Is it better to be a "people person" or someone, like me, that is task oriented? In class on Sunday the question was asked, and the answer was that both are important to have. I would agree, but I often wonder if it would be more important to focus on people than on getting the job done.
As a coach/teacher, I am friendly to the students I am around and do care about them, but I often am so OSD that I have to finish what I set out to do that day (especially in coaching).
The main example we use as Christians is Christ's, and many times he gives the example of putting people first and not always finishing whatever "task" was on his plate. I would say this is a bit unfair however, because Jesus' real task was people.
So I ask again is it better to be people minded or task oriented?
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Monday, December 04, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Rationalization
I have now been in the blogging world for a few months. While looking at others blogs I have come to a realization. As Christians, it seems we try to rationalize what we would like to do. Don't get me wrong, ask Jamey or my mother, I am the king of this. Finding something that I'd like to do that I know deep down is not the right thing and finding ways to make it sound ok, or at the least not that bad.
I have read blogs on why it is ok to curse, why it is ok to be gay, why it is ok to even use marijuana (spelling ??). I have heard people make cases as to why all these things are ok. Am I off here, or are we looking at a case of rationalization? I here all the time that since I believe in the use of force (military, police) that I am rationalizing something that is wrong, but at the same time I am being told that cursing, homosexuality, and drugs are ok? Is it just me or did I just jump back to the '70s and all the hippies are attacking me? (that is meant as a joke).
I have read blogs on why it is ok to curse, why it is ok to be gay, why it is ok to even use marijuana (spelling ??). I have heard people make cases as to why all these things are ok. Am I off here, or are we looking at a case of rationalization? I here all the time that since I believe in the use of force (military, police) that I am rationalizing something that is wrong, but at the same time I am being told that cursing, homosexuality, and drugs are ok? Is it just me or did I just jump back to the '70s and all the hippies are attacking me? (that is meant as a joke).
Monday, November 13, 2006
"American" Christianity
Those of you who know me, or read my blog occasionally, know that I love the country I live in. I am very proud to live in a country that gives me the freedoms that America does. However, in class yesterday morning I heard the term American Christianity. We were discussing Paul. It got me to thinking.
The quote was used in class that when Americans pray we pray that our burdens be taken off our back. Or at least lessened so that we can continue. Where most of the rest of the world prays that their back be stronger to handle the burden. It made me think.
Often we hear people in churches, especially churches of Christ, complaining of the service where in other areas I would seriously doubt those being persecuted are questioning the song choice or the fact that they could not find a good seat on Sunday.
There are many other examples I could go on about, but hopefully everyone gets the point. I know I will try to think about this the next time I want to gripe about the church or some problem in my life.
The quote was used in class that when Americans pray we pray that our burdens be taken off our back. Or at least lessened so that we can continue. Where most of the rest of the world prays that their back be stronger to handle the burden. It made me think.
Often we hear people in churches, especially churches of Christ, complaining of the service where in other areas I would seriously doubt those being persecuted are questioning the song choice or the fact that they could not find a good seat on Sunday.
There are many other examples I could go on about, but hopefully everyone gets the point. I know I will try to think about this the next time I want to gripe about the church or some problem in my life.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Is it alright to be proud?
Is it alright to be proud of circumstances? I sure hope so. I am tired of people that are not proud of the things they have been blessed with. Too many times do I hear people that are not proud of who they are. I am not advocating being arrogant, just realizing that we are blessed.
I am proud to be a Chrisitian, although I myself am not better than anyone else, I serve a savior who is superior to other gods. It may just be something that bothers me, but it is alright to be a Christian!! How will people become followers if we do not show that this belief is superior to others? Again, I am not better than others, but my God and Savior are. If I don't feel that way, then why would I be a Christian?
I am proud of the country I live. Maybe at times too proud. I am not ashamed that I live in a country that gives me the freedom to worship anywhere I would choose. I am not ashamed that I live in a country that defends those who are oppressed and protects its citizens. I am tired of reading blogs like this "But for now, just enjoy your mid-morning coffee knowing that we live in pretty much one of the dumber countries of the world".
I am proud of what I do for a living. Not many talk against that so I'll move on.
Sorry to vent in two posts in a row, but sometimes I wonder if we realize how blessed we are...
