Living Free Today

In 2 Corinthians 4:4-7 Paul states that Christians have a great treasure in Jars of Clay.  In other words, Christians have the Holy Spirit, God himself, inside fraile broken bodies.

Enjoy

Pastor Michael

By PAUL PROCTOR

Tennessean
September 21, 2008

Tennessee Voices

The Washington Times reported last week what many of us Southern Baptists have known for some time: Evangelicals are “flocking away from churches” in “significant numbers.”

In past columns, I have cited reasons I believe the church is in decline, few of which were included in the Times. But instead of rehashing years of commentary on the subject, suffice it to say the reinvented church has become so much like the world, there is little left for anyone to come to anymore that they can’t find in greater quantity and quality elsewhere.

You see, today’s church is reproducing consumers and compromisers, not committed Christians ? people who seek popularity for themselves, their interests, their pastimes, their churches and their leaders rather than being the “peculiar people” God has called us to be in Scripture. (1st Peter 2:9, Titus 2:11-14)

But we don’t want to be peculiar, do we?

No, we want to be popular. We want to be just like the world around us so the world will like us and want to join us when, in fact, it is we who are joining them.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., raised a big stink recently, calling Jesus a “community organizer” in his promotion and defense of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama; and I would submit to you that this liberal perception and perversion of Jesus Christ has so infected the church today, even among
conservatives, that our pulpits are now occupied more by community organizers than preachers of the Gospel.

Why do you think so many churches have done away with biblically and/or denominationally distinctive names and adopted the generic and benign term “Community” to name themselves while the general attitude toward sin has become so blase?

Is it not to be more attractive to a fallen world and increase their market share in the community? Is it not to bring people together regardless of their conflicting values, beliefs and religions? There’s no biblical basis for this; and yet it has, in many respects, become paramount.

The one thing I did agree with from the Times report was that many of those leaving the institutional church today are not backsliders. A large number of them are faithful and mature Christians who are being driven away by backsliding churches and their leaders. They are protecting themselves and their families from a faith-destroying environment of covetousness and pragmatism.

Today’s churches have become so obsessed with results and relationships that they no longer have an interest in the things of God ? only building community.

It sounds so benevolent, doesn’t it?

And that’s just what community organizers do ? they build community ? which has absolutely nothing to do with repentance and faith in Jesus Christ ? the one who said: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Religious survey reveals Americans’ attitudes about God, churches

By TERRY LEE GOODRICH
tgoodrich@star-telegram.com
Saturday, Sep 20, 2008

Megachurches may be big, but they are not impersonal.
Books by atheists may be bestsellers, but the “godless” population in American is not on the rise.

And despite some stereotypes that America is out of touch with God, nearly half of Americans report having at least two religious or mystical encounters.

Those are three of the newest findings from the Baylor Religion Survey, according to researchers with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco. The results were released today at a news briefing in Washington D.C.

The findings were compiled from questionnaires mailed by the Gallup Organization in fall 2007. They represent 1,648 English-speaking American adults age 18 and older, Baylor researchers said.

Baylor surveys started in 2005 and will be conducted every two years through 2018.

The researchers’ analysis of responses to more than 350 items turned up surprises, they said. Among them:

– Megachurches — those with congregations of more than 1,000 — are more intimate than congregations with less than 100 members.

“To people on the outside looking in, that might seem totally ridiculous,” said Byron Johnson, Baylor sociology professor and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion, in a phone interview with the Star-Telegram. “But these people at megachurches are going out of their way to counter the stereotype that
they’re not friendly.”

While churchgoers in a huge congregation may not know those they are rubbing shoulders with in a pew on Sunday, they tend to gather during the week in smaller groups with members who have similar interests or needs.

They also are more likely to invite friends to church, witness to strangers, tithe and attend Bible studies, the survey showed.

“People get to know each other in very close ways,” Johnson said. “Not only do they establish relationships, but the facades come down. They can share their imperfections and struggles, and people are checking in on you and praying for you … .

“Many have single parents’ groups on how to handle finances, on English as a second language. Here’s the church saying, ‘We care about this part of your life. … We aren’t here to condemn, but to help.’ ”

– While 11 percent of Americans claim no religious affiliation, the Baylor survey showed that a majority who claim they are not religious are not atheists
— and they do pray.

“When people say, ‘I have no religion,’ what they mean is ‘I have no church,’ ” said Rodney Stark, co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion and a distinguished professor of the social sciences at Baylor.

During the past six decades, polls show the percentage of atheists has stayed at about 4 percent of Americans. But books by atheists — such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion — became bestsellers in 2006 and 2007 because atheists number more than 12 million people, a majority of them potential book buyers, according to Baylor’s analysis.nTwo-thirds of respondents report having had at least one
religious or mystical experience; 45 percent report having had two or more.

