All posts by ariah

Devotional thoughts

Churches Should Teach Imitating Christ (Non-Violence)

4 Comments

(Meant to post this Sunday, oh well)

“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” -1 Corinthians 11:1

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children” -Ephesians 5:1

“You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 1:6

A new reader, Jamie, mentioned teaching non-violence in church and it got me thinking. There is a definite alternative to this idea of placing armed guards in churches, and that is for a church to instead advocate, teach and promote an attitude of non-violence. I believe this is a deeply biblical and deeply spiritual issue and I figured I’d write a devotional thought regarding it.

I think there might be varying opinions on what the goal, motive or vision for a church should be, but everyone would have to agree it has something to do with teaching and modeling following Christ (being ‘Christian’). And, considering the vast majority of people that attend church regularly profess to already be ‘Christian’ and followers, it would seem we would take the verses above seriously.

If we are to imitate Christ in all that we do, how we respond to violence is one of those areas; and it is one we have a very clear example in. We as individual Christians and as collective church bodies should serve as an example to others, including would be perpetrators that we will not return evil with evil, “but overcome evil with good.”

You know how buildings sometimes have those signs at the front that say: “Weapons banned on premise” or something similar? What if churches had signs out front that said: “We practice non-violence.” They could have pamphlets about it inside for everyone to be informed, and they could even preach on it from the pulpit. There are plenty of Biblical examples.

Not only does Jesus preach on non-violence (love your enemy, etc), he exemplifies it in his death. The early church is full of examples of non-violence as well. Jesus, I think, makes it explicitly clear to us how to respond to the sort of violence we see in our society:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
-Matthew 10:28

News and Politics

YWAM, Churches with Guns and Rhetoric

7 Comments

Not sure if you’ve heard about the shootings in Colorado that happened at a YWAM base and a church, resulting in five deaths including the attacker. I didn’t know anyone involved, but I did attend that very same YWAM base in the fall of 2000, so a number of people have been asking how I’m doing as a result.
I’m doing fine. Like I said, I didn’t know anyone involved so it seems as disconnected as any other of these types of shootings that I hear about. At the same time, the fact that it happened within the context of a program I have been a part of has given me a chance to ponder a little deeper about the incident. Two things about it concern me.

You can read about the incident on your own, but one thing I want to discuss is how it ended. The gunman shot two people at a large church and then when he walked into the church an armed security guard shot and killed him. I read a few articles discussing church security and it appears a number of large churches do in fact have armed security in the church. This is only my personal opinion, but I don’t think I could attend or be a part of a church that uses guns as a means of ‘security.’ I strongly believe in non-violence and I think there is a large precedent for non-violence in what we see of Jesus and the gospels as well as the early church. I don’t believe guns and churches are a good match.

Secondly, I was alarmed by the comment of the pastor of the church concerning the security guard. Given the context, I understand the pastor and others applauding her as a ‘hero’ and the press that she received, however, and this is probably just rhetoric, some of his words alarmed me. The pastor at New Life Church, Brady Boyd, said the guard “probably saved over 100 lives,” when she shot and killed the gunman. Here’s my concern: When a pastor talks about ‘saving lives’ I would think he would not depart from his religious beliefs. As Christians, we believe that our lives are more then just the physical one we sustain on this earth and we believe that being saved has a lot more to do with are spiritual life rather then simply the prolonging of this physical one. According to the Bible, it is only by Jesus that we are saved. Jesus saved humanity by violently dying a criminals death not by killing others.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those involved.

YouTubesday

YouTubesday: The Story of Stuff

1 Comment

Story of StuffI’ve been hearing about this video everywhere, so I’m not even sure who to hat tip. Basically it’s a 20 minute well put together video discussing all the ins and outs of the life cycle of stuff and how we got to be such a consumeristic culture. I think it’s very well done.
Go check out the whole video and website at The Story of Stuff, or watch the video (Teaser or Chapter by Chapter) below.

Teaser Trailer:

Complete Video:

Money & Stewardship

Debt, Debt, Debt, Debt, Debt

Leave a comment

(That word starts to look funny when you write it a lot)

As you know, from some previous posts, and my lack of updates, we’ve been in the midst of some major life changes. First, the baby, which has been a joy through and through. And now, a house. I’ve written about the decision to buy a house before and as you can see, we’ve come to the conclusion that it wise an appropriate decision. I’ve also said before that I’m willing to be open to the fact that I might decide later that it was a mistake, but right now I’m pretty sure it was a wise decision. The market is definitely in our favor, we paid about half of what the houses market value is, it’s a duplex which will allow for residual income/future community/expanding family and more. I’m very excited about the decision and the move, except for one thing: DEBT.

