I posted this on the church newsgroup last week:
It seems like lately we only ever hear about the bad stuff happening in the job market. Last night on here, I saw at least 3 posts about someone getting laid off. That, coupled with what the media is constantly saying, it appears that all we ever hear about is the bad news.
But, there is some good news. Obviously, none of this surprises God. He knew this was coming trillions of years ago, and He's not chewing His fists over the status of this nation's economy--and neither should we.
God has always supported us. I think about how chaotic the world would be if God didn't maintain control of it. For the most part, we have jobs already, which is more than some of the most impoverished places can say. For that we should be really grateful.
God may be using this time to "shuffle the deck"--shake up the population to get them in a prime position for spreading the Gospel even further. You hear about people one or two at a time being inserted into secular society and seriously leveraging people toward Christ, but with the moving and shaking going on in the job market, God might possibly be using this evil for good by shoehorning thousands of people in places where otherwise an opportunity wouldn't be present.
For those of us looking for jobs, I'd like to share a word picture. I play computer games, and if I have to kill monsters to get a certain kind of item, I find that 99 times out of 100 the monster drops something totally useless. But it's exciting, because every time that killing blow lands, I wonder, "Could this be it??" Usually it's something dumb--but that's okay because there are 99 other monsters left.
The same idea I carry into interviews. You might go to 100 interviews and bonk on 99 of them... but that last one that pays off is finally it. And as a bonus, while it seems like it's taking forever to find something else, it won't seem like it took as long when you're finally at the new job.
Also, this is prime opportunity for us to not put God in a box. As some of you know, both Charlotte and I are looking for something different job-wise. Lots of prayer has gone into this. The other day I received a note from a headhunter regarding a temporary gig for about 8-12 weeks. Here was my train of thought: Is it a job? Yes. Is it secure? Probably not, but you know what? God is in control. I can't cherry pick the opportunities because I don't see security in something lasting 8-12 weeks. I also shouldn't see security in any job because as we know too well, people get laid off sometimes, even in a "permanent" position.
I couldn't help but think this was how Abraham felt when the Lord told him to go to a country that He would talk about later. Didn't even give him a destination, He just said, "It's south." That's even LESS secure than anything we can face, and yet the Lord did some wonderful things with Abraham because of his faith in the Lord.
I heard a sermon one time about a guy equating God to a mapmaker. The theme was "Why would anyone want to march off their map?" Why would anyone want to trade what's comfortable, visible and traversable for something unknown, "out there" somewhere? There's only one reason why someone would want to do something and it's this: They've talked to the Mapmaker.
Folks, we know the Mapmaker. Yes it’s uncomfortable to walk off the map, but there comes a point where the only way to take the next step in your faith in Christ is to make the next step be off the map. The Lord’s not going to steer you wrong and He can put us in places so much better than anything we can decide for ourselves, because He has the kind of sight to know what’s best.
I don’t know if this spoke to anybody but it feels like I’m done. Hope everything is going well for everybody.
Love you all,
Michael Fritzius
Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Arguing Into The Kingdom
I have to give an apology.
For years I have been steeped in the idea that arguing one's beliefs are just part of Christian life. I come from a long line of debaters and can clarly remember the highlight of any family gathering being an argument of Some Kind was going to happen. Every time, without fail, there would be some kind of verbal brawl.
But I was convicted on the way home today. There was a program on the radio that shot right through me, and one of the things that really stuck out was when he said, "You can win the argument, but lose your audience."
I could argue about whatever, and it still wouldn't accomplish the goal I thought the arguing was meant for. There could be 100% of the facts on my side, and I could even possibly convince the other person I was right about my faith, and it still would not matter. That freshly-convinced person with all the head knowledge would still go to Hell.
Faith isn't a brain excercise, it's a heart issue, and I can't convince someone's heart to change. When I look in the Bible and see that Jesus never argued with anyone, just simply acted or quoted scripture, it hurts me. It hurts because now I realize that I haven't been representing Christ in this area of my life. It shows that my actions on this blog really is a poor witness, and when I go back and see that I've written this:
This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life.
And now I'm sitting here thinking, wow, what a great way for me to show what God's done in my life. By arguing. Instead of spending time coming up with actual USEFUL blog entries, that minister to Christians, or flesh out some other ideas about the Bible, I argue.
One thing a good friend uses during sermons is, "It's not about being right, it's about being rescued." I really never understood that as fully as I do now.
Nobody can be argued into God's Kingdom, and Christians aren't called to debate their beliefs.
Anonymous, I wish I could get across how sorry I am for fighting with you about beliefs. The truth is, unless God does the saving work in a heart, none of what I say matters. If I could change your mind, it wouldn't matter, because head knowledge isn't what God is looking for. My true goal in that was for you to know Christ, and I've failed at showing what He's even like. As I've said above, He didn't argue points, just acted to show His character.
For years I have been steeped in the idea that arguing one's beliefs are just part of Christian life. I come from a long line of debaters and can clarly remember the highlight of any family gathering being an argument of Some Kind was going to happen. Every time, without fail, there would be some kind of verbal brawl.
But I was convicted on the way home today. There was a program on the radio that shot right through me, and one of the things that really stuck out was when he said, "You can win the argument, but lose your audience."
I could argue about whatever, and it still wouldn't accomplish the goal I thought the arguing was meant for. There could be 100% of the facts on my side, and I could even possibly convince the other person I was right about my faith, and it still would not matter. That freshly-convinced person with all the head knowledge would still go to Hell.
Faith isn't a brain excercise, it's a heart issue, and I can't convince someone's heart to change. When I look in the Bible and see that Jesus never argued with anyone, just simply acted or quoted scripture, it hurts me. It hurts because now I realize that I haven't been representing Christ in this area of my life. It shows that my actions on this blog really is a poor witness, and when I go back and see that I've written this:
This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life.