I am proud to be a Chrisitian, although I myself am not better than anyone else, I serve a savior who is superior to other gods. It may just be something that bothers me, but it is alright to be a Christian!! How will people become followers if we do not show that this belief is superior to others? Again, I am not better than others, but my God and Savior are. If I don't feel that way, then why would I be a Christian?
I am proud of the country I live. Maybe at times too proud. I am not ashamed that I live in a country that gives me the freedom to worship anywhere I would choose. I am not ashamed that I live in a country that defends those who are oppressed and protects its citizens. I am tired of reading blogs like this "But for now, just enjoy your mid-morning coffee knowing that we live in pretty much one of the dumber countries of the world".
I am proud of what I do for a living. Not many talk against that so I'll move on.
Sorry to vent in two posts in a row, but sometimes I wonder if we realize how blessed we are...
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Moral Questions part III
Few more questions for you to weigh in on.
Does God do miracles and heal?
Yes, God heals everyone who asks in true faith
Yes, occasionally God heals but not necessarily
No, God does not heal and do miracles today
Not Sure
What is the nature of damnation?
Eternal torment, sorrow, and regret
Annhiliation
Not Sure/Other
Is assisted suicide ok?
Never
If the person is going to dye very soon and is in great pain
Yes
Not Sure
I am not sure about some of these. I think God can and does do miracles, but do not know why or how he decides to use them.
I know hell is not a place I want to be. The bible mentions weeping and eternal fire.
I don't think I could assist someone in death, but cannot speak for it since I have never been in that situation.
Does God do miracles and heal?
Yes, God heals everyone who asks in true faith
Yes, occasionally God heals but not necessarily
No, God does not heal and do miracles today
Not Sure
What is the nature of damnation?
Eternal torment, sorrow, and regret
Annhiliation
Not Sure/Other
Is assisted suicide ok?
Never
If the person is going to dye very soon and is in great pain
Yes
Not Sure
I am not sure about some of these. I think God can and does do miracles, but do not know why or how he decides to use them.
I know hell is not a place I want to be. The bible mentions weeping and eternal fire.
I don't think I could assist someone in death, but cannot speak for it since I have never been in that situation.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Moral Questions part II
These are some other "moral" questions I found that might provide some interesting discussion. Let me know what you think.
Is it permissible for Christians to drink alcohol?
Yes, as long as it is in moderation
No
Not Sure
Is the death penalty for grave crimes such as murder permissible?
Yes
No
Not Sure
Is premarital sex a sin?
Yes, it is fornication
No, not if the people love each other
No, not at all
Not Sure
Are all people predestined or do people have free will to chose?
God predestines everyone to heaven or hell
God predestines foreknowing what we will choose
It is a paradox, both are true God does not predestine at all
Other
Not Sure
To be honest I am not sure where I stand on questions 1,2 and 4. I would say 3 is wrong.
I would lean towards alcohol being ok in moderation. But not really for me. The best arguement I've heard towards no alchol was by Eddie Cloer at HU. He simply said "why". Why would you want to drink alcohol when we have so many other choices?
I would also lean to saying I am for the death penalty, but do not think I could be the one to enforce it.
The last one is difficult. If God knew we would not choose him, why make us? I still don't even come close to understanding that one...
Is it permissible for Christians to drink alcohol?
Yes, as long as it is in moderation
No
Not Sure
Is the death penalty for grave crimes such as murder permissible?
Yes
No
Not Sure
Is premarital sex a sin?
Yes, it is fornication
No, not if the people love each other
No, not at all
Not Sure
Are all people predestined or do people have free will to chose?
God predestines everyone to heaven or hell
God predestines foreknowing what we will choose
It is a paradox, both are true God does not predestine at all
Other
Not Sure
To be honest I am not sure where I stand on questions 1,2 and 4. I would say 3 is wrong.
I would lean towards alcohol being ok in moderation. But not really for me. The best arguement I've heard towards no alchol was by Eddie Cloer at HU. He simply said "why". Why would you want to drink alcohol when we have so many other choices?
I would also lean to saying I am for the death penalty, but do not think I could be the one to enforce it.
The last one is difficult. If God knew we would not choose him, why make us? I still don't even come close to understanding that one...
