Prophecies That Were Actually Fulfilled

As we get closer to 12-21, the date the world will end based on a Mayan calendar (I know…they might have misinterpreted it…), we’re going to hear more and more about prophecies.  Last year it was Harold Camping’s rapture date, and then the other one too.  Or was that two years ago?  I really don’t want to take the time to do the research.  You get the point.  Prophecies come down the pike regularly, and they just as regularly go unfulfilled.  I’m having a hard time caring.

Are any of you jaded about prophecies?  I am.  Having grown up in an environment that prophesied a rapture behind every major world event, I’ll admit my skin was tingling a bit that day of Camping’s first prophecy.  But in the end I played REM’s song “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, And I Feel Fine” over and over, and it did make me feel fine.  These so-called prophets regularly get it wrong.

What we need are some prophecies that actually come true!  Wouldn’t you like to see a prophecy that is fulfilled?  I know it is Christmas, but Christmas always points toward Easter.  So how about reading the prophet Zechariah to search for some prophecies that did come true, prophecies about Easter.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Are Zechariah’s words just a bunch of Nostradamus-like gobbledy-gook?  Or is there something more here?

And just for fun, since it is 12-12-12, another supposed day of significance, here’s a laugh from www.radiofreebabylon.com:

12-12-12 Coffee with Jesus

A Faith Mashup

A few years ago, USA Today reported that more and more Christians are creating faith mashups.  You can read the full article here.

It is an age-old practice, this faith blending, called syncretism.  Is it good or is it bad?  Are religious faiths really flexible enough to allow another faith to be mixed in?  How have you seen people attempt syncretism in their lives?  Of course, they aren’t thinking to themselves “Hmmm…I would like to practice syncretism…let’s see, what faiths or philosophies can I weave together?”   Instead people are just trying to make sense of the world.  In some cases they’re trying to understand why there is so much evil or how to get through hard times without a nervous breakdown.  There’s nothing wrong with that, right?

Actually, in the article a number of people express their concern or disapproval for this blending of faiths.  Where do you stand?

I’d love to hear some examples of Christians practicing syncretism, as well as the reasons why.  Feel free to share.  Then on Sunday morning we’ll see what our next Minor Prophet, Zephaniah, had to say about syncretism in the nation of Israel.

 

Secession

Have you been hearing the talk about secession? Since President Obama won reelection people have been petitioning the White House to allow their states to secede from the Union. One report I heard said this is standard fare after just about every presidential election. Remember the last time we had secession? I mean real secession. I’m writing from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a south-central neighbor to the little town of Gettysburg, about an hour’s drive to the west. Next year our nation will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, a three-day bloodbath, that, while not eclipsing the Civil War single-day loss-of-life mark, saw about 51,000 dead. All told the entire war accounted for about 620,000 dead. Let me ask again: secession?

Someone might respond, “Well, it would be a peaceful secession. No one would start a war. It would just be another country.” I’m not so sure about that, but for the sake of argument, I’ll grant it. In fact, I think it gets to the heart of the issue. Secessionist don’t want war. Who does? Secessionists want a better country. Now that is something we can all agree on. Even those from a variety of political parties could agree on that.

But that leads us to the problem: how do we achieve the goal of a better country? This Sunday we continue our series in the Minor Prophets, and we come to Nahum. I’m not particularly thrilled about Nahum, but it’s growing on me.

You think our nation needs a change?  Take a look at the people who Nahum had to preach too. The Ninevites. Yup, the same people Jonah was sent to. About 100 years later, the Ninevite Revival was a thing of history, and the city (capital of Assyria) was brutally wicked and tyrannical again.

The message God has for Nineveh is very interesting. Perhaps nations of the world, including secessionist Americans, can learn a thing or two about how to change a country by studying this ancient message.

I would be interested in your thoughts, after you read Nahum that is.

Micah and horror movies

I’ve just about completed preparing for my sermon on Sunday. I thought I was familiar with Micah because we’ve talked about Micah 6:8 a lot in recent years. I even have an International Justice Mission t-shirt that says “seek justice”, which is an integral component of that verse. “Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God.” It’s an amazing line, but it can lull you in believing that Micah is a gentle guy with a really happy message.

Wrong.

There were a couple times reading Micah that I felt like I was back watching Silence of the Lambs in high school. Right at one of the most intense moments, one of the older guys, at whose apartment we were watching the film, came up behind my chair quietly and shouted. I lifted off my chair like it was an ejection seat.

I clearly remember being freaked out by The Shining, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, and The Sixth Sense.

Believe it or not, the prophet Micah brought all this back to mind. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, because it seems in one way or another, each one of these prophets have some wild and wooly stuff. Micah is no different, except that his prophecy might be the most graphic. Let’s just say that the movie version would likely need to be rated R.