And now I'm sitting here thinking, wow, what a great way for me to show what God's done in my life. By arguing. Instead of spending time coming up with actual USEFUL blog entries, that minister to Christians, or flesh out some other ideas about the Bible, I argue.
One thing a good friend uses during sermons is, "It's not about being right, it's about being rescued." I really never understood that as fully as I do now.
Nobody can be argued into God's Kingdom, and Christians aren't called to debate their beliefs.
Anonymous, I wish I could get across how sorry I am for fighting with you about beliefs. The truth is, unless God does the saving work in a heart, none of what I say matters. If I could change your mind, it wouldn't matter, because head knowledge isn't what God is looking for. My true goal in that was for you to know Christ, and I've failed at showing what He's even like. As I've said above, He didn't argue points, just acted to show His character.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wax On, Wax Off
If you've seen "The Karate Kid", you know about Mr. Miyagi.
If you're not familiar with this guy, allow me to explain.
In "The Karate Kid", a young guy is troubled by getting picked on, so he approaches Mr. Miyagi about teaching him some karate. Instead of karate though, he gets taught how to "sand the floor", "paint the fence" and waxing the car, using the elusive "wax-on wax-off" technique. Further, when the kid tries taking shortcuts to do the job faster, Mr. Miyagi comes out and corrects him. One scene showed the kid (Daniel) sanding the deck until night, and instead of using the two hand-sanders, he was using both hands on one. Mr. Miyagi called him on it, showing him the right way yet again--do a few circles with the left, and a few with the right. Left-a circle, Right-a circle. Finally the kid gets upset and complains that all he's doing is being used for odd jobs... and it turns out that the way the jobs were done were training him for karate. The same weird, unefficient moves that were used in sanding the floor, painting the fence and waxing the car were ideal for defending against punches and kicks.
Today I'd like to talk about how God sometimes plays the Mr. Miyagi card.
We're human. Sometimes we take shortcuts in life. The things we used to do the "right way" evolve into doing things the "better way"... better because the job the procedure is applied to gets done faster, or with less energy.
God sometimes gives us stuff to do, not just to keep us busy, but to train us for something else later on. There is a "better way" that we can do it--a way that makes it easier on us--but are we defrauding ourselves out of bigger lessons that could be learned by doing it the right way? How often do we think that God is focusing on the job at hand, when He's really not, and we concern ourselves with getting the job done well?
I just got done reading 1 Samuel 13, and the part where Saul chose to make the sacrifice instead of waiting on Samuel really stands out. Samuel was the one that was supposed to do the sacrifices, but Saul chose to do it when Samuel hadn't shown up by the proper time. Saul's reasoning was that the sacrifice needed to be done so that his army would defeat the Philistines, and Samuel wasn't there, so the next best thing was to just do it himself. Instead of using biblical ethics, he used situational ethics.
That wasn't the proper response. Putting that rule in place wasn't for Samuel's job security, it was for people to learn to trust and wait on the Lord. Samuel was God's prophet, so if he really needed to be there at a particular time, God would get him there on time. Saul's reaction to this really revealed what was in his heart. When things got dicey, Saul trusted in himself, not in the Lord.
So, my point is, think about what things are going on it your life that God's given you to do. What kind of work is going on inside you that seems indirectly related to the job? Don't short yourself by doing things the quick way if the right way nets you more growth in your faith in the Lord.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Behind the Scenes 3
Received another comment from Anonymous:
Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that? There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads. If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it. Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about. Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.
Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that?
You're not getting what I'm saying here. Neither of our opinions have any effect on whether what I'm saying is true.
There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads.
If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it.
I never said it was unknowable.
Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...
I was thinking sarcastically along the lines of Hitler and Stalin...
you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about.
All I did was state a two-variable problem: Either this is true or false, and what would be the possible reactions to it? Even looking at it from a utilitarian point of view, the choice is obvious.
Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.
Anon, I haven't made fun of you, or called you names on your blog, so don't track mud through mine, ok? I'm not required to sit here and reason with you. You and I have got two totally different ideas on what's true and what's false.
I'm required to witness what's happened to me, to people around me. That's why it's called "witnessing"--it's because I was there when it happened, and I was who it happened to. You weren't there. So stating that what I'm saying is false because it's never happened for you is moot. Stating that it's false because you don't believe in God is moot. And really, if I said it's true
because I believe in it, that would be moot.
We're going to round and round on this because I'm talking about absolute truth, not this "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me," stuff. This is the kind of real truth that exists regardless of if everybody believes it's false. It's true... and it doesn't care what any of us think.
This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life. You can say anything you want about how I'm deluding myself, or how I'm blinding myself to the truth, but everything you're saying about it goes against Truth. That doesn't make you differently-opinioned, it makes you wrong.
There. I said it.
I'm sorry that I can't pull God out of my back pocket and say, "Here's God. He's real. Repent and believe." The only thing I have for you is my witness of what God's done in my life. I didn't choose for it to happen. I didn't wake up one day and say, "It's a slow day, I think I'll get saved." It wasn't on my own terms. Most Sundays I'd go to church and sit under preaching, and come
home and sin dozens of ways and none of it would bother me. There was a little bit of niggling in the back of my mind about how I was living my life, but I could squash that down easily enough and keep going. I also made sure to pray for forgiveness so I could live like I had a license to sin.
One day though, I remember looking in the mirror and suddenly I realized what a mess my life was. No lead-up to this point, just WHAM, I was convicted. It wasn't my timing, and up to then, teachings just kind of slid over my head. I cannot explain why it happened when it did other than it being supernatural.
