Arjay's Weblog

Oprah !

More here on Oprah than I ever cared to know, yet quite interesting.  Did you know that she was supposed to be "Orpah" Winfrey?  Evidently, Orpah was a character in the Old Testament book of Ruth.  (Ruth 1:14)  It was a misspelling, kinda like "Isiah" Thomas, the former Detroit Pistons legend.

In the RJV or RJVersion of the Bible, <big grin> Oprah is the Antichrist, Martha Stewart is the False Prophet, and the seven seal judgments all proceed from episodes of either Trading Spaces or What Not to Wear.

(In all seriousness, Mohler's column below is a really good insight into what really must be considered a religious movement.  Yes, you can slap the label HERETIC on me and send me on my way.  Slow death in a fondue pot awaits.)

The Church of Oprah Winfrey - A New American Religion?

I know it's wrong, but...

...I busted out laughing when my wife and I first saw the video taken at the Wal-Mart store in the Grand Rapids area, showing consumers being trampled  by other consumers.  I laughed because just a few days ago I blogged that these people "all deserve each other." 

You wouldn't want to get between a meth freak or a crack addict and his next fix, so why would you think it would be safe to place yourself between wild-eyed consumers and their next consumption?  The media whips these addicts into a feeding frenzy starting around Halloween and then the climax builds until 5:00 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving and all hell breaks loose.  Go figure!  Maybe the catchy little "Black Friday" moniker can now be changed to "Black-and-Blue Friday". 

Season's Beatings!!!

R.J.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope y'all have a great holiday.  Marci and I are off on Friday so we've got a nice 4-day weekend.  Snowy and cold, yet nice.  Better tune up my roof rake.

I'm not big on holidays, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Thanksgiving as that  is the posture we need to assume always before God - 24/7, 365 days a year.

I guess the saddest thing about Black Friday (that's the day after Thanksgiving when consumers bless manufacturers and retailers with their cash) is that it seems to betray a  certain lack of contentment.  I'm not saying people can't enjoy shopping, but getting up to be at the mall at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning  is more a disease than a hobby or pastime or useful endeavor,  in my very humble opinion.  In other words, those folks are NUTS!  They ALL deserve each other.

Can't we have 24 or 48 hours without commerce screwing it all up?

I've found the secret that Paul spoke of in Philippians, chapter 4, and it's a dandy for those who have ears to hear:
(not a foppish dandy like Prince Charles, but, well, you know what I mean)

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him wh0 gives me strength.

Contentment.  No batteries required.

Grace and peace,

R.J.

P.S.  I haven't read the sermon below yet, but I can tell you without reservation that it is most excellent.

Knowledge.  Worship.  Gratitude.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1763.htm

Wall Street Journal on The 100-Minute Bible

It's sad that we live in a post-literate world.  People are so addicted to video that they have to have it with them at all times; in their cars, on their cell phones and now on their iPods.  It's beyond me why anyone would actually put themselves through the torture of trying to watch anything on a 1.5 inch screen.  But then, when you're an addict and you're jonesing for a fix, you'd sell your firstborn for a peek at the neon god we've made.

If what Johann Gutenberg brought the world with movable type is undone by the likes of Zenith and Sony and Toshiba, what kind of world will it be?  It will be a world filled with people unable to form a complete thought on their own.  It will be a place where a child's only memory of Lewis' Narnia series is one that was formed on the big screen.

So now we have The 100-Minute Bible.  Here's part of the website's description of this great innovation:  "The 100-Minute Bible is primarily intended for people who have an interest in Christianity but not the time (nor tenacity!) to read the whole Bible.  As the title indicates most people will only take 100 minutes to read it, making it ideal for an upcoming rail or aeroplane journey."

Thanks be to God we don't have a Savior who took shortcuts in His dedication to His sheep.  He laid down His life for His own.  Today, if it can't be done while we are busy conducting business or vacationing, it's simply not worth our investment of time.  How sad are we that 100 minutes is all we have for the King of Glory, the God who became man so He could endure Hell on our behalf?  Beaten, mocked, scourged - and 100 minutes is all we have for Him. 

The 100-Minute Bible is an awesome testimony to our hurried, careless and increasingly worthless generation.  Worthless because we esteem His glory so very lightly.

R.J.

Bible to Go
Speed-reading Scripture is  not a new idea.   Is it a good one?

