Fun on a Sunday Afternoon

[kayshapero]

That was interesting. Just got back from a meeting at the First Filipino-American Christian Church in Lakewood, where the Vista del Rey Christian church choir (all six of us) were asked to sing a special. Nearly dropped my music a couple of times due to having to point a hand-held microphone at several of us at once, but it came out very well. The after meeting refreshments (well, dinner actually) proved that if there IS an ethnic group on the planet which doesn't believe in feeding you until it's coming out your ears, it's certainly not the Filipinos. :-> A good time was had by all.

The program included a video message by a preacher named Kyle Idleman, who I gather has a congregation in Kentucky. Energetic, entertaining speaker. Anyway his message got me to thinking. The main part of his talk had to do with moments of the church being under attack providing the best opportunities. Now this is true enough, and of course when you think about it the church is always at least somewhat under attack; after all Satan doesn't want us to succeed. But I think a large part of its current problems stems from simple misconception. Fact is, we are NOT here to make non-believers behave. Not that avoiding sin wouldn't improve the world considerably, but not only is it hard enough to do with help, it wouldn't do the individual all that much good unless he could avoid all of it from their first encounter with the knowledge of good and evil. Exactly one Being has ever managed that one... But worrying about what non-Christians are doing of which we may disapprove is a distraction; our job is to introduce people to Christ and give them the chance to become Christians. At which point both comprehension of the undesirability of sinful behaviour and the help of the Holy Spirit in avoiding it are available, right along with forgiveness.

Spiffy quote for the day. "Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all." William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (1942-44)

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Re. that 2nd paragraph: ABSOLUTELY! =:o} Right on the nail. Sing it from the rooftops! And may I quote you/link to you, when the topic comes up?

I'll have to think a bit about the spiffy quote. A bit challenging, that one...

[kayshapero]

Feel free.

I've got several more quotes from the referenced Archbishop who seems to have been a most interesting person. Witness:

"If you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia."

And one of my favorites:

"The paleontological evidence before us today clearly demonstrates ordered progressive change with the successive development of new faunal and floral assemblages through the changing epochs of our earth's history. There should be no real conflict between science, which is the search for truth, and Christ's teachings, which I hold to be truth itself. It is only when scientists remove God from creation that the Christian is faced with an irreconcilable situation. "

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

Heee, first question when Filipinos organize a meeting is usually "What will we eat?"

[kayshapero]

I know about that one - many of the members of our church are Filipino, all related to each other and have done such things as bring an entire roast suckling pig to church potlucks. :-> I might add between the Filipinos, the Koreans, the Japanese, and various other folks in this church we do have GOOD potlucks.