Come on over...

I've setup my blog at a new website, using Wordpress, which give me quite a bit more flexibility than here at blogger.

So, come on over to Hindsey.com to see what I've got there, and to enjoy your lunch-time thoughts!

Just a thought...

Coming Soon...

So, I've decided to resume my blogging habit. Coming very soon, there will be a new place to read my posts, and interact! I will let you know soon.

Just a thought...

The Christian Faith

We're gonna skip the normal "sorry it's been so long since I've blogged..." thing, and get right to it.

I know that many Christians in my circle make a big deal about the term "religion." The quote goes like this: "Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship." And when someone calls what we have a religion, we often jump and say that it's not a religion.

(Now, I understand the point. Any religious system, with its outward acts of worship, its creeds and doctrines, its rituals and traditions, is not what we are talking about. True Christianity is about reestablishing a good relationship with God the Father, and that is only made possible through God the Son. So, I get the point.)

I've always shied away from making the statement though, that Christianity is not a religion. A religion is defined in a variety of ways, but they generally have in common that a religion is a "set of beliefs." Belief is another word for Faith. So, a religion is a faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God. By grace are we saved through faith. God gave His only begotten Son, so whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." Christianity certainly is about faith. So, is it wrong to call it a religion? Certainly not. Is it more than a religious system? Certainly it is!

So, (developing a much longer thought, and a different direction that you're probably thinking I'm going!) maybe it would be better to call it the "Christian Faith" than to call it the "Religion of Christianity" or something like that. Yeah, I like that better, the Christian Faith.

Now, here's the problem that I have. Much of the philosophies in the world today separate faith from experience/reason. They put the natural world on one level, and the super-natural world on another level. (Francis Schaeffer writes about this in his book, "Escape from Reason.") So, we call it the Christian Faith, and all of a sudden, in the mind of many, many of the hearers today, they've already put the topic of the conversation on this "other" level. To them, we're not talking about something in the real world, but something else out there. Something, that to them, is unknowable and completely relative.

So, maybe I don't like using the phrase, "The Christian Faith" so much anymore. Maybe it would be better to call it "The Christian Truths," or maybe "The Truths of Christianity." Yeah, I like that a lot better. But, you'll notice that this post isn't finished yet, so I've probably got more... yeah, I do.

The problem with using the term, "The Truths of Christianity," is that there are quite a few differing "truths" held by those that claim the association with Christianity, each of them claiming some other Authority for these truths. Some would claim Tradition as an authority, others may claim their own experiences as the authority. But the only trustworthy, stable, and perfect authority lies in the written word of God, the Bible.

So, I think the best way to speak of the doctrines of Jesus Christ, ought to be with the phrase, "The Truths of the Bible." That way, we are making the claim that these are truths that affect the natural world and the supernatural. They interact with faith and also with reason. They are universal and absolute. And the source of these truths is, plain and simple, the Bible.

So, now, what are you going to be doing with the "Truths of the Bible"?

Just a New Year's thought...

Emmanuel

"God..." ok, stop and think about that... "God..." --- and then --- "... with us." How amazing is this Jesus, this Emmanuel!

Bought with a Price

Imagine you find a car that you want to buy. You go to the dealer and tell him that you want to buy it. The dealer comes back and tells you that the price is one million dollars! One million dollars for a car? Andy, you've lost your mind... But, that's the price. If you want the car it will cost one million dollars. Anyway, you love this car so much that you consider it worth the price.

So, there you go, even though the car is not nearly worth a million dollars, you buy this car for that price, and go to the dealer to pick it up. You sign all the paper work and get the license plates, and you're ready to go. You finally get the keys, the anticipation is over, and you start the car up, and begin to drive... life is good.

But then, you realize that there's no steering wheel in the car! You go back to the dealer and ask him about it. He tells you that you did not pay enough to get the steering wheel too! What?! A million dollars for this cheap junker of a car, and that's not enough money to get the steering wheel too?

I Corinthians 6:20: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Ok, now imagine that the car is really pretty much worthless. The car doesn't have a steering wheel; there are no tires on it; the engine has 350,000 miles on it, and hasn't run in a couple years; the hood doesn't latch; the doors are barely hanging on; and it leaks all the fluids you can imagine.

Yet, someone comes in, and pays WAY more than one million dollars to buy the car anyway.

That's us.

God loved the world so much, that He paid a price that is just invaluable. He gave His only begotten Son. Why? To buy, to redeem, this old clunker, called Andy.

What does Andy do in return?

"Sorry, God, You didn't pay enough to have the steering wheel too."

... really? ...

just a thought

Shameless Advertising

I've been working a side job for a few months now with a couple of guys from church. They are pretty decent graphics designers, and with my technical help with websites, we've got a pretty good thing going.

Anyway, today we launched our new website at www.FesyukDesign.com

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

No thoughts involved.

Stop the Blasphemy!

I got one of those awesome forwarded emails the other day (I hate 99.9999% of forwarded emails, but sometimes they do give me a blog post idea!). I've received this one before as it has circulated around the Internet a few times. It is the one that says that "In God We Trust" is being taken off of our coins in the US.

The truth of the matter is that the new dollar coins did have "In God We Trust" taken off the front and back, but put on the edges, along with the year. So, it wasn't taken off of the coins, but it did cause enough of an uproar, I guess, that new ones are to put it back on the front or back. You can read more about it here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/dollarcoin.asp

Here's the thought of the day. I think that we as Christians should start a petition about this. We should stand up for what's right. We should not let these things go on! Look at what our government is doing - having strayed so far away from our founding fathers!

So, yes, I think we should start a petition. We need to tell the government that they MUST stop making up coins that say "In God We Trust" on them.

You probably want to stop... go back and read that last paragraph again. That wasn't a typo.

"In God We Trust?" Can anybody, honestly say that the United States trusts in God? This is a vain thing that our government puts on the coins nowadays. We, as a nation, are not trusting in God anymore. Why should we as Christians allow the secular government to use God's name in vain? It's blasphemy!

Ok, I'm not going to start a petition or nothing, but really, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, and unto God the things that are God's.

Just a thought...