“We have a very, very large number of people who have heard God’s voice or think there is a guardian angel,” Stark said.

Conservative Protestants are more likely than liberal Protestants, Catholics or Jews to report religious or mystical experiences, such as feeling called by God, witnessing or receiving a miraculous physical healing and speaking or praying in tongues.

But such experiences occur with considerable frequency in nearly all religious groups. The survey also showed that women, African-Americans and Republicans are more likely to have such experiences.

– Despite some social scientists’ perceptions, Bible believers are not superstitious or easily convinced, researchers say.

Traditional Christian religion decreases belief in such things as UFOs, haunted houses and astrology, while education has relatively little effect on such beliefs, the study showed.

“One of the things I think is very interesting is the notion that religious believers are a bunch of gullible people that buy into any kind of nonstandard belief,” Stark said. “But the less active you are in your church, the more likely you are to believe in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster.”

– 82 percent of those surveyed said they were “absolutely sure” or “pretty sure” that heaven exists.

And 46 percent are at least “quite certain” they will go to heaven, while another 20 percent are “somewhat certain.”

Few Americans think heaven is very exclusive.

“People aren’t as exclusionary as they were 30 or 40 years ago,” Stark said.
“Now they’re more likely to say ‘I don’t know.’ ”

Certainty that heaven exists is highest in the South — 76 percent — and lowest in the East, with 50 percent.

The Rev. Ken Diehm of First United Methodist Church in Grapevine, which has about 2,500 members, said he was not surprised by the findings about megachurches, noting they generally have enough staff and financial resources to focus on a variety of ministries.

Neither was he startled by the high percentage of people reporting religious or mystical life-changing experiences, he said.

“I believe that God created us to be spiritual beings and live in relationship with God,” Diehm said. “The idea that most people have encountered God is very understandable. It makes sense.”

Everyone needs it, few say they want it and even less have mastered it.  It is self-control.  I hope you enjoy this sermon by Pastor Michael Wilson

Grace and Peace

New report shows that while many Americans confused about evangelicals, some know they don’t like them

By Jeremy Reynalds

Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

PHOENIX, ARIZONA (ANS) — While evangelical Christians get a lot of attention from journalists and politicians, most people don’t know really know who evangelicals are, while other people hate them.

The findings are from a new Ellison Research report titled “America’s

Definition: What is an Evangelical?” The study was independently designed, funded, and conducted by Ellison Research among a representative sample of over 1,000 American adults.

Ellison Research is a marketing research firm.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, said in a news release that one of the surprises of the study was how much abuse was aimed at evangelicals.

“Some people used language in describing evangelical Christians that we can’t even reprint in the report,” Sellers said.

He added, “Evangelicals were called illiterate, greedy, psychos, racist, stupid, narrow-minded, bigots, idiots, fanatics, nut cases, screaming loons, delusional, simpletons, pompous, morons, cruel, nitwits, and freaks, and that’s just a partial list. The insults and anger directed at this population group by a surprisingly large proportion of Americans was truly shocking. Some people don’t have any idea what evangelicals actually are or what they believe - they just know they can’t stand evangelicals, whatever they might be.”

Sellers said there’s little understanding among Americans about just who an evangelical is.

Speaking in the news release he added, “Evangelicals are defined every which way, and that is among the people who even attempted to define them. When the media report something about ‘evangelical leaders’ like Rick Warren or James Dobson, or describes a political candidate as meeting with an evangelical group, or polls likely voters and reports that evangelicals are backing a particular candidate, many Americans honestly don’t have the faintest notion of just who belongs to that group that is being described, while others are completely off-base in their assumptions of who the report is describing.”

Sellers said, that other studies by Ellison Research have shown that only 35 percent of all Americans believe they know someone very well who is an evangelical, while 51 percent don’t personally know any evangelicals even casually.

Sellers added, “Americans are less likely to know an evangelical Christian than they are to know a Jewish person, an American Indian, an Asian person, or a gay or lesbian person - all of whom represent populations that are considerably smaller than the evangelical population in this country, no matter how it is defined.”

One thing that proved to be a bit surprising to the researchers was how few people specifically define evangelicals according to their politics or world view.

Sellers said in the release, “Especially during election time, we often hear about evangelicals in connection with candidates, or with political or social issues. Yet Americans usually don’t define ‘evangelicals’ by their voting habits or politics. There’s at least some basic understanding among the American population that evangelicals are defined by religion rather than by politics, even if many people don’t really know just what that religious definition is.”

A selection of actual quotes from study participants can be found in the full report at www.ellisonresearch.com/releases/20080903.htm.

In John 8:2-11 the story is told of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.  Jesus had the perfect right to condemn both the woman and the accusers.  This is because Jesus was their creator and how dare they test him and sin right in front of him.

