pornography?

"The latest cover of Time magazine has caused outrage. Under the headline "Are you mom enough?", a young woman is pictured having her left breast suckled by a boy who appears way beyond usual breastfeeding age.The woman, it turns out, is Jamie Lynne Grumet, a 26-year old mother from Los Angeles, and the boy is her son Aram, aged almost four."

This is pornography under the guise of social commentary. Slim attractive woman. Boy is shown standing, to accentuate his height - not the pose for normal breastfeeding - and wearing 'tough guy' camouflage!

My Dream Church

After attending evangelical churches in the USA for 16 years, I am disillusioned and cynical. Here, I describe My Dream Church from my study of the Bible.My Dream Church

False Arguments On Tithing

Pastors often mention Jesus affirmation of tithing to the Pharisees. However this overlooks a crucial fact - Jesus was under the law just like the Pharisees.

He observed the Sabbath, Passover and even at his baby dedication, sacrifices were offered.

In Acts 15, at the council at Jerusalem, it clearly says the law does not apply to us any more. This is also in Colossians 2:15 where the law was nailed to the cross. In Galatians, Paul is angry with the 'foolish' Galatians because they want to practise the law.

I have heard pastors and leaders preach things like: 'one must give at least 10%', 'give knowing that it is all God's', 'how much should God get for giving His life for me?'

Certainly it can be a personal principle but in churches today, it is closer to a command.Yet they overlook a simple fact - why wouldnt the Holy Spirit simply say through Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:6 and the other Bible authors in the other books, 'give at least the tenth of your income to your house church'? Yet, He didn't. So aren't today's leaders adding to God's Word things that are not there?

Death

A few weeks ago, Jenny a coworker, passed away from a long struggle with cancer. It made me realize that we should be grateful for our lives. Even if non-Christians do well and consider their advances as the fruits of their labor and their talents (and it is true that our labor and talent will affect how well we advance in our careers), we should look to gratitude to God as the giver.

Steve Jobs died last week. It is amazing to think that despite all his billions and having the best medical care in the world, no one could extend his life by a single minute.  Steve Jobs was a Zen Buddhist and unfortunately, lived a very selfish life - according to what we read about him by those who knew him. The words of Jesus come to mind. Jesus said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?"

Another coworker was telling me that he lost his parents, and a friend, within the space of an year. I asked him a leading question, "What happens to us after we die?". And he answered with a straight face, "It depends on what you believe". I was dumbstruck. If I were to jump off a building, my beliefs would have no effect on what would happen to me.
But there is truth to what he said - we all take the after-life on faith. Even Christians are unsure whether we go straight to heaven, or stay in the ground until Christ returns. I have no clue.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17)

and contrast with...

 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8)

Regardless, we put our trust in him.
As in the song below, "...your name is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are saved"

Steve Job's death

Steve Jobs was a Zen Buddhist and unfortunately, lived a very selfish life - according to what we read about him by those who knew him. The words of Jesus come to mind. Jesus said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?".

Father and baby

When I interact with my baby, it is real to me how our relationship to God our father is;

• we love to show him things that we do in our daily lives. Opening the fridge, pouring water, turning on the lights, brushing the dog, eating and drinking...
• When God shows us hitherto unseen things in the Bible, through the Holy Spirit, it is the same dynamic happening.
• once I placed him on his tummy on the couch and he  was shrieking in fear, anger, thrashing his arms and overwhelmed with fending for himself. It seemed silly to me because I was right there. I stroked his head and spoke to him encouragingly - but did not lift him out of his predicament. He should have clung to the comforting truth the I was there and he need not fear.
• When we go through hardships and hard times, it is natural to feel alone and deserted by God. We shriek in pain and anger and thrash about and also soothe with pleasurable sins. If we stop and exercise faith and reach out to God, then we have real comfort.
• we love how the baby delights to see us and longs for our presence and wants us to be with him all the time. This is how the believer should be with his or her heavenly father, delighting to be in God's precence and luxuriating in it. Of course, it is harder for us because we cannot see God but must sense him in our spirit and 'see' Him by faith.

Tired of Yahoo's brainwashing? Switch to i-Google

Anyone else tired of Yahoo's brainwashing?
My yahoo email has remained constant in the past 13 years even though we have moved physical address many times. However, their articles on the main page, which are the gateway to checking email, are plain propaganda. They are liberal, pro-gay, Democrat and conversely, are anti-Christian and anti-Republican.
Switch to i-Google. Keep your homepage to a more balanced news source like the BBC. You can install a plugin on the page to access your yahoo email.

