Test Your Knowledge

Are you a real Christian? Do you really know about the church? Test your knowledge with these 5 questions! Answers found below.


A missionary's worst enemy is:
a) Satan
b) The natives
c) Governmental bureaucracy
d) A church parking lot in America that needs to be paved

The Minister’s day off is generally:
a) Monday
b) Like any other day except he dresses more casually
c) Spent mowing, running errands, cleaning the house with wife
d) A myth

Preaching a series on the Holy Spirit will:
a) Lead to a revival in the church
b) Lead to thought-provoking dialogue on the topic
c) Lead to tongue-speaking
d) Lead to a moving van being parked in front of the parsonage

A sermon on Grace will:
a) Create a great appreciation for God
b) Cause the church to be more forgiving
c) Be forgotten by the Sunday evening service
d) Get the preacher “written up” in a brotherhood journal

A church service beginning on time is a sign that:
a) The congregation consists only of military families
b) A miracle has happened
c) The members are excited about worshipping God
d) Everyone forgot about Daylight Savings Time


Answers:
1. d; 2. d; 3. d; 4. d; 5. d

Making Sense out of Suffering

Here are some tidbits from my latest reading assignment. Peter Kreeft is the author.

"Solitude, the thing which ancient sages longed for as the greatest gift, is the very thing we give to our most desperate criminals as the greatest punishment we can imagine."

"...our faith is often a largely intellectual thing. We talk a good game of God, but really God makes a pretty unspectacular and non-total difference to our lives most of the time."

"We doubt. Doubt is glorious. Only one who can doubt, can believe..."

"Calvary is Judo. The enemy's own power is used to defeat him."

"The only hearts that do not break are the ones that are busily constructing little hells of loveless control, cocoons of safe, respectable selfishness to insulate themselves from the tidal waves of tears that come sooner or later."

"That is the deepest source of unbelief: not the intellect but the will."

"Paradoxically, the essence of suffering (death to self-will) can become its opposite (perfect joy) when it is undertaken freely for love of God."

There is a lot more where that came from. Keep in mind these are out of context. I only had to read 3 chapters, and don't even have the complete book, just fotocopies of these chapters.

The Trivialization of God

This book has been around for 10 years and I am just now finding out about it! It's a great book, so of course, it has a great subtitle:

"The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity".

The author is Donald W. McCullough. Click here to buy or find out more.

He talks about the false gods we have such as: god of my cause, god of my understanding, god of my experience, god of my comfort, god of my success, and the god of my nation. The last one will stir up some people but I think he expresses how I feel and didn't know how to put in words.

The section on Reverent Agnosticism is great. He points out the holiness/transcendence of God, which is the overall theme of the book. We (especially Christian folk) like to think we have God all figured out and have all the answers. The author states we must be aware of God's "wholly otherness" to fully appreciate and worship Him.


Some quotes:

"...love devoid of judgment is only watered-down kindness"

"Holiness, therefore, is not a passive state of being; holiness is an active fire of salvation."

"Reverence can be recovered only in repentance."

East vs West

Check out this article about the differences in East and West. Very informative. He suggests that the basic tension between Eastern and Western culture is not Religious or political as much as it is societal. The differences he points out existed in the days of Alexander the Great, before Islam or Christianity or Democracy.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2384603&page=1

Here is an excerpt:

The tribesman does not operate by a body of civil law but by a code of honor. If he receives a wrong, he does not seek redress. He wants revenge. The taking of revenge is a virtue in tribal eyes, called badal in the Pathan code of nangwali. A man who does not take revenge is not a man. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the sectarian militias of Iraq are not in the war business, they are in the revenge business. The revenge-seeker cannot be negotiated with because his intent is bound up with honor. It is an absolute.

NFL Theory of Relativity

Early weeks in the NFL (National Football League) are so misleading. One team pulverizes or shuts out another, we assume the winner is a powerhouse. Until, of course, we realize that the losing team we thought was so good, is actually over-rated and begins to lose more and more and play poorly each week. And the team that looked so strong was just beating up on over-rated, weak competition.

Is Baltimore really that good, or is Tampa Bay just struggling? Is Seattle suffering a post-Super Bowl letdown, or is Detroit a tough fight this year? Is New England starting to decline, or is Buffalo much improved?

As humans we compare, contrast, and judge without thinking. It affects us spiritually, too. We look at our brothers and sisters in Christ and have a subconscious pecking order. We compare ourselves to each other, instead of to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:12). We better be careful. If we compare ourselves to vague standards of what others are accomplishing, instead of fixing our eyes on Christ, we might be in danger. We might be over-rating ourselves. Or, as Paul puts it, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment" (Romans 12:3).

Good Book on the Trinity

Here are a couple of excerpts from Bruce Ware's book on the Trinity:

"Here in the Trinity....we see hierarchy without hubris, authority with no oppression, submission that is not servile, and love that pervades every aspect of the divine life. Unity and diversity, identity and distinction, sameness and difference, melody and harmony--these are qualities that mark the rich texture of the life of the one God who is three."

One of his 10 reasons to focus on the wonder of the Trinity...

"The doctrine of the Trinity...provides one of the most important and neglected patterns for how human life and human relationships are to be conducted."

The book is very readable for such a complex topic. It is full of Scriptures. It is very practical. You may not believe the first and third thing I write but check it out. It is only 6 chapters and 158 pages. The layout is very systematic and logical. It is inexpensive.

Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance
Bruce A. Ware
Crossway Books