Choice theology is big, I choose Jesus as my savior. Well this is not Lutheran Theology, as Lutherans believe that we are saved by grace through faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is not of our own doing. Choosing is a work, and is something we do, and gives us a chance to boast. But this leads us to the problem of the choice.

If the gift is freely given, and we can reject the gift, how do we choose to accept the gift? We can not accept the gift, because that is a work, but we can reject it, and that just does not sit well with me. Can you get a gift and chose not to use it? Can you get a gift and chose not to unwrap it? You have received the gift and have it in your possession, but without unwrapping it you can not put it to it’s fullest potential. Is this what we do, by getting the gift and not using it? We can chose to use the gift or not, is that the Lutheran Choice?

Grace is the gift that is given, and we get the choice whether or not we use it, whether or not we ask God to work faith in us…

This is something I have been pondering and want to know your thoughts and inspirations. The choice is something we make, but how does that choice effect us, and how do our lives change with the choices that we make….

I found this on my pastor’s blog and is an interesting read, and I like Todd would like to have a reading on where people stand on this.

Todd’s blog is here.

In short there is a move to have churches that listen to sermons on DVD in other countries. The article speaks about a church in Florida that is working in South America, with a band and live everything, just like in Florida at the home church. The church in Florida sends a care package every week, with bulletins, and posters, and business cards, and a DVD for the sermon.

The article is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121331198629268975.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks

Post your comments to this either here on my blog or there on Todd’s.

This week I am at confirmation camp. We are looking at the book of Acts and the characters that help us understand our faith. On Tuesday (yesterday) the group I am in lead a session on Stephen. We had one station on service, as Stephen was the first called to serve the body of Christ so the Disciples could tend the word. We had a station on kerygma or message, we had a station on the rules of life and how we must understand the rules to move forward in our grace given life, and we had a station on martyrdom since Stephen was the protomartyr of the Christian faith. I taught the session on martyrdom, and asked the kids if one must die in order to be a martyr.

I am sure that many of us, would answer yes resoundingly when we hear the question must one die to be a martyr? I would say the answer is both yes and no. We must understand the meaning of the word martyr to get to the root of this question.

A martyr is a witness like a witness in a court. Someone who testifies to the facts of the case. In Stephen’s account in Acts (6:1-8:1a) Stephen then could be considered to be a witness, however the real witness here in my mind is Saul. The man at the end of chapter 7 who holds the coats of the stoners of Stephen. He witnessed the whole thing and could give testimony of it in court. Now the most interesting thing to the is that Saul becomes Paul, and he is crucified upside down as a martyr for Jesus. But that is a topic for another blog. A martyr is a witness, so one does not have to die to be a witness, right?

Wrong! I learned something this week at camp, from the woman volunteering to be the nurse here this week. We have all died and because of that we are martyrs! We have all died. Now I know many of you are saying, “If I am dead, how am I reading this?” Very good question, and to answer it I will tell you of my death. I died on June 30, 1991 in Middletown OH. I remember it quite vividly, I was wearing a blue suit over my clothing to keep them dry and I was pushed under the water and raised to new life. I was baptized at a baptist church. I was connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus and because of that death and rising I became a martyr for Jesus.

Martyrdom is a hard topic, because we are all sent with a mission, and anyone of us maybe called upon to die for our faith. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs says that there were more Christians martyred for their faith in the past century than in all other centuries combined! We may be called on to follow Jesus to the cross, but we should not look for that in order to me a martyr. Be a witness, one who follows Jesus and tells of the love of God in their life, and makes others want to come to that love. Infect the world, with love. Be the hands and feet of God and lets love the world to death, so that all may know the life giving mercy and grace of our God!

In the Hebrew Scriptures before David dies there is a description of the Levites who are assigned to be gate keepers, see my blog at the Adult Sunday School for more details. Here I question if we are not all gate keepers.

We seek for our worship services to be comfortable and anything that may seem foreign or different must be bad. We look at new ministries happen as void of tradition, and merely giving in to the whims of the day to give the world church the way they want it. We see people and know instantly who they are by how they dress and how they act, before we speak a single word to them…

We guard our children against the evils of the world. And rightly so, they are young and do not know what they are doing sometimes. But I have to say that as I get older I realize that I do not always know what I am doing, yet I am expected to be somebody, because of my age and my occupation, or I should say vocation. We try to protect our children, but the church is not ours to protect.

We are not to be gate keepers, keeping the world form being in the presence of God, ours is a ministry of gate opening. We are to welcome and invite to be in the world yet not of the world, we are to go out into the world as the disciples did in Matthew 9:35-10:23, and go into the villages and spread the word of God. And if it is received, then stay a little while and speak some more so the people can hear, but if it is not received to move on. Not to judge or talk down to or bad about, but simply pick up and move on. We can not judge those who are not ourselves. We want to help our brother or sister remove the toothpick from their eye, when we have a 2X4 in our own eye. Jesus asked us to love and love! Love God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Not judge and talk bad about someone who is different or see the world differently. These people may be commiting sin, but so are we, and we are only asked in the Bible to point out the sin to those who are in the community, not outside the community.

So do not keep the gate closed, but open it up so that all may see, and come into the green pasture of God.

Today there are more people finding spirituality apart from the community of the church. They are seeking God and finding him, and following him and are not a part of a community of the church.

God is found not in the confines of the church building we have known this for a long time, but more and more people are turning to different things and ways. The internet offers communities that we would call unorthodox, and not “real” communities.

The problem arises in the understanding of who the pharisees are and what the “Christian Church” has come to be. The pharisees were the gate keepers. They kept all that was unholy and unworthy to be in God’s presence away from God. They kept the lepers at bay, and those who are ill and sick away from the holy things of God. Is this not who the “church” is in the eyes of most of society?

