The Case for Christ

Lee Strobel, an ex-atheist, tells his story about how his investigation of the evidence led him to become a Christian.

I read the book and this video is a very good summary especially for people who can't be bothered reading.

Recommended for Christians and non-Christians seeking an answer to the question: Is the Bible historically accurate? and was Jesus really the Son of God, or just a good and wise teacher?

Thoughts on Destiny

The latest headline in the Herald reads "Destiny Church demands more than tithe, former members say".  This past week has throttled Destiny Church into the spot light as a corrupt cash cult out to get your money.  Has it tainted the reputation of all Christian churches in New Zealand?  It all started at when a Pastor at a branch in Brisbane walked out taking half the congregation with him.  If we think back a bit, it actually started when Bishop Tamaki initiated the covenant with those $300 signet rings.  Come to think of it, maybe it started a bit earlier?  See, what makes Destiny Church different is, we just don't know what goes on behind those doors.  The Churches eldership has no accountability, there is no transparency or visibility into what goes on.  We really don't know when the problem started, we don't know how, and we don't know why.  For years Destiny has been considered a cult, but only now has it be scrutinized in the public by its own members.

So what is wrong with Destiny?  They are giving out AP forms which force members to give 10% of their income, they are requiring the purchase of signet rings and other strange rituals which make Brian Tamaki some sort of God or Messiah.

To address the first issue, I hope it is obvious Brian Tamaki is not God, or a Messiah, or any other sort of prophet or special super person.  To me, a person who has never met him, Tamaki seems like a charismatic leader who believes in God or at least claims so.  At least he may have started off as God fearing believer, maybe he really did get sent by God to accomplish something, but every leader knows their greatest temptation is pride.  And surely if Tamaki was ever genuine, its because of the pride that has gotten to his head.

But you may say, God's leaders don't need money to be compensated.  And this 10% tithe thing seems wrong.  Where does this 10% tithe even come from?  I'll probably have to write a whole separate blog post for that topic.  But  what I will say is this, giving to the Church must be earnest and free from compulsion.  Giving as an act to gain status or believing that God will enrich you with Earthly riches also is the wrong way to go about it.  Brain Tamaki's extravagant lifestyle has lead many to assume he is taking the money for himself.  This may have come from a thinking that he deserves some compensation for looking after God's people, this may even come from thinking that God is rewarding him.  Whatever he thinks, I think that it would be better for such a public figure to be cautious with such money.  Even a less profiled person would do well to be generous with their money and be cautious in how they handle donations.  For example if you are a volunteer who raises money through fundraisers, it may not be wise to spend the money on flash cars and extravagant dinners.  Living in poverty earns my respect, and I think it will be rewarded by God in other ways, after all, we cannot take our material wealth with us after we die.

Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.  Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. - Matt 6:16

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on  earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal - Matt 6:19-20

Should Christians celebrate Halloween?

With Halloween just passing us by, it is the first time I have actually considered the issue.  Chuck Missler says "For a Christian to celebrate Halloween is like a Holocaust survivor celebrating Hitler's Birthday".

Halloween comes from the ancient Celts in Britain, but a similar day exists for many other cultures around the world.  This particular day gets its name from "All Hallow's Eve", being one day before All-Saints day.  Strangely enough it was not common for Halloween to be practiced world wide until the 20th century.

Now, the problem with Halloween is its association with evil spirits and satanic practices.  It is not uncommon for people to try to contact "lost spirits".  I heard some strange stuff about Christians who pray for the salvation of the dead.  On one hand, we can say that its just a bit of harmless fun for the children.  But even if you don't believe in the supernatural stuff, it can be very dangerous to be ignorant or accustomed to Halloween and think of it as completely harmless.  By trivializing Halloween, we let down our defense and open the door to allow evil to creep into our lives.  I have heard a few stories of people starting off playing with ouija boards, asking "people who know more about this stuff" and getting drawn into a cult whereby they get impregnated and sacrifice the fetus of the aborted child by fire - in New Zealand.  Witchcraft is not something to take lightly, all occult "religions" claim that they lead you to the light.  An ex-satanist claims that the "light" these religions lead to, is in fact Satan or Lucifer, the Angel of Light.  As described in the Bible, Satan is the deceiver who originally tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God, and continues to this day to deceive all mankind.  He does this by pretending to be the truth and the light.  There is also much to be said about people with supernatural abilities, brought on by demons etc, but thats for you to do your own study on.