Such a radical change has happened in my life, and already I know you might say it's just a bunch of psychological misfirings or mental conditioning, but I'll explain anyway. I wish you had been my right-hand man five years ago, going with me everywhere I went and doing everything I did. If you were, you'd see how different things are now.
Everything about me has changed.
The best way I can describe it is, I'm a changed person inside and out. What's more, I can look back and compare to how I USED to act, and what my responses USED to be to certain things, and it's totally the opposite. My motives are different. Now, everything I do is for God's glory. I belong to the Lord. I use the word "belong" because the evidence of what He's done is so clear to me that it's like looking down and seeing a brand on my skin. There is no doubt.
Anon, I've given you some of my background in the past, back when we first met. You know that my line of work requires some intelligence. Does it even seem possible that I could switch it off in favor of believing in some cosmic vending machine?
Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that? There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads. If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it. Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about. Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.
Your opinion does not change the fact the invisible fairies are true either. What kind of argument is that?
You're not getting what I'm saying here. Neither of our opinions have any effect on whether what I'm saying is true.
There are books dedicated to the question of where "morals" and a sense of right and wrong come from. Simple answer, if society doesn't figure out that lying and throwing rocks aren't productive, its a society that doesn't last long. When you treat people nicely, you feel nice as well. It isn't some magical being who channeling rules into our heads.
If what your talking about is truly unknowable and you concede that point, then you still remain ignorant in your description of it.
I never said it was unknowable.
Merely asking the question doesn't get you off the hook. Atheists who haven't moved things along? Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Dawkins, Einstein...
I was thinking sarcastically along the lines of Hitler and Stalin...
you've reduced this to name dropping because of your ignorance? The fact that you end on the absolute ridiculous Pascal's Wager only shows just how little you know what your talking about.
All I did was state a two-variable problem: Either this is true or false, and what would be the possible reactions to it? Even looking at it from a utilitarian point of view, the choice is obvious.
Didn't you know the only people god lets into heaven are the people who have the gull to disbelieve in him? Are you willing to gamble? Understand how ridiculous you sound, then try again.
Anon, I haven't made fun of you, or called you names on your blog, so don't track mud through mine, ok? I'm not required to sit here and reason with you. You and I have got two totally different ideas on what's true and what's false.
I'm required to witness what's happened to me, to people around me. That's why it's called "witnessing"--it's because I was there when it happened, and I was who it happened to. You weren't there. So stating that what I'm saying is false because it's never happened for you is moot. Stating that it's false because you don't believe in God is moot. And really, if I said it's true
because I believe in it, that would be moot.
We're going to round and round on this because I'm talking about absolute truth, not this "It may be true for you, but it's not true for me," stuff. This is the kind of real truth that exists regardless of if everybody believes it's false. It's true... and it doesn't care what any of us think.
This whole blog, including the arguments we have, is meant as a witness for what God's done in my life. You can say anything you want about how I'm deluding myself, or how I'm blinding myself to the truth, but everything you're saying about it goes against Truth. That doesn't make you differently-opinioned, it makes you wrong.
There. I said it.
I'm sorry that I can't pull God out of my back pocket and say, "Here's God. He's real. Repent and believe." The only thing I have for you is my witness of what God's done in my life. I didn't choose for it to happen. I didn't wake up one day and say, "It's a slow day, I think I'll get saved." It wasn't on my own terms. Most Sundays I'd go to church and sit under preaching, and come
home and sin dozens of ways and none of it would bother me. There was a little bit of niggling in the back of my mind about how I was living my life, but I could squash that down easily enough and keep going. I also made sure to pray for forgiveness so I could live like I had a license to sin.
One day though, I remember looking in the mirror and suddenly I realized what a mess my life was. No lead-up to this point, just WHAM, I was convicted. It wasn't my timing, and up to then, teachings just kind of slid over my head. I cannot explain why it happened when it did other than it being supernatural.
Such a radical change has happened in my life, and already I know you might say it's just a bunch of psychological misfirings or mental conditioning, but I'll explain anyway. I wish you had been my right-hand man five years ago, going with me everywhere I went and doing everything I did. If you were, you'd see how different things are now.
Everything about me has changed.
The best way I can describe it is, I'm a changed person inside and out. What's more, I can look back and compare to how I USED to act, and what my responses USED to be to certain things, and it's totally the opposite. My motives are different. Now, everything I do is for God's glory. I belong to the Lord. I use the word "belong" because the evidence of what He's done is so clear to me that it's like looking down and seeing a brand on my skin. There is no doubt.
Anon, I've given you some of my background in the past, back when we first met. You know that my line of work requires some intelligence. Does it even seem possible that I could switch it off in favor of believing in some cosmic vending machine?
Behind the Scenes No. 2a
Received a comment from someone curious about the goings-on at camp:
I read the blog "The Camps, and a Prayer Request" and then I read the comment posted by anonymous. Wow! I don't think two people could have beliefs/opinions any different than these two. I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there? Does God really want to send everyone to hell? Were the kids hyped up about what they heard, forced or not? How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?
I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there?
The kids and staff were sent rules and schedule and what's going to happen at the camp. Everybody knew way ahead of time that coming to the camp means they would hear some preaching. We did keep a schedule on when things happened. They weren't forced though, and many stayed around in small groups discussing what they'd just heard.
Does God really want to send everyone to hell?
Of course not. This is why He sent Jesus for us to take the punishment on His behalf. Up until Jesus' crucifixion, people were responsible for providing for their own sacrifices. The reason for this is that God told the people these sacrifices were just a shadow of a perfect Sacrifice that would come later on. They were told to excercise faith in God's promise, that it would be fulfilled, and if they did their sins would be forgiven. Jesus was that perfect Sacrifice.