I think debt is a bad idea. People argue there is good debt: houses and education, but I’d disagree. I think we could consider those ‘inevitable’ debt in our society, because our current system and way of accumulating things makes them nearly impossible to avoid, but I don’t think that makes those debts good. Many people, including myself, couldn’t figure out an alternative to taking out loans to go to school. I’m glad with the decision I made, but that doesn’t mean it was ‘good’ to go into debt. The same is true for the house. The ability to take out a loan and take on some debt has opened up the possibility for a lot of things we couldn’t have done had we waited until we could pay cash for a house. Yet, I’m not going to consider it a good thing that I owe a bank a large amount of money.

I think I should also mention Kiva here. I’ve raved about Kiva before, it’s a great organization that gives the ability to take out a loan to build and improve your business to millions of people in the developing world. Basic banking resources such as savings accounts and loans are things that have been unavailable to 90% of the world and have been a pillar to economic growth and mobility in a capitalist world. So, I support an organization that gives loans to people, gives them the opportunity to go into debt, but I still don’t think debt is a good thing.

I think if we were more creative and more communal with our money we could avoid debt all together, but for the time being it doesn’t seem to be an option. Mindy and I plan on being completely debt-free in ten years or less. We are committed to it and serious about it, because the opportunity to be free of any debt will allow us to serve others in a capacity far greater then what we’ve previously been able to. Debt is not a good thing, I’ll never agree that it is. In a society as engrossed with debt as ours, it’s important we all take a strong stand against it.

Blog

An Update on Me

4 Comments

Here’s the latest, just on me, just so your in the know. I like to use the list format on my other blog of personal updates so I’ll do that here:

  • This week my wife and I bought a house. It’s exciting and overwhelming. I’ve blogged about the decision on here a little bit, but probably not enough for you to know all the reasons we came to this decisions. More on that as time goes on.
  • We just moved into the new house and as of right now don’t have internet there. That means I probably won’t be updating regularly. I’m using the library right now, and if I have time to write and then setup posts on the weekend you’ll still get a daily update, we’ll see.
  • The kiddo has been majorly sick this week. She’s been such an amazingly easy baby that a little sickness has been almost unbearable for us. I just wasn’t sure what to do at first with her crying all the time. But she’s getting better and getting back to her happy self.
  • I was 40,000+ words into the 50,000 word novel and on track to finish today for the NaNoWriMo goal, but with Ady sick that pretty much stopped dead in its tracks. I’ll still finish in the next week or so, and I don’t feel like I missed my goal, I’m excited about editing the book and making it available in paperback or something.
  • Winter is upon us, and I’m not sure that I’m ready. I’m facing all kinds of financial decision making and I’m not sure I’m always making the best decisions. We have fix-it stuff at the house that needs to be done, appliances to be bought, the car is coughing a bit in the cold, Medical bills and soon student loans coming due. It’s tough to try and be consistently faithful to my convictions and keep my own selfishness in check. Here’s hoping I have the strength to continue.

That’s about it. More later I’m sure, hopefully I can process through home-buying with you.

Money & Stewardship

Link: Corporate Babysitter

3 Comments

I’ll probably be linking to Lisa @ Corporate Babysitter a lot more as I continue to explore the ins and outs of raising my child in this extremely consumeristic world, but until I do, I recommend you check her out for yourself. Here’s a quote to get you started:

Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat thinking about the corporate dollars spent on new ways to manipulate my children. In a world of mounting personal debt and limited natural resources, is this akin to offering a kid a lollypop to get in the car?

Read Corporate Babysitter

asides

On being a neighbor

Leave a comment

$1.25 a pound. Less than that if a neighbor can’t afford it. George’s
house was in complete disrepair. Shutters were broken and out of place
bricks sat stranded on the front porch. His house was in huge need of
about $20,000 of work including a new paint job. Or is it a need? Maybe
they see the true need, and that is to love their neighbor as
themselves. To refuse a new house uplift because there are those who
can’t pay $1.25 a pound for tomatoes. –Daniel