Anyway, Jesus displayed gentleness.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Michael

by Dennis Prager

Columnist

Townhall.com

August 2008

We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion — intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of “heretics,” holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion.

What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism — the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies.

For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them.

So, while it is not possible to prove (or disprove) God’s existence, what is provable is what happens when people stop believing in God.

1. Without God there is no good and evil; there are only subjective opinions that we then label “good” and “evil.” This does not mean that an atheist cannot be a good person. Nor does it mean that all those who believe in God are good; there are good atheists and there are bad believers in God. It simply means that unless there is a moral authority that transcends humans from which emanates an objective right and wrong, “right” and “wrong” no more objectively exist than do “beautiful” and “ugly.”

2. Without God, there is no objective meaning to life. We are all merely random creations of natural selection whose existence has no more intrinsic purpose or meaning than that of a pebble equally randomly produced.

3. Life is ultimately a tragic fare if there is no God. We live, we suffer, we die — some horrifically, many prematurely — and there is only oblivion afterward.

4. Human beings need instruction manuals. This is as true for acting morally and wisely as it is for properly flying an airplane. One’s heart is often no better a guide to what is right and wrong than it is to the right and wrong way to fly an airplane. The post-religious secular world claims to need no manual; the heart and reason are sufficient guides to leading a good life and to making a good world.

5. If there is no God, the kindest and most innocent victims of torture and murder have no better a fate after death than do the most cruel torturers and mass murderers. Only if there is a good God do Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler have different fates.

6. With the death of Judeo-Christian values in the West, many Westerners believe in little. That is why secular Western Europe has been unwilling and therefore unable to confront evil, whether it was Communism during the Cold War or Islamic totalitarians in its midst today.

7. Without God, people in the West often become less, not more, rational. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed in the utterly irrational doctrine of Marxism. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed that men’s and women’s natures are basically the same, that perceived differences between the sexes are all socially induced. Religious people in Judeo-Christian countries largely confine their irrational beliefs to religious beliefs (theology), while the secular, without religion to enable the non-rational to express itself, end up applying their irrational beliefs to society, where such irrationalities do immense harm.

8. If there is no God, the human being has no free will. He is a robot, whose every action is dictated by genes and environment. Only if one posits human creation by a Creator that transcends genes and environment who implanted the ability to transcend genes and environment can humans have free will.

9. If there is no God, humans and “other” animals are of equal value. Only if one posits that humans, not animals, are created in the image of God do humans have any greater intrinsic sanctity than baboons. This explains the movement among the secularized elite to equate humans and animals.

10. Without God, there is little to inspire people to create inspiring art. That is why contemporary art galleries and museums are filled with “art” that celebrates the scatological, the ugly and the shocking. Compare this art to Michelangelo’s art in the Sistine chapel. The latter elevates the viewer — because Michelangelo believed in something higher than himself and higher than all men.

11. Without God nothing is holy. This is definitional. Holiness emanates from a belief in the holy. This explains, for example, the far more widespread acceptance of public cursing in secular society than in religious society. To the religious, there is holy speech and profane speech. In much of secular society the very notion of profane speech is mocked.

12. Without God, humanist hubris is almost inevitable. If there is nothing higher than man, no Supreme Being, man becomes the supreme being.

13. Without God, there are no inalienable human rights. Evolution confers no rights. Molecules confer no rights. Energy has no moral concerns. That is why America’s Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed “by our Creator” with certain inalienable rights. Rights depend upon a moral source, a rights giver.

14. “Without God,” Dostoevsky famously wrote, “all is permitted.” There has been plenty of evil committed by believers in God, but the widespread cruelties and the sheer number of innocents murdered by secular regimes — specifically Nazi, Fascist and Communist regimes — dwarfs the evil done in the name of religion.

As noted at the beginning, none of this proves, or even necessarily argues for, God’s existence. It makes the case for the necessity, not the existence, of God.

“Which God?” the secularist will ask. The God of Israel, the God of America’s founders, “the Holy God who is made holy by justice” (Isaiah), the God of the Ten Commandments, the God who demands love of neighbor, the God who endows all human beings with certain inalienable rights, the God who is cited on the Liberty Bell because he is the author of liberty. That is the God being referred to here, without whom we will be vanquished by those who believe in less noble gods, both secular and divine.

This column was syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service on 08/27/2008

Anyone who has lived in a minister’s house knows that middle-of-the-night telephone calls often bring bad news.

But for many pastors there is one kind of call that is uniquely painful.

There are times when the shock of death is easier to handle than questions about eternal life.