The problem with the Willow Creek model for churches

The Willow creek model is essentially a business model. Attract people in, then get them to tithe and volunteer and attend classes. No one is allowed to speak in the services, but the staff.
Result: Lots of money from the old testament practice of tithing + free labor of volunteers + tight control of the microphone + keep members at the spiritual teenager level by keeping them busy in endless classes.
This is true of all the pastor directed churches I have seen in America.
As a result, we are not really different from the Roman Catholic Church, which we evangelicals despise as spiritually defective.

Of kings and a King - what an uncommon king!

The Royal Wedding of William and Kate, reminded me of kings and royalty down the ages. Kings and leaders have tended to glory in how many people bow down to them. People lying prostrate before them. Absolute power and control over lives. With a few commands, sending people who offend you, to be jailed, tortured or even executed. The pharaohs of Egypt when they died, had slaves and wives killed and buried alongside. To this day in West Africa, chieftains have their slaves killed and buried alongside them. Being waited on hand and foot. An entire life devoted to your service.

Kings have special robes, crowns and thrones, all designed to distinguish themselves from the rest. Their wealth is worn on their bodies. Their homes are called palaces. Their chairs are thrones. Their carts are chariots and palanquins. Their names are titles. They have warriors to guard them - "bodyguards".

Not satisfied with one wife, they showed their prowess by accumulating girls for their harem. Often, these girls were forced into this sexual servitude - not a "One night with the King", romantic movie falsehood. Emperor Akbar of 16th century India, had 5000 women in his harem! I am certain he did not sleep with most of them :).

Their ultimate expression of self-dom is to claim divinity - to claim that they have intrinsic superiority - that they are God.

Orinary people still take great effort in trying to meet a person of power.

In contrast, Jesus came to serve common folk. His miracles were of compassion. To heal and feed people - to meet their needs. He went out looking for people who were divinely appointed to meet him. He trudged roads and paths, his feet got dirty, sweated and was tired. He ate the same foods as the local folk. Stayed in their humble homes. To demonstrate this principle, He even washed his disciples feet! He was sinless and pure. Instead of taking, He gave. Instead of demanding sacrifices, He sacrificed His life for the sins of the world. Instead of appropriating power for himself, he gives us his power to spread the gospel and His kingdom on earth.

Android Developers newsgroup post on Christmas

I was amazed to find this post yesterday on the Android Developer newsgroup, obviously from a sincere Hindu, completely ignorant about Jesus and Christmas. I hope he reads this explanatory link http://goodnewsforyou.tripod.com/
Anil

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: saurabh sinha
Date: Dec 24, 9:50 pm
Subject:
To: Android Developers


Hi

there is bitter truth behind christmas which I felt personally when
jesus was on earth nobody cared him
even he was punished by some bad people on cross sign including some
innocent people

but while dying he said to everyone I am dying for all of you and
today everyone missing him
its just a formality of doing and celebrating christmas

I mean to say when we have anything near we dont care but after
missing that same thing we start caring

well by the way this christmas inspiring to us we should care everyone
and never make any difference
it does not matter who is big or small matter should be good for others

but you know everyone celebrating no body think what are the main
reason behind this celebration

I thought deeply and paid homage to that great man who came on earth
and was good human being that is JESUS

Anil Philip's blog: Jesus touches a leper!

Anil Philip's blog: Jesus touches a leper!

Jesus touches a leper!

When I was growing up in Bangalore, my grandmother had to walk up a hillock, cross the railway tracks to go to the market (see map). One day, she came back shaken. The leper who used to beg near the hillock, had apparently tired of life and one night, went and lay down on the tracks. The train came through and chopped him up into pieces. My grandmother saddened, wondered at how he must have despaired of life. she had tossed him coins, and exchanged a few words (I don't know if she gave him the gospel).