In conclusion, we ought not to trivialize these practices which popular culture adheres to.  Easter for example comes from the Babylonian Goddess Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, hence the rabbit and the eggs being symbols of fertility.  Its one thing to think of these as fun harmless things for kids to do, or a big marketing scam by corporations.  But we ought not to take part but rather the opposite, to actively oppose it when it is brought up, and lovingly suggest the alternative.  Selling your soul to the devil is only fun in the movies.

Why Christians go to Church: My thoughts on Baptism and Church Membership

Do only Christians attend church? No.  Many people attend church who don't believe in God, many people who think they are Christians attend church, yet they are not Christians, for it is not Church attendance that makes one a christian.  And there are many Christians who don't attend church, for they chose not to, although it is arguable whether such christians are christians at all!

So how do you become a Christian?  It is to be "born again", to believe that Jesus died for your sins, to repent and be baptised.  Its not whether you say you are, its whether you truely believe, and only God knows.  Its interesting that in the bible, we see every believer is baptized, in almost every instance, its "repent and be baptised".  There was no delay or wait, no infant baptisms, no "baptism classes".  And straight after that, they were part of the church.  Repentance and accepting Jesus and baptism were often spoken of as one thing.  So baptism was a way of visibly identifying that you were joining into the church or the "body of christ", hence the term Church Member as in members of the body (like hands and feet).

And then theres the distinction between your local church, the one that meets every sunday in that church building, to that of the universal church, the one encompasing all believers.  Why are there so many different churches, denominations?  Do they believe in different things? do you need to find the one that matches your own beliefs?  Some churches have people jumping around and waving their arms, some have lots of old people that stand stiff and still... is there a proper way to attend church and worship God?

I believe there are absolutely no requirements to Church membership, there shouldn't be.  Church leadership and eldership is another matter however.  But you cannot have exams, and degree requirements for Church membership, because one ought to become a member as soon as they are baptized, which is as soon as they repent and believe and recieve Jesus.  They become part of the universal church which encompases all Christians, and they ought to be member of their local church.  Come as you are, but don't stay as you are.  Its up to the other Church members, and the Holy Spirit, to model and change that young baby Christian to be more like Jesus, the perfect man.  And in time, supernaturaly, we may come close to believing all the right things about God.  All our human divisions are created out of sin and intollerance, we must learn to agree to disagree.  We cannot kick people out because we don't agree with them (this is usually us thinking we are right) and we ought not to leave and start our own group.  We trust that in the end, God knows our hearts, and our deeds, and most importantly the strength of our relationship with Him.  And His Love, Justice, and Mercy will be revealed to all; within the church and outside.

Open Source Home Group

Tonight, Kathy and I attended the Young Professionals homegroup from ACPC (Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church). I call it the Open Source home group or the Mozilla Home group because it is led by Robert O'Callahan at his Mozilla office in New Market (above Lone Star). I guess it was fitting for Mozilla to open up their office for our use.

I enjoyed the evening, which started off with Kathy and myself rushing to get there and stuffing ourselves with something to eat quickly for fear that the evening would end late and we would starve and we were going to be very late. Only to arrive and pizza was provided, also free so very Open Source indeed. (But I must add that Microsoft .Net User groups offer free beer and pizza too).

Although it was not an actual bible study, we studied the work of A.W. Tozer; Knowledge of the Holy, where we discussed the attributes of God. The main thing that stood out for me from Tozer's work, was that because God is infinite, His attributes are also infinite, in number and magnitude. And also God doesn't "have" attributes, He is His attributes. God doesn't have the attribute of Love, Kindness, Patience... He is love, He is Kind, He is Patience.