How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?
If you're looking for a particular type of passage, a Nave's Topical Bible should help. Verses and chapters can be found based on subject matter. If you're looking for help, and you're not a Christian, please don't waste time. The Bible says that if you seek after God with all your heart, soul and mind, He will be found. If you have a healthy fear of Hell then I would say you're probably pointed in the right direction.
Hope this helped.
I read the blog "The Camps, and a Prayer Request" and then I read the comment posted by anonymous. Wow! I don't think two people could have beliefs/opinions any different than these two. I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there? Does God really want to send everyone to hell? Were the kids hyped up about what they heard, forced or not? How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?
I'm curious...did the kids have to be forced to sit and listen to the preaching or were they there because they wanted to be there?
The kids and staff were sent rules and schedule and what's going to happen at the camp. Everybody knew way ahead of time that coming to the camp means they would hear some preaching. We did keep a schedule on when things happened. They weren't forced though, and many stayed around in small groups discussing what they'd just heard.
Does God really want to send everyone to hell?
Of course not. This is why He sent Jesus for us to take the punishment on His behalf. Up until Jesus' crucifixion, people were responsible for providing for their own sacrifices. The reason for this is that God told the people these sacrifices were just a shadow of a perfect Sacrifice that would come later on. They were told to excercise faith in God's promise, that it would be fulfilled, and if they did their sins would be forgiven. Jesus was that perfect Sacrifice.
How do people know where to find a passage in the Bible that suits their situation? Where do I turn to find help?
If you're looking for a particular type of passage, a Nave's Topical Bible should help. Verses and chapters can be found based on subject matter. If you're looking for help, and you're not a Christian, please don't waste time. The Bible says that if you seek after God with all your heart, soul and mind, He will be found. If you have a healthy fear of Hell then I would say you're probably pointed in the right direction.
Hope this helped.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Behind The Scenes No. 2
Welcome to another edition of Behind The Scenes. I suspect the next comment is from someone who visits this page regularly. So here's his comment, and here's my reply:
Of course they "can't help" but talk about god when the idea is unceasingly shoved down their subjective little throats. You people are useless. Spend time at a food shelter or something, stop sitting around pretending the voices in your head are divine. Grow up and be a man and forgo this imaginary friend that who's sadistic desires would see you burn in hell for eternity. I wish people like you would maybe read history books or study something productive so we can maybe cure cancer or not lose ground to China and India. No, lets all get into a hyped up hysteria induced coma and and smile as the drug slowly runs through our veins. You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know. You lie to children and yourselves about what is happening in your life. It's sickening. You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus. You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against. You deny thousands of years of scientific understanding, of pure human struggle for understanding, and shit on it when you worship your own mental impediments. It is because of people like you that I have lost any real hope in our species to last indefinitely. You will forever be responsible for perpetuating ideals and lies that clog men's minds and retard progress. I don't care how good believe this crap makes you feel. I don't care how much you believe its real. You are in denial, you need help and its not going to be from an invisible sky daddy.
Anonymous,
Why do you think that personal attacks are going to have any effect on me?
Where else but in the realm of persecuting Christianity can one claim that “I don’t see this, therefore it’s false”? Your opinion about anything I write here has no bearing on whether it’s true or not. Do you understand what I’m saying? Stop spewing out these half-baked remarks, and putting words in my mouth, and actually listen to what Christians truly believe. I’m afraid the only exposure you’ve had are the pinatas that the media pundits put up for ridicule. Allow me to set the record straight.
You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus.
This is news to me. I’m fully aware of Hammurabi’s Code that would show that people had a sense of right and wrong way before Jesus showed up in the New Testament.
Where do you think the ideas of right and wrong even came from? Do any other holy books explain the origin of these concepts?
You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know.
How could you possibly know if I’m lying if what I say is truly unknowable?
You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against.
You sound just like the complainers talked about in Luke 7:33-34. You’re not happy with someone just giving you a Bible, and you decry anybody who dares target your accusations with specific scripture. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
To sum things up:
Basically you’re calling me blind to some kind of “truth” when I claim to see something you can’t see. You claim I’m lying about something that YOU can’t see, therefore I must be the one that’s wrong. Give me a break.
You won’t actually deal with what I’m saying, instead accusing me of being some short-sighted bigot, and then you fill up my blog with nothing but opinion about what you see in your limited view of Christianity.
I’m sorry you think that we’re slowing people down, but last I checked, I just can’t find any examples of atheists who have moved things along.
The problem here is that you cannot understand spiritual things because you are spiritually dead. The Bible describes this condition. And again, I can’t say this enough--your opinion does not matter when it comes to the truth.
God has made Himself very available. You might say He doesn’t exist, but can you know that for sure, or is that more opinion? Have you even tried looking, or is this just wishful thinking? I just can’t get over how foolish that argument sounds about claiming something isn’t there because you can’t see it, but never checking to see if your eyes are even working properly.
You don’t like the idea of there being a God that will hold you accountable for your life. Every day you live without Jesus is one more day that God’s wrath piles up a little more. I don’t know how you expect to stand up against the Creator of the universe when He hauls out this laundry list of offences that you don’t care about right now. He’s not some angry little kid throwing a temper tantrum. He is the most high Judge you’ll ever face, with a standard of holiness NONE of us can measure up to. There are no other gods to run to, and there is nowhere to hide. He’s the only game in town. He’s God. He is infinitely holy. He doesn’t answer to you. He made you for His glory, not yours. Claiming ignorance will not help since you already know the difference between right and wrong.
