Unstoppable Reach

Many people think the church has taken a defensive posture now of days. Between what is happening in the political world or in other world events they see the church as if it is being attacked. Well i fell as if they are right about the church being attacked but the only problem i see is that the church is the one who holds the key. That is because the only thing that can stop the church is the church!

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus tells Peter that he is the rock that the church will be built on but, it was not just Peter, it is all of us who follow Jesus, we are the church. But i believe there are a few things that we have lost touch with.

1) Humility
       James 4:6 "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
       We have to learn to decrease so that He can fill us and He can increase.

2) Holiness
      This is one many preachers could spend all day on but i will try to keep it short and sweet. We have to learn that Jesus called on us to minister to this world not to just jump into to what they are doing with a Jesus t-shirt on. When we do, say, and act like everyone else who does that make you like? If you walk like a duck, talk like a duck, swim like a duck chances are you are a duck.
Romans 6:22 "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." Every one talks about being free in Christ, well you are free from sin in Christ but you have become a slave to God because he bought you with a price. That price was His own sons blood.

3) Move on out (Be Jesus to the world, not Judas)
      He has called us to go into the world and be a witness for Him. That does not mean putting your churches bumper sticker on your car and cutting people off on the highway so they see it.

When was the last time you did something that you think God was telling you do, weather it was paying for someones meal or gas, or giving someone encouragement that you see is down.

Please take tame sometime this week to do something not normal, something that just makes you stand out different not like everyone else. See if people notice.

Is the Story of Adam and Eve real or not?

Genesis 2:7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

On Thursday September 22nd Talk of the Nation ran a story about Christians believing in the story of Adam and Eve. They stated that 4 in 10 Americans believe in the story of creation told in the beginning in the book of Genesis. Well some of you may think that is a good thing but i still see that around 60% of Americans don't believe in the story of creation. Where do you stand?

There are now a growing number of Christians who believe more about evolution and that we evolved from primates rather than God creating us. Scientist say that after mapping out the human genome that there could not have been any less than 10,000 people in the beginning of what we now call the human race. Due to all the different types of people there are in the world. They say that in order for there to have been 2 original people that there would have to be such a huge mutation to get all the different types of people there are in the world that it is just not possible.

The question that was asked on the show and the question i ask you, if you don't believe in the beginning with Adam and Eve does the whole thing (Christianity) fall apart?

Remember its not just this part in the begging of the Bible but even in the New Testament the Apostle Paul references Jesus as being the second Adam, who makes everything right between God and man.

This relatively new train of thought at least from a Christian perspective, should not be a surprise due to the fact that evolution has been taught in our school for many years now. It has slowly changed the way we think just like school has changed the way we think on other vary divisive issues in our nation.

Some say that the story of Adam and Eve is not central to Christianity, but i have to say i think it is. When you take out ANY part of Scripture then you have no reason to believe in any part of it you don't want to. I feel we have to as Christian be willing to as crazy as it sounds believe what the word of God say and realize that these books have been around for a thousands of years and the science behind evolution and they way we teach things in our schools has only been studied for in modern terms less than 100 years. Just like many argue about climate change, i don't feel that we have not been keeping track long enough for to start doubting the teaching of the word of God.

Share you option and do you believe in the story of Adam and Eve? And do you think that if you take out the story of Adan and Eve that Christianity has a leg to stand on?

The full story can be found on NPR Talk of the Nation website
 www.npr.org/programs/talk-of-the-nation
Christians Divided Over Science Of Human Origins
It will make for good listening and is about 30 mins long, transcripts also available.

"Church autonomy versus civil rights"

This article was in the The News Journal on Monday Oct 3rd, 2011 for a link to full story and more coverage..... www.delawareonline.com

After reading please share your thoughts.

Church autonomy versus civil rights
by: Alan Garfield

"Can a parochial school discriminate against a disabled teacher? The answer depends on how the Supreme Court decides a case being argued before it this Wednesday.

To understand the case, it's important to recognize that federal law is generally committed to ridding the workplace of invidious discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the ADA) forbids discrimination on the basis of disability.
Things get complicated, however, when these laws are applied to religious institutions. Surely, for instance, the government cannot forbid a Baptist church from discriminating on the basis of religion when hiring its pastor.

Anticipating this problem, Congress exempted religious organizations from the prohibition on religious discrimination. But this statutory exemption applies only to religious discrimination, not to other forms of discrimination based on race, gender, or disability.

Thus, the ADA's legislative history gives an example of a Mormon organization that "wishes to hire" only Mormons for certain jobs. The example says that if a disabled non-Mormon applies for the job, the organization may refuse to hire him because he's not a Mormon. But if two Mormons apply for the job and one has a disability, the organization may not discriminate against the disabled applicant because of his disability.

This legislative scheme strongly suggests that a parochial school may not discriminate against a disabled teacher. But the analysis is complicated by the fact that constitutional concerns have led lower courts to give religious institutions an additional layer of immunity from anti-discrimination laws.

This constitutionally based exemption -- called the "ministerial exception" -- applies most clearly to employment decisions regarding a religious institution's spiritual leader. Courts recognize that the spiritual leader is the "lifeblood" of a religious institution and the "chief instrument by which the church seeks to fulfill its purpose."

The ministerial exception acknowledges that the government has no business telling religious institutions whom they may hire as their spiritual leaders. Indeed, any government attempt to regulate this decision would violate the First Amendment principle of separating church and state.
The Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the ministerial exception, but lower courts generally agree that the doctrine applies to employment decisions regarding clerical leaders like ministers or rabbis. So, even if federal law does not expressly exempt the Catholic Church from gender anti-discrimination rules, the church can still discriminate on the basis of gender when choosing priests.
Lower courts also generally agree that the ministerial exception does not apply to lower-level employees, like secretaries and janitors, whose functions are not closely tied to an organization's religious mission. Consequently, religious institutions must abide by the anti-discrimination laws in dealing with these employees.

It's less clear, however, whether the ministerial exception should apply to parochial school teachers. On the one hand, teachers, like ministers, often lead students in prayers and provide religious instruction to students. So perhaps the ministerial exception should apply.
On the other hand, many parochial school teachers spend most of their days teaching secular subjects like math and history. Since their responsibilities largely mirror those of teachers in secular private schools, maybe they should receive the same anti-discrimination protection as the secular school teachers.

In the case before the Supreme Court, the teacher taught at a K-8 Lutheran day school. She taught math, language arts, social studies, science, gym, art and music. But she also taught short religion classes four days a week, attended chapel services with her students, and led her class in short prayers three times a day. She was terminated after being diagnosed with narcolepsy even though her doctor says medications allow her to work without any restrictions.

The federal court of appeals concluded that the ministerial exception did not apply because the teacher's primary function was to teach secular subjects.

The school insists the teacher was a ministerial employee -- that "she was the Church's primary means of communicating the faith to her students." It therefore contends that the school's employment decisions are immune from federal anti-discrimination laws.

In deciding this case, the Supreme Court will have to navigate between the competing values of respecting church autonomy and protecting the disabled from discrimination. Certainly, government intrusion into religion is unsettling. But should our desire to avoid this intrusion justify giving religious institutions unbridled discretion to discriminate against disabled employees?"

So should the church or Christian school be able to hire who it wants? Wither it be a janitor or a preacher? Your Thoughts.........