation, but to the gift of Christ. On this point, Paul was willing to argue with and if necessary to break with Peter (Acts 15:1-5; Galatians 2:3-4,11-21). All things are lawful to us but not everything is profitable; permissible but not beneficial.

We should not become aligned with or comfortable with the shifting and vapid trends of our surrounding culture. Christians are to be a set apart holy people, noticeable because of our differences from the surrounding culture and how we love one another..   

The following links present a variety of opinions about the Christian and body-modifications. The articles run the gamut from hyper-fundamentalism to extreme permissive liberalism. All of them think that they are correct.

http://christianity.about.com/od/faqhelpdesk/f/tattoochristian.htm

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_tatoos.htm

http://carm.org/it-okay-christian-get-tattoo  (Read carefully the last two sentences of this web page!)

http://blogs.christianpost.com/confident-christian/is-getting-a-tattoo-a-sin-12619/

http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-tattoos.html  (This is always a good site for reasoned answers to biblical questions.)

http://www.raptureready.com/featured/schaefer/tattoo.html

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/should-christians-get-tattoos-what-does-the-bible-say/

http://www.biblebelievers.com/watkins_tattoos/bible.html

http://www.compellingtruth.org/tattoo-sin.html

http://www.todayschristianwoman.com/articles/2008/july/3.16.html

http://www.emilywierenga.com/on-christians-and-ink-why-i-believe-tattoos-are-not-a-sin/

http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/2014/05/christian-legalism-real-christians-can-get-tattoos/

http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/faq/should_christians_get_tattoos.shtml

http://www.born-again-christian.info/questions/answers.113.htm

The Church of Body Modification is a non Christian group which finds spirituality in piercing, cutting, and tattooing.

http://uscobm.com/news/back-where-we-started/

http://uscobm.com/statement-of-faith/

Written Georgian Was Created So That The Bible Could Be Read

Georgian is an ancient language spoken today by about 6 to 7 million people, with about 4 million of these in the country of Georgia.

There was no written form until 326 AD/CE, when the conversion of the Georgian aristocracy to Christianity led to a desire for a Georgian translation of the Bible. The written form of Georgian is similar in construction and function to Aramaic, the literary language of pagan Georgia.

The oldest surviving literary work in Georgian is the "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik" (Georgian: წამებაჲ წმიდისა შუშანიკისი დედოფლისაჲ, Tsamebay tsmidisa Shushanikisi dedoplisay) by Iakob Tsurtaveli, from the 5th century AD.

The Book of the Wars of the Lord

The Book of the Wars of the Lord is one of several otherwise unknown works mentioned in the Bible.  Gil Student, a Jewish scholar, in "On the Authorship of the Torah," at http://www.aishdas.org/toratemet/en_torah.html , says "... we have seen the talmudic and midrashic evidence that the forefathers, including Moshe, wrote books other than the Torah that were maintained and studied.  However, there is also much internal evidence that there were other books written."  The Book of the Wars of the Lord, quoted in Numbers 21:14-15, would be one of those books.

No one knows exactly what this book was but there have been many educated guesses: a collection of victory songs or poems; a book of Hebrew/ Israelite military history; another name for The Book of Jasher (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18); a collection of sacred poems; and a military instruction manual written by Moses for use by Joshua.

Non-canonical books such as The Wars of the Lord are mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments and Paul even quoted pagan poets to make his points.

There Already, Waiting to Explode

Sequoyah (b. Ca 1760 d. 1843) was a Cherokee silversmith who, although he didn’t speak a word of English, noticed that the white men communicated using “talking leaves.”  He thought that this was a wonderful idea and decided in about 1809 to create a way to make “talking leaves” for the Cherokee language.

His first attempt was a logographic writing system (as in Chinese or Japanese).  He quickly realized that there were far too many Cherokee words for this to be practical.

What Sequoyah finally decided to do, rather than copying the English language alphabetic system, was to use symbols for each sound used in the Cherokee language (a syllabic system).  This resulted in 85 characters which represented all the sounds.