At school, we learned that leprosy was incurable. That one's skin became desensitized to pain and fingers, noses, arms and legs gradually rotted away. I used to be scared at the thought of contracting this dreaded disease, and would hold my breath passing by one of 'them' so as not to breathe in the virus. If I tossed one a coin, it would be from afar. Lepers were usually beggars and pushed themselves on small wooden carts with trundle wheels where they begged at train and bus stations and markets. They were shunned by society and had no family, wandering instead in groups. People avoided them. (picture of leper and also here)

With this background, I was amazed when I read this sentence in the passage:

¹² While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
 ¹³ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
 ¹⁴ Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
 ¹⁵ Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5)

 Jesus touches a leper! For a Rabbi, this was unthinkable. It made Jesus ceremonially unclean according to Old Testament law in the Torah.
But think of why he did this. He could have healed the man with a single word as he did on so many occasions. Jesus did not need to touch the man. Yet he did.

To be touched is a universal human craving. Some years ago, Romanian orphanages found babies died mysteriously even when they were well fed. It was found that they were fed but left alone by themselves. When they were picked up and held and carried, the death rate in these orphanages diminished.

The man craved contact from another healthy human being. Being shunned from society meant that only another leper could touch him. People recoiled and shrank in horror when he approached; he had to loudly announce his presence in advance calling out, "Unclean!". The wound inside his soul was deep. Not just his rotting flesh, but his wounded soul needed healing. Being touched by Jesus even when he was diseased meant he was accepted and cared for.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5)

Furthermore, I believe that Jesus did not simply give him a light tap. I believe that Jesus really placed his hand on the leper's body so that the significance sunk into the psyche of the man.

Yet another arresting instance of the compassion of Jesus.

The birth of Jesus

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:6-7)

When I read these lines, I had to stop. The thought struck me. I had the mental picture of a baby, all wrinkled, eyes half open and wrapped in rough cloths and placed among some straw. Weak, vulnerable  and defenseless (although there were invisible angels guarding him). Jesus ate the same food and shared the discomforts of his poor working class family.

Satan is Real. And, a man should have the courage to lay down his life for his family.

I was outraged and shocked, reading the details of this horrific crime. Here are details of this home invasion and brutal murder of a family by two white men, Hayes and Komisarjevsky.

However, the more I chewed it over in my mind, the more agitated I was at the husband, Dr Petit.

1) He did not act like the leader of his family. He could have marshaled them together to fight the intruders, call 911, anything...
2) After he was tied up, he got free, and simply ran away to a neighbor's house - which is why he survived.

On the other hand, his wife went back to the house and was assaulted and killed. She had more concern for her family, if not foolishness in not waiting for police at the bank to catch Hays who was with her.

Satan is real. He enters a person granting them temporary invincibility to do monstrous evil. This happened wth Judas Iscariot in the Bible, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and to evil criminals like these two murderers.

The other striking thing is, if you are not under God's protection - under the blood of Jesus - you are vulnerable. The Bible says that Satan "prowls like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour".

Our society brings us up to think of survival of ourselves. A man should have the courage and recognition ahead of time, that he will lay down his life for his family. Dr Petit should have fought to the death. I pray that when faced with such a situation, I shall make the correct choice.

In fact, I was anguished to find that the killer said exactly that in a journal,

Hayley was the fighter of the family, according to Komisarjevsky, who claimed the father was "passive" toward saving his family.

"If you don't want to defend your family, then take your chances with the criminal while police sit outside and follow protocol," wrote Komisarjevsky
"Mr. Petit is a coward, he ran away when he felt his own life was threatened," Komisarjevsky wrote. "Time and time again I gave him the chance to save his family."

William Petit, who has attended every day of the the court hearings, sat stoicly through the accusation.

May pastors start exhorting men to be leaders in their homes. May pastors preach correctly that self-defense and defending your loved ones is required in the Bible.

Idea: progress bar for eBooks

Watching video or listening to audio, you have a progress bar or time line. Reading a book, you can hold the book sections in your hands to get a feel for your progress. Even a cassette tape player has a progress window. Unfortunately, with an eBook, there is no progress bar for a chapter.
Why not have a new widget - a progress bar for Wordprocessors? MSWord, Acrobat...
In the header, simply put a progress bar widget for the chapter. So if a chapter has 100 pages, each sheet has a progress bar ----->------------ Of course, the '>' represents your position in the chapter.
Or how about --------34---------100
If that is hard to generate, then simply write (say) "page 34 of 100"
Another way would be to have the scroll bar set to the size of the chapter (and not the entire book). 

Hmm... I dont find a 3rd party plugin here (http://www.adobesystems.ca/special/acrobat/pluginfinder.html) - perhaps I should write my own?

Was the Cross from God, or Satan?

