Europe was once a Christian continent...

The decline of Christianity accompanied by the rise of twin forces, secular postmodernism and Islam, is an interesting if not alarming development. Christian churches are shuttered while mosques open. Now this interesting news item, the announcement of the building of the "largest mosque in Europe":

Chechen president to inaugurate 'largest mosque in Europe'

THE JERUSALEM POST

The Russian-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov will inaugurate the "largest mosque in Europe" on October 17 in Chechnya, the Russian official news agency Novosty reported.
Over 10,000 worshipers will be able to pray inside the mosque, which will be named after the president's father, Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in 2004.

"The largest mosque in Europe... will by inaugurated on the first day of the International Peacemakers' Conference, titled 'Islam - Religion of Peace and Progress,'" the grand mufti of Chechnya, Sultan Mirzayev, told the press.

Mirzayev underlined that approximately 50 countries have already approved their participation in the three-day conference.

The building of the mosque began more than three years ago. Surrounding the mosque will be Chechnya's Islamic administration, a religious school, an Islamic university, a hotel and a religious library.

Kadyrov, 31, is the son of Ahmad Kadyrov, an anti-Russian rebel leader who at one point was titled "Chechnya's rebel mufti" [mufti - an Islamic, cleric who issues religious decrees].
In 1999 the Kadyrovs defected to the Russian side. On March 2, 2007 then Russian president Vladimir Putin nominated Kadyrov as Chechen president.

Notable quote

A real thought provoker came my way today- thought I'd share:

"Correct judgment comes from a place; that place is called experience."

-Author unknown

Sunday laugh (on a Monday)...

I guess this brings new meaning to the song "Come just as you are".

And free coffee too?!

Sunday AM Series: Romans

Pastor Joel Santti: Romans 9:1-33

Election, Israel, and God's Purpose

-Important to remember that God's dealings with humankind has always been by faith.

v. 1-5
Paul's burden for the Jews expressed.
-echoes Moses's desire in Exodus 32:32
Israel's many blessings can't save them; only faith in Christ will.

v. 6-13
One's lineage can't save them.
-examples Ishmael, Esau

v. 14-24
God's power as shown in His mercy and judgment.
-God blessed Pharaoh, then cut him off.

v. 25-33
-Salvation by Christ, not ethnicity.

Culture Watch: Creeping Secularism?

Interesting stuff came out today in the form of a Pew Research Center report on the role of religion in public life. Close to 3,000 adults 18 and over were surveyed about several issues regarding church and state. The broad findings? 52% of those surveyed felt that churches should "stay out" of political issues, while 45% felt that churches should express their views. The Pew Center finds the responses of "social conservatives" most striking: 50% of those who fell into that category felt that religion and politics shouldn't mix; in 2004 only 30% of the same group felt this way. Why is this? The Pew Center doesn't answer this. Other interesting facts from the survey included:

-Two-thirds of the public (66%) say that churches and other houses of
worship should not endorse one candidate over another, which is unchanged since 2004 (65%).

-Half of Americans (50%) say that it does not bother them when politicians talk about how religious they are, but the number expressing discomfort has edged upward over the past four years.

-An overwhelming majority of the public continues to say that it is important to them that a
president have strong religious beliefs. More than seven-in-ten Americans express this opinion, and attitudes on this issue have not changed in recent years.

-A slim majority (52%) says the GOP (Republican Party) is friendly toward religion, compared with 38% who say the same about the Democratic Party.

-When asked to assess their own moral values on a scale from liberal to conservative,
49% of Americans place themselves on the conservative side of the scale, while just 20% place
themselves on the liberal side (29% describe themselves as moderate.)

-A majority of Americans (54%) say abortion should be legal in most (37%) or all (17%) cases, while 41% oppose legalized abortion in most (26%) or all (15%) circumstances.

-67% of those surveyed favor faith-based initiatives.

You can see the survey in its entirety here.

All joking aside...

Willard public schools begins classes tomorrow. Please join us in praying for the students, staff, and teachers. Pray for a safe and successful year. Go get 'em, Tigers!

"Which service?"

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The seven year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the Pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, "Good Morning Alex." "Good morning Pastor," he replied, still focused on the plaque.

"Pastor, what is this?" he asked the pastor. The pastor said, "Well, son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service." Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear, asked "which service, the 9:45 or the 11:15?"

What Coke and Mentos teach us about God's purpose

After a couple of weeks in children's church, I can say emphatically that I learn as much (or more) as do the kids. Today was no different. We were talking about God's purpose and plan for our lives and how that for each of us, there's a God-shaped hole that only He can fill inside us. Maybe you've seen or heard of the "pop" culture phenomena that the combination of coke and mentos candy has caused (if not, you can read here). For those of you who don't know, basically when a package (8-12) mentos are dropped into a two liter of soda, a geyser-like eruption occurs. The science behind this explosive combo can be found here.

So today with a two liter of cherry coke under one arm and a package of mentos in the other, we headed outside to create a geyser for ourselves. We first had a bottle of water, plopping the mentos into the H2O. Nothing happened. We told the kids that this is like when we put the wrong things into that God-shaped hole- whatever it is, nothing happens because God designed Himself to occupy that spot in our lives. You can put whatever you choose into that spot: other people, a job, money, a car, clothes, power, etc and nothing occurs.

Then we did the same thing with the cherry coke. The result was about an eight foot geyser of soda. When you introduce the right thing, the designed reaction occurs. Just like when God fills that hole inside of us- we find our purpose in His plan. We might as well be rocket-powered.

