Archive for the ‘Christian’ Category
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
Being a Japanese-American, I’ve grown up with Buddhism. Mostly around funerals but also other traditions like the Obon festival. Being a firm Christian, I’ve never been attracted to Buddhism, but it has always raised some internal conflicts.
Let me start by saying that I’ve never researched exactly what Buddhists teach although it seems like there are different types of Buddhists and you can end up at different places. What I do understand is fundamentally you must do something like find wisdom or reach enlightenment to get to that place. How you know if you reach enlightenment is beyond me. This differs from Christianity that say that you can’t do anything to reach Heaven, except to have faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. And even that faith is a gift from God. (For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9)
So this leads to that big conflict that nobody, including myself, wants to examine. What happens to our Buddhist and other non-Christian family members and friends when they die? If I’m true to my Christian faith, then I can’t honestly say they are with God. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6) See, that’s just not something I want to think about. So what am I to do? Start evangelizing all my friends and family. Sounds good until I start alienating everyone, which might be okay with friends but not really practical for family. So, I just pray that God will send the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Maybe my using me and my family or by some other divine means.
Posted in Christian, Family Member | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 15th, 2006
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have always been into learning new things. New computer languages, new technologies, and new ways of doing things. This has lead me to read a lot of self-improvement books. How can I better manage my time, how can I read faster, etc. The big picture books in this area focus on not just a single part of your life, but your whole self including how you set goals and live day-to-day to achieve those goals. Heck, as my wife can tell you, I listened to one of Tony Robbins’ series and was all excited about it. Well, as the Holy Spirit has continued to work in me, I really ran into a brick wall while reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.
“Think and Grow Rich” is a seminal (strongly influencing later developments) work in the self-improvement arena. Just about every modern self-help guru recommends this book, so I’ve been looking forward to reading it for some time. The book starts off by hinting at a very powerful secret that a large number of famous people have used to become successful. The first example is of a man who wanted to be a business partner of Thomas Edison. He didn’t know Edison and had no money, just a burning desire to be Edison’s partner. Warning bells started going off when …. started talking about the universe aligning …. Then I read about how to achieve the kind of focus it takes to achieve this kind of success. It was akin to prayer. Speaking your goal twice a day. Visualize the accomplishment of that goal for 30 minutes a day. It just made me stop. I mean is this really the direction I want to take my life?
Going in, I assumed the book would talk about how to focus my mind to achieve my goals. And you know what? That’s exactly what the book would do, help me achieve MY goals. I’d have to disregard all of God’s will. I’d have to disregard Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. I’d have to focus solely on what I wanted to accomplish. So where does this leave me with self-help? First, I am going to try to finish “Think and Grow Rich.” It will probably take me quite a while since I’m going to try to read it in such a way that I can still put Jesus first. I’m not sure I’ll be successful but I would like to be able to use the techniques in the book to better accomplish God’s goals for my life. As far as self-help in general, I’ll probably steer more towards the technique oriented books like time management, organization, speed-reading. etc. and leave the bigger picture to God’s will.
Posted in Christian | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
With friends like these, you know that God has blessed your life. Last night Erin and I went on our second “quad” date with this group of friends. They are all strong Christians who have influenced my walk with the Lord. One of my struggles is my over reliance on myself and forgetting to trust God. I know He has brought these people into my life to remind me that He will provide all that I need and that I need the company and support of other believers to grow in my faith.
Posted in Christian, Family Member, Friend | No Comments »
Sunday, July 23rd, 2006
I’m listening to an interview with Tony Campolo who is stumping for the Left as an alternative for Christians. He may be a wonderful speaker and a smart guy, but he’s just as wrong and uses the same deceptive tactics as your run of the mill non-Christian Liberal. Take for example his stance on abortion. Did you know that the low minimum wage causes more abortions? Yes, according to Mr. Campolo, you can’t fight abortion unless you raise the minimum wage. If the minimum wage was $100K a year, I guess that would stamp out abortion. He says that the abortion rate for those over 30 is the same as it was in the 1950’s. Wait, wasn’t the minimum wage lower then. Shouldn’t there be fewer? The deceptive tactics that he uses are simple, spout statistics that are factual and sound authoritative, but are irrelevant in the context of his argument or make strong statements without evidence. His over 30 statistic is irrelevant because that age group is a minority of those having abortions. His comments on raising the minimum wage to stop abortions sound strong, but he give no evidence that there is any link, he says it, it sounds good, it must be right. I think the biggest problem the religious Left has is that their compassion is leading people away from the Lord. It’s a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. By trying to solve these problems through government programs the religious Left has people looking to the government as the answer instead of Jesus Christ.
Posted in Christian, Citizen | No Comments »
Friday, June 2nd, 2006
So I just came across this new movement called the “Emerging Church Movement.” It basically sounds like a bunch of people who are dissatisfied with the “arbitrary rules” that churches set down. I can understand this perspective when applied to overly legalistic churches, but everything is up for debate in this movement. The divinity of Jesus, the Bible as God’s word, whatever. They wouldn’t say they don’t believe these things, but that they are and should be debated. You see, “emerging” means taking apart what a Christian means by today’s standards and “emerging” with a new Christian and new version of Christianity.
Well, when I start seeing redefinition of terms and the relativism this movement is throwing around, I start smelling Liberals. When I did a little more digging, I found a podcast with one of the gurus of this movement, Brian McLaren. Here are some excerpts:
“To do Christian faith in the aftermath of the religious-right is very different. You say the name, Jesus, today, people immediately think of somebody holding up a God hates fags sign.”
Ah, “aftermath of the religious-right” and the only people whose first association with Jesus is a God hates fags signs are liberals. I’d agree that many people associate Christians with being judgmental and to them I’d respond to them in a kind fashion, “I’m not judging you, I’m telling you what’s in the Bible and those are the rules that God will use to judge you.”
What’s next:
Because of the activity of certain people, you can’t say the name of Jesus or Christian without evoking… some people think that means your a Republican. That it means you’re pro-war. It means your anti-poor.
Wow, the sad thing is that it was this guys liberal buddies in the mainstream media that equated Jesus and Republican and Christian and pro-war. As for equating Jesus or Christian with anti-poor I’ve never heard that asserted so I’m guessing he’s throwing something new out that he hopes will stick.
I can understand a Liberal who is a Christian not wanting to be stuck with these Republican/pro-war associations. The same as a Republican not wanting to be labeled as part of the religious-right. The problem is in order to do that this movement has decided to redefine Christianity to their likings instead of changing their mainstream media buddies who caused this problem in the first place.
Posted in Christian | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
On my JoyfulGames blog, I began reviewing some online ministries. Check out the first one here.
Posted in Christian, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
Our family has been going to Abundant Life Christian Fellowship (ALCF) for a little over a month. Erin and I have felt very at home and yesterday took the step of becoming members. The ministry is pretty old-school, faith in Christ as our Savior and adherence to the Bible, which really appeals to me. It’s also non-denominational which Erin feels comfortable with. I think it’ll be a great environment for Emi to grow up in. It’s tough being a Christian in America today especially in California and Silicon Valley. ALCF feels like a great place to build our faith to weather the storm around us.
Posted in Christian | 4 Comments »
Subscribe via RSS