It has come to my attention this afternoon that the Brain Tamaki website that I blogged about yesterday is most likely a very well designed fake website that has fooled a number of bloggers across NZ. Here is the output from DNC WHOIS look up on the site this afternoon, the only thing that gives away a possibility of the site being fake is the @gmail.com email address.

All week the New Zealand news media has been digging hard into Destiny Church and Brian Tamaki over the walkout of the head pastor of the church’s Brisbane congregation. Some of the media reports have been a little over the top in their criticisms and approaches such as TV3’s John Campbell who has gone from being a very good investigative journalist to be a little bit creepy in his abilities to stalk people involved in the Church. Another major criticism of the church has been the fact that it uses and EFTPOS machine for receiving offerings. In the last 10 years I would have not been in a single church that did not have an EFTPOS machine for receiving offerings.

Having said this I commend the actions of Andrew Stock who stood up for what he believed in a walked away from the church. There are a lot of things that Destiny practice and believe that I fundamentally disagree with. However, until this morning, I have been muted in heavy criticism of the church as other blogs have been doing this well. I also hold a strong belief in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And that the differences in beliefs between church denominations come down to additions of man and not God and that fundamentally the majority of churches that have John 3:16 as their base are on the right track.

However as pointed out by Scrubone at Half Done and before that Dave at Big News, Brian Tamaki has now gone beyond the point of just being another brand of Christianity with his personal website declaring: “Bishop Brian Tamaki is the physical manifestation of God.”

Manifestation is one of those “church words” that you hear tossed about from time to time, “manifestations of the spirit” for instance. But I am certain that I have never heard someone be described as the “manifestation of God”.  To figure out exactly what Tamaki means by this I looked up the dictionary definition:

manifestation
–noun

1. an act of manifesting.
2. the state of being manifested.
3. outward or perceptible indication; materialization: At first there was no manifestation of the disease.
4. a public demonstration, as for political effect.
5. Spiritualism. a materialization.

I think point 3 sums up what Tamaki is saying. Tamaki is saying that he is the materialization of God. That makes me sick to the depths of my stomach for a “church” leader to be saying that. There is only one person ever who was the manifestation of God and that was Jesus Christ.

Unless Tamaki is trying to say that he is the second coming of the Messiah then he is very badly off track in his beliefs. Anyone who truly believes in the words of God written in the scriptures needs to get out of that church because it is no longer a church it is as the media has been reporting now  a cult of personality.

Furthermore in doing some research into this post I came across this:

The Manifestation of God is a concept in the Bahá’í Faith that refers to what are commonly called prophets. The Manifestations of God are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world for the progress and advancement of human morals and civilization. The Manifestations of God are the only channel for humanity to know about God, and they act as perfect mirrors reflecting the attributes of God into the physical world.

Now I know that Tamaki is not practicing Bahá’í, however, it just shows the terribly poor choice of words that have been used.

I was surprised to learn that NZ Bus has decided to reject the Athiest Bus Ads that were to run on the buses in Auckland.

The ads were to read “There’s probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

However Auckland bus operator NZ Bus is not going to run the ads because of complaints.

I find this move odd and think in the long run that it is sets a bad prescient. The ads are not worded offensively and they are not provocative either.

If christians and other religious folk are willing to scream when prayers are removed form school, parliament, and other places etc, then surely they should be willing to stand beside the athiests when they are expressing their views with the same freedoms that they demand at other times.

Overall this is a bad move and look for the religious folk.

I just had an awesome Christian friend ask me what the meaning of this life was – as Christians.

This is how I replied (after a few minutes of pausing a thinking about it). And it is a little cliche but so what!

I think our Christian purpose in life is to be light houses, and city on the hills to the world, it is to live our lives as Christians in the world, but not of the world, so we are not isolated into little religious communities but we are interacting with other people on a day to day people, and when we interact those people we share bits of what we believe with them, we don’t force it down their throats, but through us doing good in a very dark and evil world we show what it really means to do god’s work.

Maybe tomorrow night I will expand on it a little more and include the scriptures that I have paraphrased as well.

