Posts Tagged ‘christian’

The Tax Man

Mar
31

The Tax Man

What comes to mind when you hear the word “church”?

Do you picture a happy place or a somber gathering?  Do you see steeples and stained glass or modern architecture?  Maybe you think of classic hymns sung by a choir or you hear eclectic guitars and drums.  Churches can look, sound, and feel very different whether you’re comparing them from around the world or even from different places in the same town.  We love our habits and traditions and personal style. Sometimes we even let them define who we are.

But what does Jesus see when he looks at the people who make up the church? The answer to that might be found in an encounter that Jesus had with a certain tax collector.

History of the World – Part II

Dec
30

Do you think you’d get a better report on the Civil War from a modern historian or by spending some time with Abraham Lincoln?  Do you think you could get a better picture of what the Apollo 11 moon landing was like by checking out the NASA website or by sitting down with Neil Armstrong and having him tell you the story about when he took that small step/giant leap?

Obviously, if it were possible to talk to the people who had been a part of events in the past, you’d get some amazing stories about those events.  You could get a feeling for what it was like by talking to the people who were there when it happened.

Did your parents ever tell you about when you were born?  Did your grandparents ever tell you about what it was like to live through the Great Depression or to watch the Apollo Moon Landing on live TV?  Wasn’t it cool to hear those stories from the people who’d seen it happen?

So along those same lines, would it be better to learn about the history of the world from somebody who was never there but had made a guess about what might have happened as the world started or from Someone who was there, Someone who actually built the Earth, Someone who designed the universe as a star spangled backdrop for His favorite creation to enjoy when the sun went down?

History of the World – Part I

Dec
28

Paul said, in 1st Corinthians, that if Christ has not risen from the dead that our faith is pointless.  What use is it to believe in a man who said he would rise from the dead who never rose from the dead?  So all of Christianity is hinged on the fact of Christ’s resurrection.  And if Jesus did not really live, die, and then live again, then it makes no sense to put our faith in anything else about Jesus.

In the same way, if you can’t accept part of the Bible, then what’s the point of accepting any of the Bible?  There are plenty of things in the Bible that people have a hard time accepting–Jonah and the fish, Noah’s flood, the creation of the universe in 6 days, etc.  But if you can’t take those things at face value, how can you put faith in other parts?

Jesus taught from Genesis.  So if you believe Jesus, then you need to take the whole Bible seriously.