One of the great things about true Christianity that is focused on the person of Jesus Christ is that He can't be pegged. This means we disagree over all sorts of things but often accept that the different opinions are worth the discussion. Every now and then however there is an issue that is plain wrong and should not be tolerated. In a previous post I spoke of the 'Really Stupid' conference and group with their nonsense statement that if you are not growing you are not like the early church..........well an even worse statement has been made at a conference.

Basically it was stated that we are to give the corners of our fields to the Senior Pastor and then God will bless us. The corners of the fields is of course $$$$. It's based on an Old Testament practice where farmers at harvest time left the corners of their fields for the poor to harvest..... it was a way of helping the poor. The current mumbo jumbo is taking it from the poor, giving to the wealthy and all so we get stuff......THIS IS STEALING FROM THE POOR AND THEREFORE FROM GOD.....ITS WRONG.

Why do we allow it? A number if reasons but there are three I want to mention.

1. We aspire to be like the senior pastor...we want the goodies!
2. We are Biblically ignorant and therefore fall prey to every whim of man
3. When we know its wrong we are too scared to speak out because we are afraid the powerful leaders who will be upset.

So how do we deal with these?

1. Face our own desires and aspirations and stop excusing the ones that do not reflect Jesus.
2. get Biblically literate...read the Bible and don't get everything for the songs we sing and stuff preached.....basically if the preacher is the main beneficiary of the preaching be very cautious.
3. I don't know....still thinking about this one.

I've discovered Limewire. The result is that I'm trying to get my personal top 20 songs of all time. Its actually not that easy. The list will be eclectic and I'm sure will be the songs of heaven. The confirmed include:

"Cortiz the Killer" by Neil Young,
"Eruption" by Van Halen (yes I know its an instrumental than a song but its my list so its ok),
"Why don't you look into Jesus" by Larry Norman (probably the only christian song)
"Phantom of the Opera" by Iron Maiden
"Oh Darling" by the Beatles
Something by Roy Buchanan...still deciding.

Anyway..........any suggestions welcome...........as long as you don't get upset if I don't agree!

PS My mate Hamo from Perth has just started posting again. Top bloke. http://www.backyardmissionary.com/

It's been way too long since I last made a posting but recently something has really got me mad....made by a 'Really Stupid' conference group. The guts of their message is that if your church is not growing you are not a New Testament church.......and sure enough if you go to their conference they will tell you how to be a growing New Testament church....with the customary huge emphasis on the collection of course.

You are also not a New Testament Church if you have full time staff, if you have dedicated building,if you have a youth ministry, and of course you must be seriously persecuted and personally know people who are imprisoned for their faith. You must also have no Bible and no books on the Bible and there are no conferences telling you how to live!

To oversimplify the New Testament Church not only sets up people to try and be something that did not exist as it is promoted but also does not honour those in the New Testament Church that had to really endure for their faith.

When are we going to start telling people not to go to these 'Really Stupid' conferences that sound so good to some and yet are so wrong!