Last night I finished reading one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is called “Save Me From Myself” and is written by Brian Head Welch formerly of the band Korn. The book is an autobiography of his life from childhood, through his drug fuelled years with Korn and his coming to Christ and becoming a Christian. I won’t give too much away about the story as it is a book that any young person should read.

The one bit that really got me from a Christian perspective was towards the end of the book where Welch describes some songs he wrote after coming to Christ:

After I’d been writing for a bit, God gave me another song called “It’s Time To See Religion Die.” To me, this song has a few different meanings. For one, it’s a song that encourages people to get out of this whole “Sunday Christian” mentality and into the world so God can use them to change the world, to help people understand that God does not live in buildings made by men (Acts 7:48). We are God’s building, because he dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Upon reading this I grabbed my bible to check the verses mentioned in context. The full context of Acts 7:48 is from verse 48 through to verse 50, from the NIV:

However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?”

The full context of 1 Corinthians 3:16 extends into verse 17 as well:

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

This commentary was something that I had always known but had forgotten about. It seems too often that we get caught up in thinking that God is at Church. When God is actually right with us, right now. And church is something made by man to come together as a body of believers to worship God. Church is not God and does not create God, but we can meet God at church, in exactly the same way we can on our owns anywhere else at any other time.

Welch then continues:

That’s not the only meaning to this song though. Also, this song is for all the people that have been hurt by religion. All of the man-made religion crap in this world has to die. Whenever it’s Christian man-made religion crap or some other man-made religion crap, it all has to die. It must grieve God’s heart when he sees Christians fighting about whose doctrine is right; he doesn’t see denominations, he sees one big glorious bride. When Christians argue about doctrinal issues, all he sees is carnal people acting like children. All that prideful, controlling religious crap is what drives young people away from churches, and it has to go. Much of the world’s population is under the age of eighteen, and we have to bring the love of Christ to them without all this controlling crap going on. Because, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

I found this point quite interesting as well. I think it is important to be able to freely and frankly discuss your differences of points of view on doctrine but many times church groups take it way too far (catholic vs protestant for instance). And it does put people off. If we put as much effort into working with young people as we did discussing the finer points of some minor piece of doctrine how many more people would we save?

You can buy the book on Mighty Ape

Jon Stewart deals to Pat Robertson’s digusting comments on the Haiti Earthquake by quoting scripture back to him. Nice way to deal with the situation. However, it remains very sad that a comedian has to show a church leader how to have compassion.

When I was in Sydney a few months back I picked up a book at the airport to read on my flight home entitled “The Genesis Enigma – Why The Bible Is Scientifically Accurate”. I was surprised to find what at first I considered to be a creationist book in the popular science section of an airport bookshop. Furthermore the book is written by Dr Andrew Parker an Honorary Research Fellow of Green Templeton College at Oxford University, Research Leader at the Natural History Museum and a Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University none of which are the typical credentials of a creationist.

The book takes a very different approach from most books on God, science and the origins of the universe. The typical approach is to use the bible as a literal roadmap of creation and then tweak the science to make it fit the bible stories. However, Parker takes the opposite approach in The Genesis Enigma by outlining the science of the origins of the universe and life and then tests if the bible can line up with this. Surprisingly with a little less literal interpretation of the bible it does.

The main thesis of the book is:

• The bible is a historically accurate record of people and events.
• The six days of creation are not a literal six days but instead refer to the order in which science now reveals the universal comes into being. Something that no one writing a religious book a few thousand years ago would have been able to know, or understand unless the knowledge came through divine intervention.
• The evolution is an undisputable scientific fact. However atheism is not a fact or theory it is as much a religion as any other faith based religious belief.
• There is more to life and God than just science. And science cannot explain everything in the world. Science is not the be all and end all of explaining the meaning and purpose of life.

