Radical practice of religion = incompatible with community?

I recently read this article about a muslim women who lives behind a head-to-toe Islamic veil, which shows only her eyes, that has been trying to become a citizen of France for at least 3 years. She has been denied citizenship twice: the first time her life of "total submission" was considered a reason for insufficient assimiliation into the culture. Recently, on appeal, the French Council of State ruled that, "she has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes" and was again denied.

Now I am always skeptical about the government telling people how to live their lives, particularly because I am always thinking, "they will come for me next"... but do the frenchies have a point here? As Christians, we are told to be "...in the world but not of the world", so doesn't that mean we need to assimiliate to our community? There is no mention that the women was forced into this lifestyle, or being oppressed, but women as truely 2nd class citizens in Islam. How will we reach our community if we walk around with a bedspread over our head, covering us from head-to-toe.

CC

Anybody feel this way?

Does anyone feel good about voting for Obama? How about McCain? Me neither. I thought this picture was funny. Are you willing to vote for a Democrat / Republican even if there are better "3rd party" candidates because you feel by voting for a 3rd party would throwing your vote away? I am full of questions and no answers-

CC

Useless information...

In the mode of "pacing ourselves" for the political season ahead, I want to offer some of the news articles I have seen lately.

Please tell me what it should mean to me that other nations around the world prefer Obama to McCain.

Do we really want their advice? Was it much more than 60 years ago that with the help of England that we had to save France from Germany? What have these countries given us that we should want their advice. France is a socialist state that is dealing with outragous unemployment and class-warefare rioting in the streets.

Am I being to hard on England, France and Germany? Maybe instead we should take a good look at ourselves and figure out what we want the next 4 years to look like...

CC

How to share the Gospel after you've been raptured!

You have got to read this. I saw this article about a website that will send your friends and loved ones an email after you've been raptured as a last chance to reach them with the Gospel. The website is http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com/ . Not only will the website send out an email to non-believers letting them know where you are, it will also give them access to all your important private information like bank records and your will.

There is a $40 annual fee for this service. These guys are geniuses for finding a way to make money from believers. Is this something to mock or is it something you would consider?

CC- out.

Freedom!!

I wish that I could honestly say that Memorial Day or the upcoming July 4th holiday is my inspiration to write this blog and it should be. Each day our soldiers face unspeakable dangers and risk their lives for our freedoms. It is something that we should remember and thank God for each and every single day.

But my inspiration comes from my parent's dog - Lucy. You see, my parents put up a brand spanking new fence in their backyard as a space where the grandkids can safely play and Lucy can run free. Up to last month Lucy's exercise was limited to daily walks on a leash with Mom and Dad and short strolls to take a #2 in an open lot besides their house.

This fence represented freedom for Lucy - a dog the size of a minature horse. She no longer needed to be constrained by a leash or a chain but was now free to seek shade under a tree, pee on the side of her favorite tree or gobble up large mammals who wonder into the yard.

It was only a matter of days that Lucy started to disappear every time my parents let her out. Soon it became apparent that she was jumping the fence as though she was in a steeple chase.

I was over my parents house yesterday and Dad asked me to go outside and get Lucy. I found her tied to a chain, surrounded by a fence.

This started to get me thinking. Many of us look at the fence and think that freedom can be found on the other side. They look at the Jesus and see Him as being the fence - keeping them away from countless joys and pleasures. But my parents didn't errect a fence because they wanted to keep Lucy or the grandkids from experiencing nirvana on the other side, but because they knew that she could get lost or worse run over and killed.

And God didn't send His Son Jesus to keep us confined so he can bore us to death. When Christ began his ministry, Luke (4:18-19 NKJV) tells us that He walked into the synagogue and quoted the prophet Isaiah, saying:

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD"

Who are the captives? We all are!! "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." Sin puts us on the other side of the fence - away from the homeowner... away from safety... away from being fed and loved and cared for... away from hope.

No, the fence is God saying 'My desire is for you to be close to me because the world has nothing that can compare to what I can give you." The fence is not judgement but rather salvation. John 3:17 says:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

Are you struggling with your supposed freedom - life outside the fence? Do you find that you are chasing after the hope of a successful career, partying lifestyle, etc. and not finding it?

Jesus says:

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

I want to invite you to seek Him and soon afterwards find a Bible believing/preaching church. Life on this side of the fence is not nearly as bad as you think it is!

Summer + Sexy = Sumos

This commerical ranks right up there with "Where's the Beef."

If it looks like a cult, and smells like a cult, it must be...

If you own a cult and think that any news is good news, you must be having field day when Brian Williams, Katie Couric and whoever is now on ABC comes on the tube at 6 PM.

I've never personally been involved in a cult - unless I am now and just don't realize it. I really don't care for kool-aid, have never visited a "compound" and do not live in a town named after someone who is alive and owns his own church. I don't think spaceships are going to come and rescue me and I don't really like to dress in all white. I'm not into multiple wives - my goodness can you imagine the nagging going on in that household!

I am guilty of idol worship. Brady Anderson was my favorite ballplayer back in the 90's and still have long sideburns because of him. I spend way too much time in front of the TV and on the computer. I don't spend nearly enough time "loving the Lord with all my heart..."

I must admit that when I walked into the Christopher Mathew's bookstore about 3 years ago and sat down to watch a video called Nooma I was in awe. It was refreshing, relevant and had a hip preacher dude whose message really tore at my heart and soul. He was at another level of understanding and honesty that I really hadn't heard before. I bought the video and every one after that I could get my hands on. Rob Bell had become someone that I followed.

When we moved to Western Kentucky I showed these videos to our youth group and they fell in love with it also. I passed the videos on to a Sunday School class who were also captured by the message. I sent a couple to my Dad and he showed it to his Sunday School class. A few months ago we went to hear Rob Bell speak in Louisville and again were just amazed by his insight into the Word - his ability to make it come alive and connect the dots so it became something that we could relate to 2, 3, 4 thousand years later.

Soon afterward I became aware of a fissure in the 21st century church leaders and Rob Bell seems to be in the middle of it. (I won't call it the Emerging Church because I don't think this term is defined well enough). And after watching almost all the Nooma video's, reading one of his books, and reading countless articles, I must admit that there are some troubling things that have come to my attention. For every one article that he causes me to doubt where he is coming there is another that makes me comfortable with what he is saying.

I will not sit here and list them all, but Rob Bell is honestly the third "man of God" that I have lost respect for this year. They range from Evangelical to so called "Emergent" - Conservative to Liberal.

This is not a warning to stay away from Rob Bell, but it is a warning to place your trust in one Man, on one Truth, on one Life. I cannot say that I will not continue to search for the real Rob Bell but that search will be with one thing in mind - he is a man, created by God the Father.