“It happens like this,” noted the Rev. J. Gerald Harris, who became editor of the Southern Baptist newspaper of Georgia after 40 years in ministry. “A grieving widow would call and say with a broken heart and with tears in her voice, ‘Pastor, my husband had a heart attack last night and we took him to the hospital, but he was dead on arrival. I can’t believe it has happened, but we need your help. I know he was not a church member, but we would like for you to preach his funeral.’ “

The pastor says “yes,” of course. Then, while talking with the family, it often becomes apparent that the deceased was not a believer or may even have been someone who — by word or deed – flaunted his status as an unbeliever. Others may join the church, then walk away for decades.

This is awkward, noted Harris, for clergy who believe salvation is found through faith in Jesus Christ, alone. It’s one thing to step into the pulpit and preach on the mercy of God and to speak words of comfort to a grieving family. It’s something else for a pastor to go a step further and do what loved ones may want him to do — openly proclaim they will be reunited with the deceased in heaven.

Harris said he started receiving calls and emails soon after he wrote about this subject in the Christian Index, in part because this dilemma pivots where the minister draws a theological line, a line that many liberal Christians no longer believe needs to be drawn at all.

There is no question, Harris stressed, that pastors should provide comfort and care for families in these circumstances. Obviously, there is no need for preachers to speak words that would cause grieving relatives pain. However, he also is convinced that it’s wrong for pastors to deliver messages they sincerely believe are not true — to embrace the doctrine of “universalism,” which proclaims that all people find eternal salvation, no matter what they believe or how they live their lives.

This is tricky doctrinal territory, as Sen. Barack Obama learned during a June 10 meeting with clergy behind closed doors in Chicago. While other conservative leaders asked Obama about controversial social issues, the Rev. Franklin Graham — son of evangelist Billy Graham — asked an openly theological question: Did the candidate believe that “Jesus was the way to God, or merely a way.”

Later, Obama told Newsweek that — in a candid, personal answer — he

replied: “It is a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ, but I am also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on Earth. I’ve said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know .. I do not believe she went to hell.”

In the end, Harris said, it’s all but impossible to ignore this kind of doctrinal division. However, pastors do have options when handling these situations, other than delivering sermons that violate their own consciences.

In many Christian traditions, funeral rites consist of hymns and prayers that place more attention on the words of scriptures than on a minister’s message. But if the family insists on a sermon that focuses on the deceased, he said, pastors can suggest that a friend deliver this message. In some congregations, loved ones offer eulogies during gatherings — fellowship meals, perhaps — following funerals.

“These questions aren’t going away,” said Harris. “For many people today it’s not enough to be tolerant of other people’s decisions and religious beliefs. Now they want a kind of positive tolerance, they want you to accept and praise other people’s beliefs. You have to be willing to say what they want you to say. …

“That just isn’t possible, for a lot of us.”

Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes this weekly column for the Scripps Howard News Service.

by Cheryl Heckler

Ecumenical News International

OXFORD, OH — American teenagers who attend religious services achieve higher than average results at school, feel more attached to their school as a community, and are significantly more likely to graduate than those who never go to church, a University of Iowa study has suggested.

Researchers found church attendance had a greater impact on class grade averages and graduation rates, than whether a student’s parents had four year university degrees. Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the university, who led the study, said other research had noted a link between religious service attendance and positive educational outcomes in the United States, but this was the first one to look at why.

“Surprisingly, the importance of religion to teens had very little impact on their educational outcomes,” Glanville said. “That suggests that the act of attending church — the structure and the social aspects associated with it — could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion.”

The study suggested four reasons church-going teens tend to have more success at school.

One of these is that they have regular contact with adults from various generations, who serve as role models. Another reason is that the young people’s parents are more likely to communicate with their friends’ parents. Other factors at play are that teenagers who attend church develop friendships there with peers who have similar norms and values, and they are also more likely to take part in extracurricular activities.

Glanville said of the results of the research, “Some might say this suggests that parents should have their kids attend places of worship.” She added that the study could also help non-church attending parents. “If we use it to help explain why religious participation has a positive effect on academics, parents who aren’t interested in attending church can consider how to structure their kids’ time to allow access to the same beneficial social networks and opportunities religious institutions provide.”

U.S. teens who do not attend religious services have a 60 per cent greater chance of dropping out of school, according to Glanville. Religious-service attendance has the same effect across all major denominations, the research showed.

For the study, Glanville and colleagues David Sikkink and Edwin Hernandez of the University of Notre Dame analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of students from the 7th grade to 12th grade (final year), and it began in 1994. Students from 132 schools in 80 communities participated.

Researchers also found that U.S. teenagers who attended church were also more likely to have friends with higher grades, and that they skipped school less often, Glanville said.

The study is published in the winter 2008 issue of The Sociological Quarterly.

Faithfulness is missing in our society.  In Lamentations 3:22-27 Jeremiah praises God for his mercy and faithfulness.

I hope you enjoy this sermon on faithfulness.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Michael