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The "Peaceful" religion
After reading several other blogs about the Muslim religion, I have decided to write my own. Many times we are fed a line that most of these people are very peaceful and there are a few “extremists” that give the religion a bad name. While I would agree that many Muslims (particularly ones that do not live in the Middle East) are peaceful, I would disagree that the religion does not allow for violence. And here are just a few reasons why:
THE KORAN
While there are many other verses that could be put in here, I have chosen just two to share on this blog to attempt to keep it as easy to read as possible.
1. [2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
2. [4.89] They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
Here is another story of a Muslim leader:
BBC NEWS
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri preached that killing non-Muslims was justified even for no reason, the jury at the Old Bailey has heard.
"Killing a Kafir [infidel] for any reason you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it," he was recorded as saying.
Sudan's militant Muslim regime is slaughtering Christians who refuse to convert to Islam, according to the head of an aid group who recently returned from the African nation.
The forced conversions are just one aspect of the Khartoum government's self-declared jihad on the mostly Christian and animist south, Dennis Bennett, executive director of Seattle-based Servant's Heart told WorldNetDaily.
Villagers in several areas of the northeast Upper Nile region say that when women are captured by government forces they are asked: "Are you Christian or Muslim?"
Women who answer "Muslim" are set free, but typically soldiers gang-rape those who answer "Christian" then cut off their breasts and leave them to die as an example for others.
Backed by Muslim clerics, the National Islamic Front regime in the Arab and Muslim north declared a jihad, or holy war, on the south in 1989. Since 1983, an estimated 2 million people have died from war and related famine. About 4.5 million have become refugees.
ATTITUDE TOWARD CHRISTIANS
From the beginning, Islam drew a distinction between Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims. The former were "people of the book." They had to pay special taxes and wear identifying clothing, yet their status reflected a certain respect for what Muslims saw as the earlier but incomplete and corrupted revelation recorded in the Bible.
This next story I’ll give the a short version:
After the Pope made a remark that Islam can be a violent religion. Many in the Islamic community asked that something be done.
AS SHE LAY dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother tongue. ``Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.
She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. "Her slaying was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It "raised concerns" that she was the latest victim of "growing Islamic radicalism in the country."
Raised concerns? Sister Leonella was gunned down less than two days after a prominent Somali cleric had called on Muslims to kill Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam in a scholarly lecture last week.
In his lecture, Benedict quoted the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II, who had condemned Islam's militancy with these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In the ensuing uproar, British Muslims demonstrated outside Westminster Cathedral with signs reading "Pope go to Hell" and "Islam will conquer Rome," while the head of the Society of Muslim Lawyers declared that the pope must be "subject to capital punishment." In Iraq, the radical Mujahideen's Army vowed to "smash the crosses in the house of the dog from Rome" and the Mujahideen Shura Council swore to ``continue our jihad and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks." Arsonists in the West Bank set churches on fire, and a group calling itself ``The Sword of Islam" issued a warning: ``If the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza's churches."
With all this going on many still want to say that the Pope’s actions were wrong and that he prompted the Muslims to react. It is a staggering double standard, and too many in the West seem willing to go along with it. Witness the editorials in US newspapers this week scolding the pope for his speech. Recall the State Department's condemnation of the Danish cartoons last winter.
All of this has led me to feel the need to vent a little about this “peaceful” religion and the tolerance we need to show it. Sorry for the long blog, thanks if you made it this far in reading it.
THE KORAN
While there are many other verses that could be put in here, I have chosen just two to share on this blog to attempt to keep it as easy to read as possible.
1. [2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
2. [4.89] They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
Here is another story of a Muslim leader:
BBC NEWS
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri preached that killing non-Muslims was justified even for no reason, the jury at the Old Bailey has heard.
"Killing a Kafir [infidel] for any reason you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it," he was recorded as saying.
Sudan's militant Muslim regime is slaughtering Christians who refuse to convert to Islam, according to the head of an aid group who recently returned from the African nation.
The forced conversions are just one aspect of the Khartoum government's self-declared jihad on the mostly Christian and animist south, Dennis Bennett, executive director of Seattle-based Servant's Heart told WorldNetDaily.
Villagers in several areas of the northeast Upper Nile region say that when women are captured by government forces they are asked: "Are you Christian or Muslim?"