Overall the main ideas in the book make a lot of sense and while I do not necessarily agree with all of them it has provoked my intellectual thought around the subject. The end of the book also finishes with a discussion of intelligent design and atheism which is very interesting independent of the rest of the book. In particular:

“One’s reaction to the science versus religion debate is a very personal choice. Do you believe that science will take such huge steps, changing the way in which it works today, as to be able to answer those big questions in the universe? Or do you choose God? To borrow from C. S. Lewis, do you believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, or that there is a great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest? Creationism and atheism are neither scientific theories nor demonstrably true. If we do not allow them to cloud our judgement then God can appear as a rational answer as to why we exist on earth.”

Furthermore Parker makes a very strong case for divine intervention in the authorship of the bible by stating:

“That Aaronid priest who wrote the Bible’s first page, or Moses who may have given the ancient Israelites their creation account originally, lacked any interest in natural history. Although demonstrating attention to detail in other subjects – geography, politics, economics, law – this Aaronid priest and the character Moses, provide us with no signs of biological inclination. The scientific method, necessary to decipher the true account of how the universe formed and life evolved, with its repeatable experiments, was yet to manifest itself. The ancient Israelites were not conducting scientific experiments in their sheds – if they were, they would have written about it, as they did about everything else they did. The writer of the Bible’s first page simply roamed the desert or traversed the dusty streets of ancient Jerusalem during the day, and marvelled at the stars at night. He was without so much as a magnifying lens.

Indeed, the history books tell us that science and natural history began some centuries later with the ancient Greeks, who were influenced by very different natural surroundings. So, in terms of providing an explanation for how the universe and life came to be, the Aaronid priest given this task, or the character Moses, would not have had a clue. All the same, something was written. And it made its way to pride of place in the Bible.

As such, unprovided with evidence of any kind, the creation account on the Bible’s opening page might be assumed a fantasy. But the Genesis Enigma has told us that those enigmatic phases that ignite the Bible actually mean something – they are scientifically accurate. That would be an outrageous assertion, were it not true. The conclusion that this page of the Bible could, perhaps more than any other, represent God’s hand in the Bible. The true account of how we came to exist may have been handed to humans by God.

In any case, our strong preconception that science has, with each discovery chipped away at the notion of God is proved wrong in this book. Now we can live with the real possibility that God exists while fully accepting the science, rather than straining to find contradictions. Faith suddenly appears that much stronger.”

Now as I stated earlier I do not necessary accept or agree with everything Parker has outlined in his book.  The remaining question for me is that if God is able to put in places the rules that govern the universe that make evolution work on both a small scale (as now commonly accepted by most creationists) and a large scale (as Parker and most of the secular scientific world believes) then why does God just stop there? If God can do all this stuff that makes the world tick over then why can he not decide to play with the rules and create a literal six day creation as well? It is not designed to make us confused about how old the world is, but rather to demonstrate that God ultimately has the power to influence and change the universe. It is about demonstrating that God is in control and not science.

After reading the book and pondering some of the ideas raised in it I went back and read some of the creationism based “science” that I had blindly followed from a few years ago. What I have discovered is that by arguing that evolution is nothing more than a myth and controlled “brainwashing” people they are essentially doing the same thing with “creationism”. Statements such as “long years of educational brainwashing in the mythology of evolutionary theory “ plant ideas in the minds of people that they have been brainwashed, ironically by planting these ideas creationists are doing nothing more than the same thing! Furthermore, the contradictions in their arguments and statements just scream this out.

For instance Chuck Missler who is well known for his Bible commentary and in particular his study on Daniel’s 70 weeks where he shows they are not a literal 70 weeks but weeks of years states here: http://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/528/ that the earth was created in six literal days because the bible says so. However, the bible does not directly say Daniel had 70 weeks of years, no it just says 70 weeks. So how do you determine when there is a literal meaning and where there is not? Furthermore Missler shoots himself in the foot in another article on the site where he argues there is a gap between God creating the heavens and the earth and the actual six day creation: http://www.khouse.org/articles/2008/821/ this makes no sense because now in one place he is arguing in an absolute six day creation, and another he argues there is a gap. What one is it?