So what are you going to do? Are you actually going to do something about how much trouble you’re in, or are you going to risk everything on the dumbest gamble of your entire life?
Of course they "can't help" but talk about god when the idea is unceasingly shoved down their subjective little throats. You people are useless. Spend time at a food shelter or something, stop sitting around pretending the voices in your head are divine. Grow up and be a man and forgo this imaginary friend that who's sadistic desires would see you burn in hell for eternity. I wish people like you would maybe read history books or study something productive so we can maybe cure cancer or not lose ground to China and India. No, lets all get into a hyped up hysteria induced coma and and smile as the drug slowly runs through our veins. You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know. You lie to children and yourselves about what is happening in your life. It's sickening. You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus. You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against. You deny thousands of years of scientific understanding, of pure human struggle for understanding, and shit on it when you worship your own mental impediments. It is because of people like you that I have lost any real hope in our species to last indefinitely. You will forever be responsible for perpetuating ideals and lies that clog men's minds and retard progress. I don't care how good believe this crap makes you feel. I don't care how much you believe its real. You are in denial, you need help and its not going to be from an invisible sky daddy.
Anonymous,
Why do you think that personal attacks are going to have any effect on me?
Where else but in the realm of persecuting Christianity can one claim that “I don’t see this, therefore it’s false”? Your opinion about anything I write here has no bearing on whether it’s true or not. Do you understand what I’m saying? Stop spewing out these half-baked remarks, and putting words in my mouth, and actually listen to what Christians truly believe. I’m afraid the only exposure you’ve had are the pinatas that the media pundits put up for ridicule. Allow me to set the record straight.
You pretend like no other cultures existed with any sense of right or wrong before Jesus.
This is news to me. I’m fully aware of Hammurabi’s Code that would show that people had a sense of right and wrong way before Jesus showed up in the New Testament.
Where do you think the ideas of right and wrong even came from? Do any other holy books explain the origin of these concepts?
You lie and pretend to know anything about something allegedly outside of what it is possible to know.
How could you possibly know if I’m lying if what I say is truly unknowable?
You pretend like your "perfect bible" makes any sense when your just as quick to pick and choose which passages best suit your needs for the time against any atheist you'd levy such a charge against.
You sound just like the complainers talked about in Luke 7:33-34. You’re not happy with someone just giving you a Bible, and you decry anybody who dares target your accusations with specific scripture. I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
To sum things up:
Basically you’re calling me blind to some kind of “truth” when I claim to see something you can’t see. You claim I’m lying about something that YOU can’t see, therefore I must be the one that’s wrong. Give me a break.
You won’t actually deal with what I’m saying, instead accusing me of being some short-sighted bigot, and then you fill up my blog with nothing but opinion about what you see in your limited view of Christianity.
I’m sorry you think that we’re slowing people down, but last I checked, I just can’t find any examples of atheists who have moved things along.
The problem here is that you cannot understand spiritual things because you are spiritually dead. The Bible describes this condition. And again, I can’t say this enough--your opinion does not matter when it comes to the truth.
God has made Himself very available. You might say He doesn’t exist, but can you know that for sure, or is that more opinion? Have you even tried looking, or is this just wishful thinking? I just can’t get over how foolish that argument sounds about claiming something isn’t there because you can’t see it, but never checking to see if your eyes are even working properly.
You don’t like the idea of there being a God that will hold you accountable for your life. Every day you live without Jesus is one more day that God’s wrath piles up a little more. I don’t know how you expect to stand up against the Creator of the universe when He hauls out this laundry list of offences that you don’t care about right now. He’s not some angry little kid throwing a temper tantrum. He is the most high Judge you’ll ever face, with a standard of holiness NONE of us can measure up to. There are no other gods to run to, and there is nowhere to hide. He’s the only game in town. He’s God. He is infinitely holy. He doesn’t answer to you. He made you for His glory, not yours. Claiming ignorance will not help since you already know the difference between right and wrong.
So what are you going to do? Are you actually going to do something about how much trouble you’re in, or are you going to risk everything on the dumbest gamble of your entire life?
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Camps, and a Prayer Request
Long time no see. Down to business.
CAMP NUMBER ONE!
Two weeks ago, there was a Grace Camp Meeting at Rockport Baptist Church which featured a number of great speakers. I really hope these guys preach this hard all the time, because I know that if I were preaching at a church, I'd be taking the street-sweeper approach, being as true to the Bible as I could be, but not worrying about opinions :) Just like Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, the message brought by God, (and ideally, by the people preaching it) shouldn't bring peace, but a sword.
There were a number of people who had to take a startling look at their own lives and realize they aren't as safe as they thought they were. Can I make this clear? We should not assume we are as safe as we are if our faith is based on an assumption other than what Christ did for us. This message brought a sword to what they were basing their faith on instead of bringing them peace about some "decision" they made.
And there was such a variety of sermons, all different topics, the whole thing was just like a taste of Heaven. So awesome. The fellowship was intense, we sat around discussing what we heard, and everything just seemed to be so God-focused. I'm just sorry I can't remember more because the details are fuzzy.
All the sermons (along with others that we post from a church normally) can be found at SermonAudio I've had an account with them for forever, and I don't know if hoops are to be jumped through. If you can't easily get an account and download stuff, let me know and I'd be happy to post them up on here.
CAMP NUMBER TWO!
The other camp, which is not so fuzzy because we just got back from it two days ago, was a youth camp out at Bates Creek. This was the second time I've ever been to Bates Creek, and it's with a bunch of people who grew up there for the most part.
I'm used to the kind of camps that focus more on activities than study and worship. The worship was like an afterthought put there by people who suddenly realized, "Oh. That's right, this is a church camp. We should talk about God or something."
