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Revelife Christian Blog

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

All the World's a Stage: Stop People-Pleasing and Start God-Pleasing

I grew up with a dad who was a pastor. There was always a strong emphasis on my sisters and I that people were watching! We had to behave as perfectly as possible, or it was considered a bad reflection on my father and his standing in the community.

I often felt like there was a different set of rules for pastors kids than there were for everyone else. The deacon's kids could chew gum in church, or even skip church to attend other functions. They did not come to prayer meeting. Other people's kids could wear shorts and go to movies and dances. My dad was very strict with us. I was often reminded that I must be a good example.

It got to the point that I felt like I was on a stage all the time. People were watching, and I was "on display." Sadly, I got really good at pretending. I learned all my memory verses in Sunday School. I knew the words to almost every song in the hymnal.

Oh yes, on the outside I did everything right. It all looked good. But in my heart, I was just a performer. More Here...
God, I Want to Really Know You

If you were a celebrity, and I inquired to know your name, when I knew your name would I then know you? If I were to Google as a few facts in regards to your life style, would I know you then? If I were to read all about you, know when you were born, what culture you were raised in, and a few facts about your parents, then would I know you?

What if I knew your family tree by heart, or could quote sayings of yours by mere memory? What if I knew the hidden meaning of your words and parables? Would I know you? What if I could mind-baffle others with astonishing knowledge of you, would that prove that I knew you? If I could come up with intellectual sounding wordy books on the topic of you, would I indeed know you? If I joined a club of your fans and meet often in honor of you, would this then, mean that I knew you?

I believe that all that I have attempted to do in regards to you would be meaningless, because at the end of the day, I would have to come to the realization that I have never once touched you, and you have never once touched me. I would have to face the fact that, though my knowledge of you may indeed in some sense be great, I have never held a personal conversation with you. I would have to admit that, though I know your life somewhat intimately, knowledge doesn't link you and I in any kind of way. The fact would remain, that I don't know you, just know of you. Therefore, since I don't know you, it would be likely and acceptable to conclude that you, yourself as a person, don't know me either. More Here...

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Which Marriage Rights Should We Be Fighting For?

Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, but about divorce he was very clear in Matthew 5:

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

Why oh why do the conservative pundits love to attack gay people (which, as most of them admit [including Exodus International, famed "pray the gay away" group], is not a quality they choose), but never wage a war against divorce? Hell, Newt Gingrich, who up until two months ago was a legitimate contender for the White House, is on his third marriage. Even worse, he divorced one woman while she was in a hospital bed for cancer treatments, and divorced another after having liaisons with his current wife well before the divorce -- and he was getting the Evangelical vote!

Why is it that, in politics, the "Christian" thing to do is to ignore the actual teachings of Jesus and focus on the parts of the Bible that make your pet issues convenient? More Here...
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Defining Life In Amongst The Chaos

By JN Hong

Life is chaos.

We began in chaos. If we were to subscribe to evolutionary theory, we were a few atoms forced together by chance from a million others emanating from a cosmic bang producing hydrogen atoms. From the combinations forming from the random contact of atoms, compounds happened. These compounds multiplied, and continuously bumping around, mistakes happened, and mostly, we reached a dead end and most compounds decayed away. But some flaws worked in our favour and we changed somewhat to slightly different structures and the better compounds overtook and dominated over the older versions of the compounds. From the diversity of compounds became life. Life started off as simple, then complex life forms. Life is merely bumping into each other, and making more offspring, and moving further and further along the evolutionary cycle.

If we were to subscribe to creationism, we were conceived as very good beings from the dust of the earth. Yet, we are fundamentally tainted by the chaos, that is, power and the ability to sin against one another and against a Holy God. Through the fruit eaten in the Garden of Eden we have been forced to live a life without the direct providential care of God, and we are returned to working the earth for little fruit. It is the chaos we find, when we find our relationships strained because we have rejected the life of God for much less.

We are highly flawed beings, whatever theory we subscribe to. More Here...

Monday, 21 May 2012

Smoke Detectors are Against My Religion

That is what Amish are saying about smoke detectors. They claim it would be against their religious beliefs to have smoke detectors in their homes.

A reporter talked to Mose Miller at his doorstep with his nine children looking on. It was cold: -15C (5F). Most of the kids were in bare feet. Their clothes were roughly sewed together - like Victorian patchwork puppets.

Mose Miller said "I use this,” he said pointing at his nose, “or him,” and his finger pointed upwards. “I don’t need a devil on the wall to tell me if my house is burning.” More Here...
Silent is the New Loud

By Sam at Creative Theology

For the past few months I’ve been attempting to be more aware of all the noise in my life. A while back, I began turning off the car radio on my way to work. This was one small step in reclaiming space in my life.
The theme of space and silence were prevalent at Luminous which had an incredible impact on me, especially in these areas. I had never been to a conference that effectively made space for people to commune, and carved out times of intentional, communal silence.

It was beautiful and stirring. More Here...
The Importance of the Bible

The Bible is considered the most important book in the world, simply because it is God's word. When you read the Bible, you read a message from God Himself. When the Bible speaks, God speaks.

Because the Bible is God's Word, it does more than just pass on information. It makes a promise, a promise of life. Everyone who receives the Bible's message in faith, is promised the rich gift of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son.

The Bible came from God Himself. God chose several people to write down what He wanted them to. Through God's inspiration the Bible was written down by people who did not make up these words themselves. The Holy Spirit drove them to speak on behalf of God. More Here...

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Revelife Sunday Service: Climate Change (Part Two)

It's Sunday, readers, and that means that, for Christians all around the world, today is a day to spend time at the local church -- serving, worshiping and learning from wise teachers. We hope that you will be able to attend a service at your local church today.

But if, for some reason, you can't make it to your church today, we here at Revelife want to provide you with worship and good teaching today. We know we can't completely replace the local church in your life, so we encourage you to invest in one when you can, but we hope that the services we feature here will help you focus yourself on God's word today.

At North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, we're in part two of our new series, Climate Change, featuring pastor Jeff Henderson. We're not talking about the climate change you hear about on the news all the time. This type of climate is the one you feel when you walk into a room -- does it change depending on who is there? Chances are, you've experienced some extreme relational climates in your life, and to make these relationships improve, you might need to face some of your own climate change.

North Point's services are streamed online live at 9:00am and 11:00am with rebroadcasts at 2:00pm, 6:00pm and 10:00pm (all times Eastern). We hope you'll make some time today to join us!

If you enjoy the services today at North Point Community Church, you should know that there are North Point Strategic Partner churches all across North America. To see if one is in your area, visit northpointpartners.org.

Saturday, 19 May 2012

Singleness: Is it a Gift or a Curse?

Are you complete? Are you happy? Aren’t you asking for someone with whom you can spend the rest of your life? Do you feel lonely because you don’t have one? Aren’t you getting envious of your friends who already have their own life?

You’re nearly out of the calendar. Well, still got bingo! You’re getting older; friend, you’re not getting younger anymore. Settle down! Wouldn't you love to see yourself having your own children? You can still catch the last trip, pal!

We can enumerate that these are the common, repetitive, monotonous and insistent teasing remarks we receive from some of our friends. In addition, these are the overused questions we hear from people if we have already reached the maturity age of getting married or if we belong to a group in our batch from high school or college who haven’t yet experienced the ceremony of matrimony.

But should we need to feel stressed every time we hear these?
More Here...