As an icon among Catholics, and even in evangelical Christian worship songs, the Cross is venerated and held dearly.
However, I believe that the cross as the means for Jesus' death may actually have been from Satan. Here are some supporting reasons, and one opposing.

The Cross was from Satan:
God abhors cruelty.

• The entire book of Nahum in the Old Testament was a condemnation of Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. God condemned them for their extreme cruelty in war. My NIV Bible text note says that they would erect piles of chopped heads of the inhabitants of the cities they conquered. They would torture the leaders to death.

[TODO add more verses to support:]

The cross was an instrument of torture. It was a slow and painful death stretching over hours. Before crucifixion, Jesus was flogged with a Roman cat-o-nine tails. This multiple pronged whip contained shards of metal and glass and shredded a victims flesh and often itself caused death. On the cross, the victim was nailed at the forearms and shins to the wooden beams. To breathe, the victim had to raise himself (or herself) on his nailed arms and legs. Every breath was agony. Eventually he or she was exhausted and died of suffocation.
Jesus was the lamb of God who died for the sins of the world. In Jewish custom, the Passover lamb was slain humanely by slitting its throat. It was not tortured to death. God would have picked a humane way for his Son to be sacrificed.
When you read the book of Job in the Bible, you see Satan wanting to test Job's devotion to God. God allowed Satan to choose the means of testing. Satan used evil means including killing Job's children in a storm. Yet, God imposed boundaries on Satan - limits on what evil he could choose to do. God is not the author of evil.
Many of the Old Testament books of the Bible pointed to the Messiah and his experiences. I believe the book of Job points to Jesus' crucifixion. Just as Satan was allowed to choose the instrument in Job's disasters, so was Satan allowed to choose the instrument for Jesus' death.

The Cross was from God:
God prescribed stoning as a means of execution. I do not know why He allowed it because it seems cruel and horrific to me - yet, God is not a cruel God. Perhaps God hated sin so much that He prescribed this as a deterrent.

Conclusion: We must glorify the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross - not the cross itself.

The Church should preach Z-Giving, NOT Tithing

My pastor has been preaching a sermon series on spiritual warfare.
In this series he mentioned that it is a ploy of Satan for us to "ignore the subtle". Another week he mentioned that we are tempted by Satan to compromise the truth.

I observed that many pastors in churches we have attended, preach tithing and that it should be at least 10% of one's gross income.

However, in 2 Corinthians 9:7 it clearly states, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver". There is nothing anywhere in the NT that says it should be 10% or more. In other words, when God says "free-will giving", are pastors tempted by Satan to fudge the truth and say "at least 10% tithing"? Shouldn't also pastors trust God to supply their need rather than be tempted to "ignore the subtle" (a ploy of Satan). Aren't they being tempted to compromise the truth?

I observed that these same pastors are often angered or refuse to discuss the truth about tithing. Last month I was working in Atlanta GA, and visited Victory church in Norcross (8/29/2010). It was heartwarming to see the sincere congregation; almost every service had baptisms. However, the pastor was an abusive person. 

The senior pastor Dennis Rouse preached a blistering sermon on tithing The senior pastor Dennis Rouse preached a blistering sermon on tithing He preached against those who were sitting in the pews and consuming and not giving, against those who pass the offering bucket without dropping anything in, against those who did not contribute to the building fund. He also preached that those who gave less than 10% of their gross income to his church were robbing God. Finally, he said that he wanted non-tithers to leave his church. 
I went to him afterward and said, "I have no problem with giving to the church. I used to give 11% of the gross and now it has dropped to 10% of the net. I have studied this topic and believe in the NT, 2 Corinthians 9:7 applies", and quoted it.  Whereupon he got enraged, stepped into me, literally breathing into my mouth and jabbed me in my side with his finger and said angrily, "Listen, Everything in the OT remains and became more in the NT". Then he walked away saying he would not argue this topic.
I feel such strong reactions come because they secretly know the truth and are guilty.

As a result, they pull out the Tithing sermon once or twice a year hammering the congregation with Malachi 3, accusing them of "robbing God" and "cursed with a curse".
The rest of the year, they are afraid to talk about money lest the congregation get fed up.

Not Tithing, does not mean Not Giving.

From other passages, Giving should be generous, regular, a percentage of income, cheerfully.  "As he has decided in his heart" does not mean whimsical or sporadic based upon mood.  In other words it should be disciplined and regular.