And I feel bad for saying that, because in all probability, if they had a sample of what it was like at THIS camp, they probably would have structured it differently. But many churches seem to flock together on how they organize stuff, and this was at a time when packages and programs were what was being used. I remember at K-thru-six camp, they always had some kind of theme that the skits and activities centered around. I mean seriously, it came in a kit. A box, ok? And you could find it at a Christian bookstore. The kit was the size of a suitcase and in it, you found all the ideas you wish you had about how to keep kids distracted during a church camp. Youth camp wasn't much different. It just had loud concerts and the sermons were about topics geared toward that age bracket instead of the overall goal of learning more about God.
You want to know what kind of program we had for this camp? We had preachers preach. People brought their skillsets and used them for the glory of God and for service. One guy works at Starbucks and he brought out all his coffee paraphernalia and brewed coffee for people. We had people who were called "Ninjas" whose sole purpose was to serve and not draw focus to themselves. The sound guy brought his skills, and I'm glad, because I didn't know a thing about wiring up the sound in the tabernacle. There were fierce 3 on 3 basketball games and muddy volleyball to be had. The cooks made good food.
The main difference here was that, with kids at the first camp, their goal was to go to camp, get away from the folks for awhile, and have some fun. They got it. Those same kind of kids came to our camp, and instead of the focus being the fun, they found God waiting. And then they had better fun.
The last session, Aaron got up and asked if anyone had anything to say before we left. I came down front and spoke, and one thing I noticed was that I saw a lot of smiling faces. I mean tons. These are the kids in the age group whose cliche thing is not showing much emotion, just kind of mumble-grumbling along, not really caring. Apathy. But I saw smiles. And they weren't smiling because we'd gotten them high emotionally--some hard stuff was preached and it really turned heads the first night--this was solid smiling. I told them, "You all have learned some heavy stuff, and you'll be going back to school and home and to friends and talking about what you learned." For the hecklers on this blog, I want to point out that it's not because we made this into some kind of "Jesus Camp", but because what they learned, they can't HELP but to talk about.
The first night there, Scott preached a sermon. My wife was a "mole" in the audience (read: group leader) and she told me later on that a lot of kids around here were being really disrespectful until about a fourth of the way into the lesson. Then they totally got caught by what he was saying.
Afterwards, a young guy from Grubville was coming up and just started talking to me (his group was in the same cabin as ours) and was just BEAMING with CONFUSION or SOMETHING. And I said to him, I said, "Do you need to have a sit-down or something?" and he's like, "I don't know!" What he'd heard was so unexpected and true that he didn't know how to process it. But he knew he'd heard good stuff.
Before we had the first session we had a small group time with the kids in the cabins. Basically just asking a few questions about what they thought they'd expect, what their backgrounds were, their hobbies, etc. Also we asked a few questions about the whole subject of the weekend, which was "Don't Waste Your Life" (a book by John Piper). Not many deep answers were given. After the first session, something happened and people were just bursting with answers and questions they never knew they had. Charlotte's cabin had used almost ALL of the 2-hour break between a session and lunch just to discuss what they'd heard.
The whole weekend was cold and wet, and the tabernacle we were in doesn't have any walls--just a roof. So wind was whistling through constantly. Most of the camp was muddy and wet. We almost lost a van in the swamp. Kids looked like giant mudballs. the preaching was hard material. And after all that, at the front of the group, they were smiling.
That's what I'm talking about. Praise the Lord.
PRAYER REQUEST...
I don't get on here enough and flesh out ideas that I get. I really do have a passion for blogging, and you have no idea how many things pop in my head and I think, "I should put that on the blog..." and then never do. I almost forgot my username and password to even get on here today. Please pray that I can make time to blog in the future.
Take care,
CAMP NUMBER ONE!
Two weeks ago, there was a Grace Camp Meeting at Rockport Baptist Church which featured a number of great speakers. I really hope these guys preach this hard all the time, because I know that if I were preaching at a church, I'd be taking the street-sweeper approach, being as true to the Bible as I could be, but not worrying about opinions :) Just like Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, the message brought by God, (and ideally, by the people preaching it) shouldn't bring peace, but a sword.
There were a number of people who had to take a startling look at their own lives and realize they aren't as safe as they thought they were. Can I make this clear? We should not assume we are as safe as we are if our faith is based on an assumption other than what Christ did for us. This message brought a sword to what they were basing their faith on instead of bringing them peace about some "decision" they made.
And there was such a variety of sermons, all different topics, the whole thing was just like a taste of Heaven. So awesome. The fellowship was intense, we sat around discussing what we heard, and everything just seemed to be so God-focused. I'm just sorry I can't remember more because the details are fuzzy.
All the sermons (along with others that we post from a church normally) can be found at SermonAudio I've had an account with them for forever, and I don't know if hoops are to be jumped through. If you can't easily get an account and download stuff, let me know and I'd be happy to post them up on here.
CAMP NUMBER TWO!
The other camp, which is not so fuzzy because we just got back from it two days ago, was a youth camp out at Bates Creek. This was the second time I've ever been to Bates Creek, and it's with a bunch of people who grew up there for the most part.
I'm used to the kind of camps that focus more on activities than study and worship. The worship was like an afterthought put there by people who suddenly realized, "Oh. That's right, this is a church camp. We should talk about God or something."
And I feel bad for saying that, because in all probability, if they had a sample of what it was like at THIS camp, they probably would have structured it differently. But many churches seem to flock together on how they organize stuff, and this was at a time when packages and programs were what was being used. I remember at K-thru-six camp, they always had some kind of theme that the skits and activities centered around. I mean seriously, it came in a kit. A box, ok? And you could find it at a Christian bookstore. The kit was the size of a suitcase and in it, you found all the ideas you wish you had about how to keep kids distracted during a church camp. Youth camp wasn't much different. It just had loud concerts and the sermons were about topics geared toward that age bracket instead of the overall goal of learning more about God.