The Cherokee nation had no tradition of a written language, and there was some initial resistance, but Sequiyah’s alphabet began to spread rapidly among an excited populace, and, by 1825, it was declared the official written language of the Cherokee nation.  In the span of sixteen years, the Cherokees went from being totally illiterate to almost 100% literate.  I believe that Sequoyah’s alphabet awakened something which was already there among the Cherokee people.  It just needed a spark to make it explode.

The same principle applies to the unevangelized.  Many are aware that something is missing, that there has to be more to life than just living a few years trying to be happy and staying out of trouble … and then dying.  They are like the Cherokee tribe, ready to explode.  They just need to hear, they need a spark.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.  Psalm 19:1-3 

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 

Paul Quoted Pagan Poets????????????????

Paul quoted pagan poets???????????????? Yes. He quoted the poets Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33), Aratus of Cilicia (Acts 17:28), and Epimenides of Knossos (Titus 1:12). He did this because he was intimately familiar with the intellectual debates of his day and was capable of using non-Christian sources to make his points. His use of the sources was not intended as an endorsement of everything else their authors said and wrote.

Modern Christians make a mistake if they "ghettoize" themselves, reading only Christian sources, hearing only Christian voices, insulating themselves from the rest of the world. We can''t go (Matthew 28:19) into the world, evangelizing the world, if we cocoon ourselves away from the world. We are to be "in the world but not of the world." (John 17:14-15; Romans 12:1-2)

Dispute Resolution Within the Church

Eddie Lee Long (b. 1953, North Carolina) is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia (USA).  Under his leadership since 1987, the church has grown from  a membership of 300 to 25,000.

Pastor Long has had civil (not criminal) lawsuits filed against him by several young men alleging that he used his influence as their pastor to seduce them into sexual relationships.  Whether or not the allegations are true, (and Pastor Long has not said "I didn't do it." but instead said "I am not that man,"); whether or not the men are colluding together to tap into Pastor Long's million$; none of this is proper.  Listen to what Paul had to say about taking a Christian brother to court before unbelievers.

“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.  I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?  But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.   Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather [suffer yourselves to] be defrauded?  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that [your] brethren.  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. “ 1 Corinthians 6: 1-11

Jesus himself told us how to go about the dispute resolution:

"If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. But if he doesn't listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven. Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."  Matthew 18:15-20

Only in Alabama!

I overheard this sentence at work as two co-workers walked past me:

"You got your Bible?  I'll look it up for you."

As they passed by, I heard another co-worker mutter under her breath:

"Uggh!  Only in Alabama!"

Christians really are different from them and they really do not understand.

Film Comment: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) is another in the immensely popular and immensely trite series about the coming of age of a young sorcerer, possibly the sorcerer. The stories in the series are filled with numerous and very obvious stereotypes. The content is appropriate for this forum because sorcery is a form of religion. (An aside: Yes, I do know the differences between the historical view of witchcraft and satanism, sorcery, Wicca, modern Satanism, and neo-paganism.)

As I was watching Order of the Phoenix I had a strong feeling of deja vu. I've seen this before. What I was seeing was a clearly discernable liberal or left wing message. The members of The Ministry of Magic are in denial about the return of the ultra-evil Lord Voldemort and interpret warnings of his return as attacks on their leadership. To squelch dissent, they send in a new representative, Dolores Jane Umbridge, to clamp down on the Hogwarts School. She is sweet and fuzzy on the outside but she clamps down on the students like the authoritarian bureaucrat she is. The Ministry is practicing "the politics of fear" and fails to see "the real threat."

This politicization of what is ostensibly a children's film is further shown in the name of Dolores Umbridge. "Umbrage" comes to us from Middle English by way of French,and, ultimately, from the Latin word "umbra" which means "shade" or "shadow." "To take umbrage" is to resent or be angered by some imagined insult. The idea which I believe is intended in Order of the Phoenix is somewhere along the lines of the Scandinavian perjorative "morkemann." (See my post for 24 October 2009 in the Labels List under the label: "morkemann." )