Jesus vs. the Religious People

I haven't really been in the mood to write anything deep, introspective, or philosophic. But there has been something on my mind. Since I got back from Texas, I have been thinking a little about how much Christians (a category in which I am included) condemn and marginalize people who don't profess faith in our system of belief.

As a Christian, my role model, my example is the man named Jesus (whose last name is not Christ by the way). When I look at the New Testament accounts of his ministry, I see that he interacts with two distinct groups of people. He interacts with those people who do not claim to "know" God, and he interacts with those people who claimed that not only did they "know" God, but they had religion all figured out.

This first group of people, were commonly called "sinners." Interestingly, the main criteria to be a sinner was to have broken one of the ten commandments. So in my case, since I am a lying, prideful, lustful person, I am also a sinner. These people were called sinners because they did not claim to have an understanding of the nature of God and what his plan was for their lives.

The second group were often called the Pharisees. They were the powerful religious and political leaders of the era. They claimed to have everything figured out and they wanted everyone to know it. (Good thing humanity grew out of this kind of arrogance, huh?)

When Jesus spoke to the first group, he said things like, "Get up, take your things, and go home." or "i do not condemn you." or "your faith has healed you."

When he spoke to the religious people he said things like, "you thieves," or "you hatefilled oppressors," or "you do not know God"

Jesus did confront and condemn people, but they were the religious people who spewed judgment on others.

This is an interesting observation if you look at the state of Christianity today. In America, the Christians tend to believe that they are the moral police of the nation, that they should condemn and judge everyone. But from my observation of Jesus's own actions, the Christians are not to judge those outside of their belief system, they are to judge and hold accountable those who have professed faith in Jesus.

It just seems to me that more harm is being done in the name of Jesus than good. I know for a fact that many deeply spiritual people will have nothing to do with the message of Jesus because so many hatefilled people have corrupted that message.

Jesus said that there were two laws we should keep: Love God, and love our neighbor. By doing this, we keep all the other commandments and display the love of God. It is unfortunate that some of the meanest people on this side of Hell happen to be Christians.

My age group on MySpace

ChurchMarketingSucks.com posted this article about a trend taking place in the world of MySpace. Apparently more and more people over the age of 18 are getting connected with the networking site. Here is what they have to say:

We've talked before about how your church can use MySpace and other social networking sites to connect with people, whether it's connecting your congregants or giving visitors a preview, but some interesting new stats prove that social networking sites aren't just for the youngsters. While MySpace.com (the runaway hit with 82% of traffic in the category) is perceived [and vilified] as the online hangout for teens, 87% of users today are 18 or older. If that's not shocking enough, 52% are 35 or older, which means the majority of users on the youthful MySpace are, well, old. And it's still seeing 230,000 people sign up every day.

For churches it should be clear that MySpace is no longer a tool for youth groups or young adult ministries. It's something the whole church should consider. (link via churchrelevance)

Well now I don't feel as much like the creepy old guy at the junior high dance.

Great Western Adventure part 5

So Michelle's dad took me up in a Cessna. I have never been in a plane before so it was a little scary but fun nonetheless. I posted some video of the fight in the first posting about our trip.

Here are a few pics.



Inside the Cessna.


Outside the Cessna. Randy is meticulous about the preflight inspection.


Ready to taxi down the runway.


just after take off, looking east towards Dallas.


Downtown Ft. Worth about 6 miles away


Ft. Worth again.


Dallas skyline, 35 miles away.


blue arrow is my in-law's house. yellow arrow is Michelle's car.


Kenneth Copeland, the televangelist's house and airfield. Must be making lots of money off old ladies.



More of the Copeland Compound.

Great Western Adventure part 4

We went to the Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax and Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum in Grand Prairie (a suburb of Dallas). They are in the same building, so that is convenient. IT was fun, but not that great. Some of the wax figures did not look that much like their human counterparts.



Here I Am with Dr. Phil



...and Oprah



...and Ghandi



...and the Tin Man, Lion, Scarcrow, Dorothy, and Toto



...and a shark!

Great Western Adventure part 3

Ft. Worth and Dallas have a great train transit system linking the two cities. So instead of driving to downtown Dallas, trying to find parking, and fighting the crowd, we took the train to Dallas to go see Dealey Plaza. For some reason, I have always been interested in Kennedy and the assasination. So this was definitely on my list of things to do in Dallas.

The museum inside what used to be the book depository builiding is really incredible. The spot from where they think Oswald shot the rifle is preserved, there are hundreds of photos, graphics, memorabilia, and other items to look at. Of course the is no photography inside the museum. So we had to take several outside.



Dealey Plaza



There are "X's" on the road to mark the spots where he was shot



The sixth floor window and the "grassy knoll"

Great Western Adventure part 2

We got to do a lot of interesting things during our Great Western Adventure. First, I got to cross the Mississippi River, which is something I have never done. I have been all over the eastern part of the country, but never further west than St. Louis.


Second, Michelle and I got to go to a few museums. We are kinda geeky in that way, we like art and culture. Unfortunately, museums don't like for you to take pictures. The museum of modern art in Ft. Worth had a couple Jackson Pollock's and a couple Andy Warhol's, as well as a Lichtenschtien.


Jackson Pollack - Number 5



Andy Warhol - Self Portrait


Andy Warhol - Marilyn Print


Roy Lichtenstein - Mr. Bellamy


There were a couple of interesting sculptures outside that we could take pictures of. One is a huge sprial made out of iron. When you step inside it you hear echoes. The other is a warrior sculpture.

Great Western Adventure part 1

Michelle and I took several days to go see her parents in Ft. Worth.This is the first of a few postings about our Texas trip.

Michelle's dad, Randy, is an amateur pilot. He has a private license and rents a Cessna pretty regularly to take up. I have never been in a plane, so when he asked if i wanted to go up, i jumped at the opportunity.

I took our camera and captured some footage of the take off and landing. Here ya go.

Double click the pics to start the clip.








more to come...