Or for instance the finding of a city under the Black Sea as evidence for a worldwide flood http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/299/ when anyone with any knowledge of geology would brush this off as evidence of the plates of the earth shifting and changing over the years. This is not to say that the ideas of intelligent design are completely dead in the water Kent Hovind poses some good questions that have still not be fully answered by science, in particular:

• Without a creator how did time, space, and matter came into existence by themselves?
• How and why did matter create life by itself?
• How and why did early life-forms learn to reproduce themselves?
• How and why did major changes occur between diverse life forms (i.e., fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals).

The biggest problem with creationism is the way in which they throw out solid science and replace it with arguments that the Bible says this happened so it must be true. This would be the same as arguing the world is made of the Greek Classical Elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether) because this is what was written on Greek tablets a few thousand years ago. The reality is the stories written in the Bible were written firstly for the understanding of the people who lived at the time the stories were written. Yes the Bible and the stories in it still have a huge amount of relevance today, however, we cannot take every single word as literal because the very first thing we would be worshipping is a lamb and not a person who lived 2000 years ago.

I got this tweet from Parachute Music a few minutes ago:

Download Derek Webb’s controversial new song What Matters More on www.derekwebb.com. INO Records wouldn’t release it. What do you think?

http://twitter.com/Parachute_Music/statuses/5432917972

Not knowing any controversy around the song I went and downloaded it wondering what could be possibly so wrong with the song that a record label wouldn’t include it on a CD. Well listen to it yourself below and see what you notice and what you think.

At first I noticed the words “damn” and “shit” in the lyrics. Surely this was not enough to get it banned. It was a little unusual given that Derek Webb is a former member of Caedmon’s Call a popular Christian alternative rock/worship band however in the context of the song the words fit and are relevant. And lets face it we hear far worse things everyday and probably nearly all of us have music be it “Christian” or non-Christian that has far worse things said in it.

To try and get my head around the whole issue a little bit more I did a little bit of searching for the lyrics, news and blog posts on the song. It turns out the main controversy is not only around those two “swear” words but also around these lyrics in the second verse:

If I can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it’s about
It looks like being hated for all the wrong things
Like chasin’ the wind while the pendulum swings

‘Cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save
Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit
About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today

Tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me, sister, what matters more to you?

Webb makes a direct statement saying that the church is more concerned about being straight and hating on people for being different then caring about people. In fact I believe Webb is bibically correct here Jesus speaking in Mark 12:29-31 clearly states:

Mar 12:29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: `Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
Mar 12:30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
Mar 12:31 The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Love not hate, care not judge. But this seems to have fallen on death ears in a lot of the Christian community and subsequently the song was censored off his album.

The thing I find most ironic about this entire situation is that I have so much music that critises the church and the way we act:

Delirious sing in “Our God Reigns”

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

Casting Crowns sing in “What this world needs”

What this world needs is not another one hit wonder with an axe to grind
Another two bit politician peddling lies
Another three ring circus society
What this world needs is not another sign waving super saint that’s better than you
Another ear pleasing candy man afraid of the truth
Another prophet in an Armani suit

What this world needs is a Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love them in their time of need
A Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love
That’s what this world needs

What this world needs is for us to care more about the inside than the outside
Have we become so blind that we can’t see
God’s gotta change her heart before He changes her shirt
What this world needs is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance
Blending in so well that people can’t see the difference
And it’s the difference that sets the world free

Jesus is our Savior, that’s what this world needs
Father’s arms around you, that’s what this world needs
That’s what this world needs

So what is the difference this time, is it the mere mention of homosexuality that has everyone sticking their heads into the sand pretending they live on Mars and not Earth?

From: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/price-religion-destiny-church-3102501

Take a look at the ad for the tv show on the right of the panel. Very creative TVNZ even if it is just a computer generated ad based on word recognition.

On a more serious note there is a very good discussion with Peter Lineham from Massey University regarding the church here: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/price-religion-destiny-church-3102501/video

A friend of mine blogged this comment last night:

When I first got out of the house, the weather seemed to pack in a lil bit and I prayed and asked God to give me just one hour of non-raining. Just 1 hour… and it didn’t rain. Was somewhat cool and chilly sometimes but not a drop of rain. Thank you Lord!