Of course no biblical discussion would be complete without the sidetracking. Also covered was the never-possible-to-truly-comprehend idea of predestination and free will. Did Judas Iscariot have a choice in betraying Jesus? Someone had to do it if God had prophesied right? If he hadn't done it, Jesus wouldn't be able to fulfill His destiny and save mankind. Why did God create Him for this purpose? How could a loving God create someone knowing they would be destined for Hell? Although the answer is not easy, it starts with realizing that the choice was still Judas' to make. We cannot blame God for Judas' actions any more than we can blame our parents for our actions. Even when our parents know what we are about to do, the responsibility still falls on us.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Thou Shall Not Steal

Today we (re)visited Eastgate Christian Center for the 9am service. This was to allow us to visit the Ellerslie Car Fair afterwards. The first thing I noticed was two large stone tablets on the stage resembling the tablets that Moses brought down with the 10 commandments. There were only 7 inscribed which indicated they were going through a series on the 10 commandments and were up to the 7th study (from what I gather they skipped the first one, maybe to do it last?) on thou shall not steal. I was pleasantly surprised when Andy got up to speak. Andy is an amazing reflection of God and His work to transform. Visit his blog at Kiwi Chronicles.

The message really pierced my heart, and got me thinking about the many ways we have broken God's laws, and how much we really need Him, His mercy, and His grace.

Stealing is taking anything for yourself that doesn't belong to you. this can include:

• Physically taking goods, services, possessions, money that belong to someone else
• Borrowing things and not returning them
• Stealing from your employer by slacking or surfing facebook, or by taking extra long tea breaks, taking extra stationary, making personal phone calls...
• Downloading or purchasing illegal movies or music
• Charging an unfair price on goods or services you are selling, including falsely advertising something
• Evading your taxes
• Being "ungenerous" with your time and money is stealing from God, as all things are given to you by God to bless you and for you to bless others
• Disobeying your parents is stealing from their joy
• Distrusting or being defensive to your spouse is stealing them of intimacy
• Not respecting others is stealing their respect, because All people are made in the image of God and deserve respect simply for being human. This includes being late, which is stealing other people's time
• Desiring something, coveting something, may be as good as stealing it in your heart

This is a timely message, as I am currently studying Matt 5 in my ACPC home group. Matthew 5 is where Jesus explains the old testament law and reveals its true intent and meaning. He gives 6 examples; anger, lust, divorce, promises, retaliation, and loving your enemy. But really we can extend these examples to ALL the old testament laws and consider their application in today's context, and I guarantee you will be astonished. I have broken all God's laws and I can only stand before God because of what Jesus did on the cross.

PS: Kathy finnaly bought a car! 2004 Nissan March

*EDIT* Kathy returned the Nissan March and got a Toyota Vitz instead

Fair Trade at Salvation Army

This morning (Sunday) I woke up to my alarm which is set to 7:50am and after setting it off and realizing it was 45min too early, I headed back to sleep. When I next woke up it was a good 10 minutes past 9 and the Church Service at Howick Baptist was starting at 9:30. So after quickly showering and brushing my teeth, I sped off to pick up Kathy. Thinking constantly that we would be late again for the 4th consecutive time I was also thinking about other churches we could attend.

After picking Kathy up and learning that her parents would be attending Salvation Army (a few blocks away from Howick Baptist which had a service starting at 10am) it gave us a moment for a breather and some breakie! So I stopped at McDonalds and used my good 'ol entertainment book to grab 2 McMuffins and a hash brown (mmm yummy hash browns!) and a McCafe Mocha, we headed over the service.

Upon ariving, we noticed the hall laid out with tables like it was a restaraunt with a variety of cookies and chocolates and sandwhiches on it. Wow this isn't a church service! So after a song and a welcome, the leader or speaker announced that this was a special occasion which to try out some fair trade food and coffee. After some messages we watched a video clip about fair trade coffee. All the while I was thinking about the coffee I had purchased and was still sipping! it had approved by the rainforest alliance but nothing about fair trade stamped on it...

The economics behind the Oxfam fair trade cooperative is quite interesting. This however is purely my take on it. Bassically you have many many farmers selling coffee beans at a low price due to supply (see Economics 101 Supply and Demand theory). The problem arises because the price is barely enough to break even, and the standard of living in those countries is simply unacceptable. The Oxfam organization essentially unites all these farmers and sellers to pool their supply and boosting their selling power. They can demand a higher price, turning a "perfect competetive" market into more of an "Oligopoly". Some can argue that this creates market inefficiencies but I think that there are market externallities which need to be taken into account. The cost of such low priced coffee beans is having a negative impact on their economies and the world. Deforestation, Crime, Instability, Visous-cycle of uneducated communities... you get the picture.

It certainly has achieved what it set out to though, which is to raise awareness of fair trading and I will definintely think twice before buying that coffee next time!