Women who answer "Muslim" are set free, but typically soldiers gang-rape those who answer "Christian" then cut off their breasts and leave them to die as an example for others.
Backed by Muslim clerics, the National Islamic Front regime in the Arab and Muslim north declared a jihad, or holy war, on the south in 1989. Since 1983, an estimated 2 million people have died from war and related famine. About 4.5 million have become refugees.
ATTITUDE TOWARD CHRISTIANS
From the beginning, Islam drew a distinction between Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims. The former were "people of the book." They had to pay special taxes and wear identifying clothing, yet their status reflected a certain respect for what Muslims saw as the earlier but incomplete and corrupted revelation recorded in the Bible.
This next story I’ll give the a short version:
After the Pope made a remark that Islam can be a violent religion. Many in the Islamic community asked that something be done.
AS SHE LAY dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother tongue. ``Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.
She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. "Her slaying was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It "raised concerns" that she was the latest victim of "growing Islamic radicalism in the country."
Raised concerns? Sister Leonella was gunned down less than two days after a prominent Somali cleric had called on Muslims to kill Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam in a scholarly lecture last week.
In his lecture, Benedict quoted the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II, who had condemned Islam's militancy with these words: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In the ensuing uproar, British Muslims demonstrated outside Westminster Cathedral with signs reading "Pope go to Hell" and "Islam will conquer Rome," while the head of the Society of Muslim Lawyers declared that the pope must be "subject to capital punishment." In Iraq, the radical Mujahideen's Army vowed to "smash the crosses in the house of the dog from Rome" and the Mujahideen Shura Council swore to ``continue our jihad and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks." Arsonists in the West Bank set churches on fire, and a group calling itself ``The Sword of Islam" issued a warning: ``If the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza's churches."
With all this going on many still want to say that the Pope’s actions were wrong and that he prompted the Muslims to react. It is a staggering double standard, and too many in the West seem willing to go along with it. Witness the editorials in US newspapers this week scolding the pope for his speech. Recall the State Department's condemnation of the Danish cartoons last winter.
All of this has led me to feel the need to vent a little about this “peaceful” religion and the tolerance we need to show it. Sorry for the long blog, thanks if you made it this far in reading it.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Questions
Was looking for some interesting questions to get some comments and found a link that had several "moral" questions. Here are a few:
Is it a sin to vote for a politician who is pro-choice on abortion?
a. Yes
b. Sometimes, depends on the circumstances
c. No
d. Not sure
Is abortion morally permissible?
a. Yes, it is the woman's choice
b. Only in cases of rape, incest, life of mother, etc
c. Only to save the life of the mother
d. Never permissible
e. Not sure
What is your view of the charismatic movement?
a. It is from God and is the future of the Church
b. It is a good movement, but not for everyone
c. One should be wary, the movement has problems
d. From the devil
e. Not Sure
What are your views on excommunication?
Should a Christian marry a non-Christian?
Well, what do you guys think? These are pretty deep questions. I feel we should vote for the more moral of the choices (regaurdless of party), abortion is at no time permissible, I like the charasmatic movement (as long as truth is being preached, which often is not the case), not totally sure on excommunication (but think there are cases when it needs to be used), and do not think a Christian should marry a non-Christian.
Tell me your opinions.
Is it a sin to vote for a politician who is pro-choice on abortion?
a. Yes
b. Sometimes, depends on the circumstances
c. No
d. Not sure
Is abortion morally permissible?
a. Yes, it is the woman's choice
b. Only in cases of rape, incest, life of mother, etc
c. Only to save the life of the mother
d. Never permissible
e. Not sure
What is your view of the charismatic movement?
a. It is from God and is the future of the Church
b. It is a good movement, but not for everyone
c. One should be wary, the movement has problems
d. From the devil
e. Not Sure
What are your views on excommunication?
Should a Christian marry a non-Christian?
Well, what do you guys think? These are pretty deep questions. I feel we should vote for the more moral of the choices (regaurdless of party), abortion is at no time permissible, I like the charasmatic movement (as long as truth is being preached, which often is not the case), not totally sure on excommunication (but think there are cases when it needs to be used), and do not think a Christian should marry a non-Christian.
Tell me your opinions.
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