You want to know what kind of program we had for this camp? We had preachers preach. People brought their skillsets and used them for the glory of God and for service. One guy works at Starbucks and he brought out all his coffee paraphernalia and brewed coffee for people. We had people who were called "Ninjas" whose sole purpose was to serve and not draw focus to themselves. The sound guy brought his skills, and I'm glad, because I didn't know a thing about wiring up the sound in the tabernacle. There were fierce 3 on 3 basketball games and muddy volleyball to be had. The cooks made good food.
The main difference here was that, with kids at the first camp, their goal was to go to camp, get away from the folks for awhile, and have some fun. They got it. Those same kind of kids came to our camp, and instead of the focus being the fun, they found God waiting. And then they had better fun.
The last session, Aaron got up and asked if anyone had anything to say before we left. I came down front and spoke, and one thing I noticed was that I saw a lot of smiling faces. I mean tons. These are the kids in the age group whose cliche thing is not showing much emotion, just kind of mumble-grumbling along, not really caring. Apathy. But I saw smiles. And they weren't smiling because we'd gotten them high emotionally--some hard stuff was preached and it really turned heads the first night--this was solid smiling. I told them, "You all have learned some heavy stuff, and you'll be going back to school and home and to friends and talking about what you learned." For the hecklers on this blog, I want to point out that it's not because we made this into some kind of "Jesus Camp", but because what they learned, they can't HELP but to talk about.
The first night there, Scott preached a sermon. My wife was a "mole" in the audience (read: group leader) and she told me later on that a lot of kids around here were being really disrespectful until about a fourth of the way into the lesson. Then they totally got caught by what he was saying.
Afterwards, a young guy from Grubville was coming up and just started talking to me (his group was in the same cabin as ours) and was just BEAMING with CONFUSION or SOMETHING. And I said to him, I said, "Do you need to have a sit-down or something?" and he's like, "I don't know!" What he'd heard was so unexpected and true that he didn't know how to process it. But he knew he'd heard good stuff.
Before we had the first session we had a small group time with the kids in the cabins. Basically just asking a few questions about what they thought they'd expect, what their backgrounds were, their hobbies, etc. Also we asked a few questions about the whole subject of the weekend, which was "Don't Waste Your Life" (a book by John Piper). Not many deep answers were given. After the first session, something happened and people were just bursting with answers and questions they never knew they had. Charlotte's cabin had used almost ALL of the 2-hour break between a session and lunch just to discuss what they'd heard.
The whole weekend was cold and wet, and the tabernacle we were in doesn't have any walls--just a roof. So wind was whistling through constantly. Most of the camp was muddy and wet. We almost lost a van in the swamp. Kids looked like giant mudballs. the preaching was hard material. And after all that, at the front of the group, they were smiling.
That's what I'm talking about. Praise the Lord.
PRAYER REQUEST...
I don't get on here enough and flesh out ideas that I get. I really do have a passion for blogging, and you have no idea how many things pop in my head and I think, "I should put that on the blog..." and then never do. I almost forgot my username and password to even get on here today. Please pray that I can make time to blog in the future.
Take care,
Monday, January 14, 2008
Divide and Conquer
"You're Baptist and happen to be a Christian. I'm a Christian and happen to go to a Baptist church."
I heard this from my father-in-law yesterday regarding a thought he had about churches in this region.
Too often, we tend to want to label ourselves in favor of packaging our beliefs in a quick way so we, in a sense, give a mini-biography about our faith. In just the realm of Baptists, there are Southern, Reformed, Freewill, tons of others. Living on the fringe of the Bible Belt here, you can't throw a rock without hitting a church of some kind.
I'm starting to find it a bit distasteful that people, including myself, will tend to congregate with people of like beliefs. The funny thing is, I know that in my church of about 200 people, there is not a pair of people with the same exact theology as another person.
So why do we do it? My theory is that it's just sin at work dividing people into ever smaller groups.
The problem with this is that people will not get out of their little boxes and challenge themselves with "new" ideas about the Bible because they are surrounded with a group of people who believe a certain way by default--or they just won't be introduced to anything new. I really think that this is the reason we don't see as many revivals or reformations amongst us. The last time I heard of a huge change in ideology was started by a guy who's dead now.
We divide ourselves too much. The result of being divided into smaller and smaller groups is that Satan will pick them off with false truths and bend their learning slightly, and over time they will be so far off the mark that it's ridiculous.
I mean, how many times have we read that living the Christian life is like a war? It's not smart to take a tiny group of people away from a whole platoon of soldiers to do their own thing because they think they have it right is it? They'll most likely get blown into chunky bits because a small group is easier to take out than a bigger one.
So why treat church any differently? We shouldn't. Here's a list of things people have divided over that I can think of off the top of my head:
Music--hymns vs. contemporary; drums or no drums; too noisy, not loud enough
Hand raising--OMG YOU CHARISMATIC!!!11 vs. It doesn't bother me
Shouting during worship--Everybody's going to start doing it vs. Who Cares
This stuff isn't really worth dividing over, because that's the only thing it can do IS divide. What does Paul say about this kind of stuff? Basically that if something you're doing is offending a brother, cease doing it. It's implied that you shouldn't be grumbling about ceasing. But what's the ultimate goal here? It's unity, right? So wouldn't the ultimate goal be to just not get upset at all about this kind of stuff, to realize that these are really fringe issues (if they're even issues at all) and that it's MUCH more important to just maintain unity?