I wonder what would happen if pastors preached thus. They should regularly preach this kind of, let us call it, Z-Giving. When they do not hint at 10% but leave the percentage up to the person and God, then it allows God to work in their heart to give generously and cheerfully. The closer they grow to God, the more they want to give.

When their Z-Giving is dependent upon how close they are to God, then as the pastor does his good work, it can only grow and be joyous and generous.

The OT required obedience from the congregant to give 10%. The NT requires obedience of the pastor to faithfully preach Z-Giving and to get the people close to God.

When you tie your self-worth to your standard of living, you will always be poor.

When you tie your self-worth to your standard of living, you will always be poor.

Let's say you want to drink coffee. You can choose between Starbucks (upper class and expensive), Panera Bread (slightly less expensive) and McDonalds (cheapest).
If going to the McDonalds makes you feel embarrassed, and lower class, then chances are, you tie your self-worth to your standard of living.
So let's say you go to the Starbucks and instead of $1 for a coffee in McDonalds, you spend $2.79.
In other words your standard of living has been raised in order to make you feel good.
Now multiply this effect across the hundreds of spending decisions you must make over the period of a month.
For every buying decision you make, if you pick the premium option, your bills at the end of the month will be a lot larger than necessary. You will either land heavily in debt if unrestrained,
or if you force yourself to pick cheap, you will feel unworthy and miserable.

Take another example. Let's say you have $2500 to buy a car. You can choose to buy an old car, say, a 11 year old Toyota Corolla for $2500 OR a new Honda CRV SUV costing $23,000. You are embarrassed to drive the Corolla - it has some rust spots and looks worn. Most of all, it is below your standard of living! So you pay the $2500 as a down payment, and buy the spanking new SUV. The payments are only $600 a month...

Do you see my point? The cumulative cost of all these 'minor' decisions will soon engulf you!

When you tie your self-worth to your standard of living, you will always be poor.

Dont buy a TomTom GPS. Tax cheats.

They are trying to evade US taxes. So they send emails offering $30 off TomTom XXL550. I purchased it for $176 and found additional charges. They did not tell me that it is a foreign currency transaction. It was listed in US dollars. My credit card company has charged me an additional $5.30 as foreign currency fees.


They have billed it to their Netherlands office even though they are registered in Massachusetts.

I want to return the product for a full refund but they make it impossible to do so. If the package has been opened, they charge 15% restocking.

I have complained to the Federal Trade Commission - they are doing this to evade US taxes. This is cheating.

I want everyone to be aware of their illegal actions.

Pastor-driven churches are an Old Testament model.

In my 15 years in America, I have been a regular attender at 4 churches, of different denominations, all of them pastor-driven. I have also visited a further 8-10 churches.
It seems to me an Old Testament model, where the pastor is like Moses (or David), the praise and worship team is like Miriam.
The congregation is only expected to tithe and volunteer (serve). This is because the anointing was only on the chosen few.
So in the Old Testament, the leader was the go-between between man and God.
However in the New Testament, we are all anointed because we all have the Holy Spirit.
We are all priests. (numerous passages).
We are Living Stones in the Temple. (1 Peter 2:5).
It is participatory. "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. " 1 Corinthians 14:26
We are the Body of Christ. (numerous passages).
Yet, in our services, there is such tight control. It is exactly like the Old Testament.
The congregation is only expected to tithe and volunteer (serve), to sing in praise and worship, and make up the numbers.
Where there is tight control, there is also manipulation - for money and power.
Only one person teaches. The elders seem like titular figureheads.
The body of Christ is like a teenager - constantly attending classes and stuck between baby and adulthood.
Gifts are not exercised.
When I asked a visiting leader (and pastor) about this situation, I have been told that it is in the small group that one exercises one's gifts.
However this seems like putting your child in the sandbox (or the family room) where he can safely get dirty, make noise, without disturbing the adults in the living room (main sanctuary).
The leader also told me that this was to ensure decency and order as in 1 Corinthians 14. However, this goal of orderliness can still be achieved in a participatory congregation.
A pastor-driven church does not reflect the New Testament model of the body of Christ.
Pastor-driven churches gradually become pastor-centered and from then on, degenerate into corruption and abuse.
The Reformation fought to remove the Papacy with its abuses and wrong model. However, this itself seems like a new papacy.
Is this tight control reducing the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit?