Where They've Gone Wrong

I wanted to take just a minute to contrast the Christian faith and Mormonism. I had a conversation with my friend James the other day and we had a great conversation about this. It came to our attention that many of our Christian brothers and sisters know little about the differences between Christianity and Mormonism. Hopefully this will provide a small glimpse of the differences.
While there are many differences in these two belief systems (views of God and Jesus, etc.) I will just focus on the largest part I have seen and that is the particular view of Salvation.
The Mormons basically believe that Salvation comes by faith through baptism and works. "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all that we can do." Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23. This is a huge difference from what the Christian Church holds to be true. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through-faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9.
So why do the Mormons seek to tack our works onto Salvation. The simple answers is, they can't fathom that "Grace" can be that simple. The Mormon Church often accuses Christians of teaching "cheap grace." But Paul refutes the teaching of "cheap grace" in Romans 6. Should we go on sinning so we can experience more grace? Paul's answer is "No! We died to sin." So not only is Salvation not by works it is also NOT an excuse to live a sinful life. Our grace is certainly not cheap. It cost our Savior his life.
You see the Mormons have greatly corrupted grace by tacking on our personal works. Paul sets the record straight in Galatians 2:21, "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" There are no amount of good works we can do to gain Salvation. And praise be to God for that! If it were by works, even some minor amount of works, we would never, in this life or the next, be able to taste and see how truly glorious our Savior really is.

I Missed the E-Mails...

I am sure most of you have heard about the new movie that opens this Friday, "The Golden Compass." Most of you have probably received e-mails speaking out against the movie. I did not get any of those e-mails, but my wife did and her Mom had done some research on the upcoming film. We began to talk about this movie (created after the books) and I was shocked to her the anti-Christian themes in the book. I am not going to go into great detail about it because I have a great link that will lead you to many articles that will allow you to examine the content for yourself. Here is the link: http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/2007/11/a-golden-compas.html
Well I hope you spend some time reading about this. Let's take a stand. We can abstain from going and inform friends and family that our money this Holiday Season can certainly be better spent.

Questions about Race

I have a lot of questions about race, ethnicity, and racism. Most of my questions deal with race in the United States. In what I am about to write I don't have answers to the questions I am going to ask. I am just thinking. But I feel it is important for us to think about and discuss important cultural and spiritual issues. I am convicted by the Spirit when I read biographies of guys like Wilberforce and Lewis who would sit around with their friends for hours and discuss the "Christian" view of current events and other important social issues. I want more of that in my life. Challenge me.
I am not a football fan, however I enjoy keeping up with current events. I recently heard about the death of Sean Taylor as I am sure you did. I had never heard of this young man until he was shot and later pronounced dead. I was reading an article about him and found out how the shooting took place. The article then discussed his stats and then mentioned he was once convicted for brandishing a firearm. At the moment I read that, I automatically assumed he must have been involved in some shady stuff and I might as well be reading about some low life thug. The article had some redemption in my eyes when it quoted Clinton Portis saying Shawn Taylor's life was drastically changed for the better at the birth of his daughter. But I was left with a question.
Do news paper articles include everyone's prior records in articles describing their deaths? Joe Kennedy, the pitcher for A's who recently died, had no mention of crime. Perhaps he was never convicted of a crime. But why include Taylor's record? Was Taylor's crime mentioned because it involved a gun, the same weapon that killed him?
What about other athletes who die? I am assuming when Michael Vick, O.J. Simpson, and Barry Bonds die we will all read about their "wrong doings" again. But I wonder when Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire pass will we read about how they used to inject one another with steroids? I guess we will just have to wait and see...

Evolution

So I was watching a show tonight on PBS. It was about the argument between Intelligent Design and Evolution. I have heard Darwin's theory many times but each time I hear it explained again it baffles me that people don't see evolution is as much faith based as religion.
If evolution is true and man came from monkeys and monkeys from other species that were brewed from some primordial soup that was brewed over billions of years after rocks in space collided, the question still stands, where did the rocks come from? Is there not faith involved in believing "in the beginning rocks"? I know faith is involved in "in the beginning God".
Now when you talk about Evolution, creation or not you have to admit that Evolution takes place. However there are two types of evolution. Micro and Macro. Micro Evolution takes place all the time. Micro Evolution means a change among species. For example during times of drought birds beaks will change sizes to gain access to water in hard to reach places. Macro Evolution on the other hand means a species can change completely. For example monkeys changing into humans over millions of years. Micro Evolution is seen all the time. However Macro Evolution has never been seen by humans. That is why it remains a theory. Sure I believe that birds beaks change during droughts. But I don't believe that birds evolved into dogs or cats.
What do we do with this information. So often we want to argue about it. However scripture does not call us to aimlessly argue about our faith. We are to defend it yes, but for what purpose do you defend your faith? Do you defend your faith out of anger for their disbelief or for sadness of their disbelief. Do you preach because you want them to experience, see and taste that Christ is infinitely more valuable than anything else?
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction." 2 Timothy 4:2

the Trinity

I understand the Trinity a little more now. This past Sunday while preaching I explained that the Trinity was one of those things that I don't think we are really capable of completely grasping while here on earth.
I found myself again watching a John Ortberg video on the Internet. Here's the link
http://www.johnortberg.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=ortbergT1067
In this short video Ortberg talks about the Trinity and he refers to it as the "power of shyness." What he pointed out was each member of the Trinity points to another member. It is funny to think of shyness that way. We usually simply refer to shyness as a self centered thing. But the Trinity expresses shyness by pointing to one another. The Spirit points to Jesus in John 15:26, when the Spirit comes he will testify about Jesus. In John 8:54 Jesus takes the spotlight off of himself and points it to the Father. And when we see God in the Gospels, at Jesus' baptism and at the transfiguration, God points to Jesus. He says this is my Son who I am well pleased, listen to him.
All the members of the Trinity pointing to and glorifying one another.
Who are you pointing to? Who gets your praise?