But Micah is not gratuitously provocative. There’s a powerful message. Check it out for yourself, prepare to hear and discuss more on Sunday, by reading Micah!

If God hated their worship, could he hate ours too? (Check out the podcast!)

So God hates worship services.  The quotes affirming this in my previous post are from the prophecy of Amos.  God isn’t mixing any words.  It was a rather wealthy era in Israel’s history, and they were living it up.  To be specific, this was during the years when Israel was split north (Israel) and south (Judah).  Amos’ prophecy is mostly for the north.  Why did God hate their worship?  What were they doing wrong?  I urge you to read the prophecy.

For me the key question as I studied this was, if God hated the worship of the Israelites in Amos’ day, might he also hate worship that happens at Faith Church?  If so, why?  What caused him to hate worship then, and is that happening again today?  What can we do about it?  Let’s discuss this!

How to have worship services that God doesn’t hate.

It’s true. He says so. God hates worship services. Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.”

But then, almost as if he wants to really injure us, he says he hates the music too. I’m serious:

“Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.”

Think about all the time, energy and money we put into singing in worship. God calls it noise. He says he will not listen to it.

I’m interested in your thoughts. Do you believe God would say this? And why?

This Sunday we learn to have worship services that God doesn’t hate…have any suggestions of what we should do in worship services so he might like our songs?

Church has left the building

Yesterday was a big day for Faith Church.  We left our building.

About a month ago I put a message on our outdoor sign that said “This church will leave the building Oct. 7”.  I never imagined the response we would get.  In the first week one couple that is a part of our church family got a distraught phone call from the husband’s father who lives in Harrisburg, “What is going on with Faith Church, and why haven’t you told me about this?”  A friend of his, who knew his son and daughter-in-law are a part of our church, drove by, saw the sign and called him.  Then neighbors started getting in touch.  “Why are you leaving?”  “Are you closing?”  Two church groups looking for a building approached us about purchasing ours.  Some people from our own church started feeling nervous about the impression we were giving.  They started making me feel nervous.

Then a few days before Oct. 7 the Pennysaver article came out.

What was leaving the building all about?  I hope you’ll read the article linked above, but let me explain.  Yesterday Faith Church, instead of having a worship service in our sanctuary, ventured out into the community, inspired by the love of Christ, to worship the Lord by serving the community.  About 75 people worked on numerous projects.  The church came together and the impact was palpable.  We washed all the local police department‘s cruisers (thanks to Highland Car Wash for donating their self-serve bays and supplies), did childcare, made a lunch, cleaned one of the local Homes of Hope (transitional housing for homeless families), cleaned up at the local community park and the local elementary school, visited one of our shut-in ladies (holding a worship service in her home!), and those unable to work, remained behind to pray and then assembled a mailing for Conestoga Valley Christian Community Services (a great org addressing the serious issue of homelessness in our school district).  It was an amazing morning.

From the early pictures we’ve received, this is one of my favorite: a group of our elementary-age students working hard doing clean-up at their school!

We met back in our fellowship hall for a delicious lunch and a time of celebration afterward.  People shared numerous stories about their morning, and it was inspiring!

So I’d be interested in hearing from you:

Did you participate?  What stories do you have from the morning?

Or maybe you’re not part of a church family. Maybe you have serious doubts about faith and church. Does it make any difference to you that a church would give up a worship service to follow the teaching of Jesus to “love neighbor”?

For those who are a part of Faith Church, how will you worship the Lord by serving in an ongoing way?  We have a worship service 1 hour each week.  If that’s all worship amounts to, it’s a rather anemic expression of serving God, wouldn’t you agree?  So how are you going to expand worship?

Yes, Faith Church will be back in the building this coming Sunday morning, but only for a few hours.  The rest of the week, for many more hours, our worship will continue outside the building.

Church as CAUSE or EFFECT? What do you think?

“Effective discipleship builds the church, not the other way around. We need to understand the church as the EFFECT of discipleship and not the CAUSE. If you set out to build the church, there is no guarantee you will make disciples. It is far more likely that you will creat consumers who depend on the spiritual services that religious professionals provide.” — Building a Discipling Culture, Breen. p. 12

Are we allowed to not have a worship service on Sunday and instead worship by serving the community?

As you may have already heard, we are taking the month of September to prepare ourselves spiritually for The Church Has Left The Building on October 7th.  So we’re pausing our Minor Prophets sermon series, and we’re learning from some events in the life of Jesus, primarily in the Gospel of Luke.

First and foremost we need to answer: are we even allowed to do this?  What about Sabbath?  And in particular, what about not working on the Sabbath?  These are important questions.  What is so interesting is that the Pharisees asked the same questions of Jesus.  Jesus response is very surprising and informative.

I would love for us to discuss it further, if any of you would like to.