This got me thinking. Should we really be asking for G-d to make it stop raining?

Sure there are times when we are in severe drought and we need rain, or we have bad flooding and we need the rain to stop. But to pray for it not to rain so you can just fulfill your own private personal desire seems a little bit selfish.

Sure G-d is meant to be our best friend, and we are meant to pray to him day and night. However isn’t this meant to be about honouring G-d rather than him giving us our own wants?

This made me think of the clip from Bruce Almighty where Bruce decides to answer all the prayers to God with yes. It turns out that it wasn’t the best idea out. You can see the first part of the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFlVr3ysCy0

We are meant to have faith as small as mustard seeds. But does this mean that we should be asking for things as small as mustard seeds to happen in our life? I thought we were given a little bit more independence than that.

It is always a good morning when you wake up dreaming and singing the Newsboys song How Great Is Your Faithfulness.

If I rise on wings of dawn
Or drift in seas of doubt
Even there Your strong right hand
Has never failed to guide me out

Great is Your faithfulness
To carry on with a sinner like me
Great is Your faithfulness
Turning shame into victory
Your grace has never let me be
Your mercy’s waited patiently
Oh, so great is Your faithfulness
To carry on with a sinner like me

If I hide in dark and shadows
Fearful of each day
Even there Your blinding light
Illuminates my pathway

Goodness never
Never fails
It never fails me

Which instantly made me think of the following verse in Romans 8 (NIV):

Rom 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
Rom 8:39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Which is fantastic news to wake to in the morning.

On Friday I got Rob Bell’s latest book Drops Like Stars.

So far I am 3/4 the way through it and loving every page and every image. The bit I was reading last night was to do with possessions and ownership and Rob Bell quotes 2 Corinthians 6. Here is the full version from the NLT.

2Cr 6:4 In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.
2Cr 6:5 We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.
2Cr 6:6 We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
2Cr 6:7 We have faithfully preached the truth. God’s power has been working in us. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves.
2Cr 6:8 We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors.
2Cr 6:9 We are well known, but we are treated as unknown. We live close to death, but here we are, still alive. We have been beaten within an inch of our lives.
2Cr 6:10 Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

I can’t claim to have experienced half the things that Paul and the early disciples experienced. But the words of these scriptures still hold true today. No matter what I pray that I would be able to show that I am a true minister of God in everything I do, and through that God will be able to give me the patience to endure troubles, hardships and calamities of all kinds. I pray that I won’t be beaten, put in jail for my beliefs. However if I ever do I pray that I will always know that God is right there by my side as my saviour and best friend.

The past few weeks have been an interesting ride for me with some changes in my life. And the future does not look that clear either, all I see is smoke and mirrors. Anyway I have been finding a lot of reflection in Skillet’s back catalogue and latest album recently. Tonight’s song is collide. The lyrics below are only part of the song but it is the part that has spoken to me the most tonight.

We have fallen
We have fallen again tonight
Where do we go from here
When they’re tearing down our lives?
When all they want is
For us to live in fear
How long can we hold on?
Can we hold on?
Hold on

There’s something deep inside
That keeps my faith alive
When all you can do
Is hide from the fear
That’s deep inside of you
Something
To hold me close when I don’t know
There’s something deep inside
That keeps my faith alive

At the moment I have many fears in my life, mainly about the future. But it is that faith that is deep inside, that trust, that is keeping me going. Last night I was a bit of a train wreck but I spoke to a friend for over an hour and got a lot of it out. Being listened to is a really nice thing.

I haven’t posted a random song in ages. So here is one especially for Sunday. Warning this may upset those who do not like guitars in church

A month ago I asked the question “What is the purpose of Church?” (http://www.brad.net.nz/blog/2009/06/what-is-the-purpose-of-church/) and at the end I stated that it was to be continued leaving the question “What does a city on a hill look like”?

I have been slow to continue it not just because I have been busy, but also because I have spent quite a lot of time thinking about it, and how to write down my various thoughts and views.

The question is derived from the well know verse of Matthew 5:14 NIV:

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Now the verse in question is talking about Christians and the Church and how it should appear to the world.