I don't know. I really hope that this rambling of mine is making some sense because I have what feels like an idea what looks like a plate of spaghetti that can't be untangled. I'm trying to just get across the idea of NOT dividing over minor issues.
I heard this from my father-in-law yesterday regarding a thought he had about churches in this region.
Too often, we tend to want to label ourselves in favor of packaging our beliefs in a quick way so we, in a sense, give a mini-biography about our faith. In just the realm of Baptists, there are Southern, Reformed, Freewill, tons of others. Living on the fringe of the Bible Belt here, you can't throw a rock without hitting a church of some kind.
I'm starting to find it a bit distasteful that people, including myself, will tend to congregate with people of like beliefs. The funny thing is, I know that in my church of about 200 people, there is not a pair of people with the same exact theology as another person.
So why do we do it? My theory is that it's just sin at work dividing people into ever smaller groups.
The problem with this is that people will not get out of their little boxes and challenge themselves with "new" ideas about the Bible because they are surrounded with a group of people who believe a certain way by default--or they just won't be introduced to anything new. I really think that this is the reason we don't see as many revivals or reformations amongst us. The last time I heard of a huge change in ideology was started by a guy who's dead now.
We divide ourselves too much. The result of being divided into smaller and smaller groups is that Satan will pick them off with false truths and bend their learning slightly, and over time they will be so far off the mark that it's ridiculous.
I mean, how many times have we read that living the Christian life is like a war? It's not smart to take a tiny group of people away from a whole platoon of soldiers to do their own thing because they think they have it right is it? They'll most likely get blown into chunky bits because a small group is easier to take out than a bigger one.
So why treat church any differently? We shouldn't. Here's a list of things people have divided over that I can think of off the top of my head:
Music--hymns vs. contemporary; drums or no drums; too noisy, not loud enough
Hand raising--OMG YOU CHARISMATIC!!!11 vs. It doesn't bother me
Shouting during worship--Everybody's going to start doing it vs. Who Cares
This stuff isn't really worth dividing over, because that's the only thing it can do IS divide. What does Paul say about this kind of stuff? Basically that if something you're doing is offending a brother, cease doing it. It's implied that you shouldn't be grumbling about ceasing. But what's the ultimate goal here? It's unity, right? So wouldn't the ultimate goal be to just not get upset at all about this kind of stuff, to realize that these are really fringe issues (if they're even issues at all) and that it's MUCH more important to just maintain unity?
I don't know. I really hope that this rambling of mine is making some sense because I have what feels like an idea what looks like a plate of spaghetti that can't be untangled. I'm trying to just get across the idea of NOT dividing over minor issues.
Castrating the Gospel
Last Saturday at the Men's Prayer Breakfast, one of us got up and talked about how important it is to not water down the Gospel in favor of making it easier to swallow.
There are a lot of teachers and preachers today that will avoid touchy subjects such as grace, salvation, sin, Hell, and a whole host of others. It's a huge problem because it means that there are thousands of people who aren't willing to tell people about the grievous disease of sin that they have that WILL kill them, and it's in favor of making sure people aren't offended or scared off.
And I'm really getting tired of seeing so many preachers absolutely refuse to engage on this topic. This is THE topic--the most important one. It's got peoples' souls at stake here, and preachers are dancing around it like something unclean.
As Christians, we are not called to treat the Gospel like a thing which can be talked about at a bare minimum, and receive a merit badge for it. No. No, we're called to be true to it, not to add or take away. The Gospel by itself is offensive to people who hate the idea that they need a Savior to get to Heaven, that they can't get there by themselves.
We so badly need a revival in this country. I almost weep when I hear teachers like Paul Washer come out and I'm just thinking, "Why can't everybody be like that?" This man has been banned from quite a number of places simply because he preached as if this was his only opportunity (and apparently it was). Why are we castrating the Gospel in favor of not offending people?
Please pray that more Christians have the fortitude to take this burden on in the future, especially our younger generations.
There are a lot of teachers and preachers today that will avoid touchy subjects such as grace, salvation, sin, Hell, and a whole host of others. It's a huge problem because it means that there are thousands of people who aren't willing to tell people about the grievous disease of sin that they have that WILL kill them, and it's in favor of making sure people aren't offended or scared off.
And I'm really getting tired of seeing so many preachers absolutely refuse to engage on this topic. This is THE topic--the most important one. It's got peoples' souls at stake here, and preachers are dancing around it like something unclean.
As Christians, we are not called to treat the Gospel like a thing which can be talked about at a bare minimum, and receive a merit badge for it. No. No, we're called to be true to it, not to add or take away. The Gospel by itself is offensive to people who hate the idea that they need a Savior to get to Heaven, that they can't get there by themselves.
We so badly need a revival in this country. I almost weep when I hear teachers like Paul Washer come out and I'm just thinking, "Why can't everybody be like that?" This man has been banned from quite a number of places simply because he preached as if this was his only opportunity (and apparently it was). Why are we castrating the Gospel in favor of not offending people?
Please pray that more Christians have the fortitude to take this burden on in the future, especially our younger generations.
AWOL
I am so sorry I haven't posted in quite awhile, but a lot of things have been going on.
First and foremost, as of October 6 2007, I got married to a wonderful, Godly woman named Charlotte.
That, in addition to an added workload at my jobs and teaching Sunday School, there's not been a lot of time to update.
So, the next entry will be what's on my mind.
Take care,
Michael Fritzius
First and foremost, as of October 6 2007, I got married to a wonderful, Godly woman named Charlotte.
That, in addition to an added workload at my jobs and teaching Sunday School, there's not been a lot of time to update.
So, the next entry will be what's on my mind.
Take care,
Michael Fritzius
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