In John 7:38 Jesus said "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Perhaps for one second those kids saw how this verse works when the mentos were dropped into the coke.

(You can see the reactions of coke and mentos here)

"Olympic Persecution"

While swimmer Michael Phelps continutes his assault on the record books in the Beijing Olympics, another kind of assault continues in China: the assault on religious liberty. Consider this news item from the Voice of the Martyrs:

Pastor Hua Huiqi, who was evicted from his rental apartment in Beijing on July 2, and subsequently forced to leave China’s capital, was arrested Sunday while trying to attend a service at a state-approved church. The service at the Three Self-Patriotic Movement’s Kuanjie Church was attended by U.S. President George W. Bush. According to China Aid Association, Pastor Hua was walking to the state-approved church early Sunday morning when he was detained by the Chinese police. After about six hours, Pastor Hua took an opportunity and fled. He is now at large. Pastor Hua once had his door welded shut by Chinese police to keep him inside. In another incident, a policeman used a 10-pound hammer to break the locks on his door to evict Pastor Hua and his family including his 90-year-old father. Since that incident a couple of months ago Pastor Hua has been basically homeless. Government officials have labeled Hua a trouble-maker and stated their intention was to detain Hua until after the Olympic Games.

It would be nice to say that this is just an isolated incident. It'd be nice to say that Pastor Hua is just, as the government says, "a troublemaker". It'd be nice- but it wouldn't be true.

Consider what the State Department said in its most recent report on religious liberty in China:

"During the period covered by this report, the Government's respect for freedom of religion remained poor, especially for religious groups and spiritual movements that are not registered with the Government. The Government expelled several foreign citizens on charges of conducting "illegal religious activities" by proselytizing in the spring of 2007. According to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), religious organizations, and house church groups, over one hundred were expelled. The Government also questioned house church leaders about connections with foreigners and plans to disrupt the Olympics. Some of these groups alleged that these incidents were part of a coordinated government campaign to repress religious expression. The Government also continued to emphasize the role of religion in building a "Harmonious Society," which was a positive development with regard to the Government's respect for religious freedom."

Pray for China.

Welcome FEEDJIT

You'll notice a box on the left hand side of the blog, most of the way down the page. Meet a fun little gadget called FEEDJIT. FEEDJIT shows you what geographical locations visit the church blog. Never fear though, your anonymity is safe as FEEDJIT won't display, record, or store a specific IP (internet provider) address- just someone's general (non-specific) geographical location. It's a neat way of discovering who stumbles upon the church blog and where in the world they're located.

Midweek Merriment

For some midweek fun, let's sample a series of church signs including one from a church that appears to enjoy inflicting its parishioners...

When God reaches through the daily grind...

...to meet you where you are. Have you ever been there, out in the course of your week like a thirsty person wandering through the desert trying to find their way through when God reaches through past your "to-do" list, your meeting schedule, your emails, the phone calls you have to return, the people you have to please...and finds you?

It's not as though you're backsliding but you're out there living like your success or failure is completely up to you...then God shows you another path. With our human ingenuity, we plot courses and plan moves. Yet God has another way many times and it's always the much better way in every respect. Proverbs 16:33 says "the lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD."

If anything, I'm guilty of knowing about the abundant life Jesus promises. Knowing about it and living it are two different things. I may know a lot about the Great Wall of China; experiencing it is another thing altogether since I've never been there. So it is with God and His promises; you can hear all about them- from the pulpit on Sunday and from the stories of your Christian friends- yet if you don't choose to fully follow Christ, you'll never experience it. By "experience" I'm not referring to some signs and wonders thing. Rather, I'm talking about knowing something is so because you've put it to the test in the rough-and-tumble workaday world in which we live and seen Him come through.

Then, as you scurry from one fire to the next, you know what it's like when God finds you, reaches down, and touches you reviving your spent soul and weary mind. This is the life He has for us...if we chose it for ourselves.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)

One of the towering figures of the 20th Century has died. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian historian, philosopher, and author whose epic The Gulag Archipelago exposed the West to the horrors of Soviet tyranny inside their forced labor camps. One source described him thusly: "Driven, principled, frequently arrogant, a bearded figure with the fierce visage of a prophet, Mr. Solzhenitsyn (sohl-zheh-NEETS-ihn) was regarded as one of the greatest and most influential writers of the 20th century." Christian leader Charles Colson once compared Solzhenitsyn to the prophet Jeremiah after the Russian sage lambasted his Harvard audience for among other things allowing man to become "the master of this world … who bears no evil within himself...So all the defects of life" are attributed to "wrong social systems."

It's difficult to overestimate the affect The Gulag Archipelago had on shaping the mind of the West toward the Soviet Union. Historians credit Solzhenitsyn along with Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II with framing the moral and ideological case against the Soviet Union. Before you go, read two pieces. One from Charles Colson about Solzhenitsyn at Harvard and the second is an editorial that ran in a Canadian newspaper following his death. It can be found here.

Dog Days of Summer...

We find ourselves in the "dog days" of summer (incidently you can find why it's called the dog days here)...people seem to be here and there, taking their last minute trips before fall comes, school begins, and it's back to the routine. We've gotten out of the routine here at the blog, working on papers for summer school classes, and taking those last minute trips all while doing some activity in conjunction with the recent election. But we're back and posting so, check back often. And we'll see ya at church...