The question this leads us to is how many people actually attend church? I found the below quote at http://theologica.blogspot.com/2005/06/how-many-americans-really-attend.html:

How many Americans go to church regularly?

If you listen to the answers provided by major opinion research firms, the answer usually hovers around 40%. (National Opinion Research Center: 38%; Institute for Social Research’s World Values: 44%; Barna: 41%; National Election Studies: 40%; Gallup: 41%.)

But in recent years this consensus has been challenged. It seems that it’s more accurate to say that 40% of Americans claim to attend church regularly.

If only 40% say they attend, how many people think we are hypocrites and keeping more people from God than we are bringing to him…

What if we actually did what Jesus asked us to do, and followed him, and loved everyone as Christ loved us?

What would be the outcome, how would God move through his church and cause a radical revolution?

The Message version of Matthew 5:21-26 says:
21-22“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

23-24“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

25-26“Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine.

We are to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. And planning to kill some one is one thing, but in this passage as with the other passages around it Jesus brings the 10 words or 10 commandments to a new level. No longer is it only physical death, but it is accosting someone with words. Because we all know that words hurt us some times more than physical pain. Words cut us to our being our soul, they define us, even when we do not want them to. People can tell alot about us by what we say, how we say it and when it is said. We need to love and not allow anger to over take us or become a fire into the night. (see Ephesians 4:26). Tertullian a father of the church said that if “you refuse to make satisfaction to your fellow believer, or else by remaining in anger, to lose your prayer?” We lose our communication with God when we keep the anger with another. Let go and Let God

What is this abundant life? Many times we are told in the New Testament we are suppose to have life and have it abundantly through Jesus Christ. But what is the abundant life? A life where all of our wants are met? All of our needs are taken care of and all our wants are met too.
Personally I have to say that there is no way that this is the abundant life. Because every time it seems I get something that I want, I just want more, something bigger, something better…In our humanness we are never satisfied. C.S.Lewis said in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Bemused and besotted as we are, we still dimly know at heart that nothing which is at all times and in every way agreeable to us can have objective reality.” He is talking about the bad things from the Old Testament, and how can we believe our loving God could do such things. In this quote C.S. Lewis says that if everything always goes our way we will say that it is to good to be true. We can not always get our way, our human nature will make us question it, so what is the abundant life? What is this abundant life?

Now I do not have all of the facts, but I just saw a commercial for a casino in Ohio. The website for the group is http://www.myohionow.com/ The underlying theme of the commercial was that everyone else has a casino, so why is Ohio letting tax money and revenue from gambling leave the state? This just reminded me of what my mom used to say when we would tell her that everyone else was doing it. She would always say, “well if all your friends went and jumped off a bridge would you do that too?” Just because everyone else is doing it, does not mean that it is right. Especially as Christians, I believe we should really question things if it is acceptable by society. Now I am not saying this casino is not a good thing for Ohio, but the reason to do it is not because 38 other states have gambling. We need to weigh the options, and see all of the possible outcomes. A casino may bring jobs, but it will also cause issues for some people that do not need the temptation of a casino. Do the pluses out weigh the minuses? We need to weigh the options and seek the guidance of God. We are called to be in, not of. We need to go with God and not with the majority.

Today I was outside with my 5 year old daughter. She is trying to ride a bike without training wheels. My 6 year old did this last year, and I just about cried when she did this. This is a passage that is a milestone in their lives. They are no longer little kids, they do not need the security of the training wheels. They are riding on the faith they can keep the bike up all by themselves. The 6 year old does it really good now, but the 5 year old does not really have. She is trying and falling. I watch her from a not really far distance. She is trying and getting frustrated, much like most of us do with life.
We do what we think is the right thing to do, we cling to that thought that we have the understanding of what the best thing to do is. We know our lives and know what needs to happen. Do you remember riding a bike with training wheels, depending on something to hold you up and keep you from leaning too far to the left or the right? Isn’t that what God will do for us? Now I do not want to be little God to being training wheels, as being something we can out grow, but I do see how God keeps us on track and helps to keep us up, when we do not have the strength to do it ourselves. God will guide you. Step out on faith and try to peddle that bike, but know unlike the real bike my kids ride that I will be taking the training wheels off of, God will never let us take Him off of us. He will always guide us. Just reach out on faith and believe He will not drop you.

I just received an email from a friend of mine. I believe it speaks volumes that we all need to hear and re hear and hear again….

A Native American boy was talking with his grandfather.
“What do you think about the world situation?” he asked.
The grandfather replied, “I feel like two wolves are fighting in my heart. One is full of anger and hatred; the other is full of love, forgiveness, and peace.”
“Which one will win?” asked the boy.
To which the grandfather replied, “The one I feed.”
(Origin Unknown)

This simple story provides the essence of a possibly life-changing attitude for yourself… You’re likely to become what you think about. The words are almost too simple to “feel important.” However, if you “get it,” if you truly integrate their meaning, you can harness the power of a positive attitude. Simply stated… if we choose to think positive thoughts, we’ll more likely get positive results; if we think negative thoughts, we’ll probably get negative results. Pretend for a moment that every thought is a seed you sow in your fertile mind. Therefore, someone once said, “If you plant crabapples, don’t expect to harvest Golden Delicious.” You will likely reap the fruit of the thoughts you sow.

We reap what we sow. So many times we just do what we want when we want thinking only of ourselves, which we can not do. Those of us with spouses and children know that we can not always get our way, and seldom do. But the point of it is not that we always get what we want, the point is we love others as we love our selves. If we are able to show the love God gave to us, then the short falls we think are coming will be mountains we can not contain.

Feed peace, not hate. Love as you were loved. Remember we see Jesus when we go and do, not sit and wonder.