Pastor Kyle Lake's Electrocution

Any of you heard of the Scared Straight program that used to be employed to keep kids out of prison?

I don't know about you but God still scares me.  I think we get a false sense of familiarity with Him to our own peril.  I've been following this story since it broke in the news and it reminds me of the passage in Scripture where Uzzah reaches out to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant and is struck dead:

2 Samuel 6:7-9
The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverant act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.  Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.  David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, "How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?"

All we know for sure about Uzzah is that he was struck dead that day.  We do not know his eternal fate, nor do we know the eternal fate of any human being with any real certainty.  God looks upon the heart and sees perfectly and we simply do not.

We cannot package God, we cannot make Him our bestest buddy.  We can only fear Him and be thankful for his abundant mercy toward us, sinners.  He has revealed to us in Scripture those things about Him that He has deemed necessary for us to know, namely concerning our salvation and how it is obtained.

I'm not sure if I am in 100% agreement with Paul Proctor's conclusion regarding Lake's death, but I do think that wise people can definitely learn something from this tragedy - as is the case with any tragedy - Katrina, Rita, earthquakes, etc.

Bad things happen every day, to good people and bad, and like Jesus said regarding the fall of the tower of Siloam, "But unless you repent, you too will all perish."  (Luke 13:5)

Please pray for Kyle's family and ask God's mercy upon those who gather at UBC Waco.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

R.J.

God Sends Shocking Message to Emerging Church - by Paul Proctor

Link to Kyle Lake's Final Sermon

Postmodernism: The Death of God and the Rise of Community

Francis Schaeffer in his book The God Who Is There proposed what is called the "line of despair."  He suggests that cultural paradigms shift in an orderly manner.  They begin with philosophy, continue with art and music, saturate the culture, and then gradually seep into theology.  It is a repetitious cycle.  A philosopher comes up with a new spin on reality, an artist then puts his interpretation down on canvas, the culture soaks it up like a dry sponge in water, and then culture infects the church.  This cycle repeats itself over and over again.

I wish that we were on the verge of a cultural shift - that we were at a crossroads and if we turned the wheel hard enough we could circumvent what lies before us as a Church.  However, this shift is upon us.  It has been going on for centuries - since the beginning of the second millennium.  This repetitive cycle where one period's philosophy becomes the next period's theology, was not born out of the modern period, but more rightly the medieval period.

Let us look at this line of despair, which begins with philosophy and ends with theology.

Continue reading...
Postmodernism: The Death of God and the Rise of the Community
by Michael D. Makidon
Director of Publications
Grace Evangelical Society
Irving, Texas

Stupid Church Tricks in Grandville, Michigan

No, that's not Corey Feldman from "Stand By Me".  It's Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church down the road in Grandville.   (Corey's on the right)

I guess how it works in the "emergent" movement is the uglier the glasses, the holier thou art!

You'll read the Detroit Free Press article below and immediately recall the time that Jesus assembled the disciples and had them cut up their credit cards.  I did.  It's right there in Mammon 3:16.  And the kickin' band!  Who can ever forget Peter on the Stratocaster in the upper room?  Man, that Rock rocked!!!

I said it in my blog piece  on Bell a few months ago and the question still comes to me:  Mr. Bell, who commissioned you to "disorganize religion"? 

I recall a certain Serpent who did a very good job back in Genesis.

The Detroit Free Press
November 11 2005
An Unconventional Pastor Looks to Disorganize Religion

Mohler and Machen on Education

I read this decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week and on Friday, Al Mohler wrote about it.  It immediately reminded me of testimony I had read by J. Gresham Machen.  Way back in 1926, Machen testified before a Senate committee in opposition to the formation of a Department of Education.

Machen left Princeton because of liberalism and founded Westminster Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination.

Machen's testimony is really fascinating stuff.  He foresaw the evils that would eventually erupt from a bureaucratic, centralized education department.  He was dead on.

America's Parents Served Notice - Dr. R. Albert Mohler
"Who decides  what children will be taught about sex?  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals served notice on America's parents this week, ruling that parents of elemenary-aged school children have no right to be the "exclusive providers" of sex information to their children."

J. Gresham Machen - Testimony Before House and Senate Committees on the Proposed Department of Education, 1926

J. Gresham Machen - Brief Autobiographical Sketch

Update!!  Excellent post along these lines by Vox Day
Feeding the Fires of Moloch