The full set of scripture reads (Matthew 5:13-17 NIV):

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Now it is clear (I hope) from the scripture that Jesus is talking about how Christians should act and behave in the world. And plenty of people have gone out and preached that you should live this perfect life to make your light shine. But I am actually not sure if that is really what I take from this.

You see the city on the hill bit still gets me, and like my views on the church I am not sure if the city on a hill looks as shinning clean as some people make out. I don’t believe that a city on a hill is filled with people in pure white robes and not a speck of dust is to be found. And if I ever came across a city that was like that then I would have to wonder what they were hiding, what did they want you not to see?

It is like those people who appear to have it all perfect on the outside but on the inside are the complete opposites of that, a complete mess. Even myself, on the outside I am really organised and take extreme pride in what I do, but when you get to know me you know that my personal stuff is a mess, like my room is never tidy and never something to be proud of.

In fact I would go so far to say that a city on a hill is the complete opposite to roads without dust, in fact I think in a true city on a hill the roads will be really dusty and dirty with the amount of people travelling from afar to visit it, to find solace in it.

It is like when you are travelling to any city and you see the lights of it in the distance, it always looks great to the first glimpse of the eye, but as you get closer you start to spot the flaws, the cracks in the pavement, the homeless on the park bench, the regular traffic jams. So what makes the city on a hill that Jesus describes so different from any other city?

Well I don’t actually believe it is entirely who we are or the things that we do that makes the city shine. But rather it is deeper than that. It comes down to how we live our life and how God shines his light out through us. The light of the city on the hill is not visible light but spiritual light. It is love. It is accepting people as they are, not judging, not criticising, but loving people. It is accepting people as they come, and showing them the love and the grace of God.

Now that is not to say that some of the things that they do are acceptable things, but first we must show them the love of God, you need to build bridges and relationships with people, not create a pit of lions that you must cross first before you can be considered good enough.

So the city on the hill is actually and very messy and dirty place, it is filled with people who are in need of love and forgiveness. It is like the emergency department at a hospital, chaos, but organised chaos. It is like the church. And the light shinning out of it is the spiritual light of those Christians who are caring for the needy, for the sick. Those Christians who are not donating to the neediest aid agency, but those who will actually get their hands stuck in, those who will actually put on the armour of God and take their place as a foot soldier, a medic, or a counsellor.

TobyMac puts it this way on his “Alive and Transported” album:

You see it’s not our words. Our words aren’t going to be which stops the world in its tracks. Our words will not change the world. They’ve heard it all.

It is not normally our music. Normally we make our music for us, for the body, so that we can sharpen each other, edify the body, glorify our god. Once in a while one crosses over but it’s not typically the music that is going to stop the world it its tracks. Our music is not going to change the world more than likely.

It’s not our buildings, as grand and beautiful as some of our church buildings are. It’s not the architecture, that’s going to change the world.

But I believe what will change the world, is when we begin to love each other, and when we begin to love the world, and when we begin to reach out to the orphans, and the widows, and the lower income families in our communities. When the world sees that kind of love, I’m talking about undeniable love, I believe they will stop in their tracks and say “Yo, whatever you people have over there. I want some of that baby, I want some of that right there for me”.

When our houses are packed so full of love that we have gotta open up the back door to let it ooze out into the valleys and the suburbs and the city streets. When the world sees that kind of love, real love, they’re going to stop in their tracks baby. They’re going to say “Whatever homy, homy, yo homy, whatever you people have over there you Jesus freaks, I want some of that man, I want some that Jesus for me man if it is doing all that.”

How many times have you heard someone actually say something like that? Why do we have to win people for God? Why aren’t they asking if they can come to church with us? Why are we the one inviting them, begging them? What makes church so unattractive? If those modern and megachurches are really so great then why are they (mostly) always struggling for money, or even if they are packed still packed with only Christians who have moved there from other churches? If they are so great then why is the rest of the community still not interested in attending? Why is church so unattractive in today’s world?

Maybe that will be the topic of the next blog on this subject. It is something that I am still wrestling with.