Don’t Forget my Receipt for That Thousandth of a Cent
October 18th, 2009It Will not be Necessary to Put my Name on a Plaque
Church was great today. Yesterday, Pastor Rich called to tell me he was back in town, and he said he had managed to put a sermon together, and he expressed doubt, saying he didn’t know if it would be any good. I don’t like to prolong conversations when I talk to him, because he’s extremely busy, and I know every minute he carves out to talk to me costs him somewhere else. Friday is his day off, and he had been working that day, and he made two trips during the preceding few days, so it was not an easy week. I tried to express optimism and confidence about the sermon, but in the short time we were on the phone, I didn’t really get it out.
The sermon was great, and afterward I went up to the front of the church, intending to say so, and instead I ended up asking if he had any idea where my Pyrex had ended up (I brought food to church a week ago) and whether he would be able to give a little time to my sister this week. I don’t know where my mind went. I should start putting Post-it notes on my shirt. I went up there to be helpful, and I ended up asking for stuff. Smooth!
I think the people who run churches spend a tremendous amount of time giving to others, and many don’t get a lot in return. Some make big money, I know, but many don’t, and money doesn’t perform the same functions as friendship and prayer. So it’s good to let them know when they do things right. I am not doing a great job of this.
On the one hand, I want to be supportive and useful. I want to take burdens off of him so he can get more done, with less stress and effort. He has put me in the company of his “armorbearers”; trusted people who assist in his work. That means I have a duty to be like Aaron and Hur, who helped Moses hold up the staff of God while the Hebrews beat their enemies in battle. On the other hand, I don’t want to be an irritating toady who never goes home and who gets on the nerves of the other people at the church. Like Smithers on The Simpsons. I’m doing okay in that I make myself available to help, but I think once in a while I need to say, “You did a good job.”
He was talking about Christianity’s big failure. If his facts are right, 1.8 billion people have never heard the gospel, and Christians worldwide spend an average of one thousandth of a cent per year to reach these folks. That’s a depressing statistic. He also said we give about 1.8% of our income to the church, which is not impressive. We are too cheap to reach the lost.
He said another problem is that we’re too legalistic. I had always thought of legalism as worrying too much about rules, but he showed it to us from another angle. He said we talk too much to nonbelievers about our disapproval and the things people should stop doing. He said he meets a lot of people who say they like Jesus fine but can’t stand Christians. When they think of Christianity, instead of love and compassion, they think of annoying people who say they’re doing everything wrong.
So now I have something new to work on. It’s amazing how my barrel of shortcomings never runs dry.
He’s usually very reluctant to offend the congregation, but today he let loose on people who go to the can during the collection. That was funny. I’m sure they thought he hadn’t noticed.
I have no idea whether people are giving as much as they should. A lot of them are poor; maybe on average, they give very generously. But if you can’t give on a particular day, going to the can is not a great idea. It makes you look guilty, even if you’re not.
He challenged us to bring new people to church next week. Appropriate, since I might be able to do that.
I think I’m going to go back to attending church on Sunday. I prefer Saturday, but it wrecks the Sabbath idea. If you go on Sunday morning, it’s easy to set the whole day aside for God. If you go on Saturday night, you can extend it through Sunday sundown, but that doesn’t work all that well for me. Jews can break a day up like that; they’ve done it for thousands of years. I’m used to days that end at bedtime.
I feel fantastic today. I don’t know what’s going on, but I feel great. It helps that the day will be an oasis, set aside for God. I missed this.
October 18th, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Steve,
Just wanted to say thanks for your posts. Every time I read, I learn something about cooking, your thoughts and experiences with Christianity, your church, etc
I am learning what it means to be a Christian and the responsibilities, so your posts help me find the right direction.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:18 AM
That university prof who wrote “Who Really Cares?” found out a lot of interestign things.
He was surprized that conservatives/religious folk give twice as much (percentage wise) as liberals/atheists.
I think everyone was somewhat surprized that the poorer end of the spectrum give much more percentage wise than the richer end of the spectrum.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:26 PM
I don’t know where he got his figures from, but I’ll bet he’s WAY off on that whole one thousandth of a cent thing. In fact, if you do the math with the number of Christians worldwide and just the amount spent on full-time Mormon missionaries alone it comes out to about 13 cents per Christian each year.
And that’s only counting the basic costs, not all the extra that families and other members spend in support of the missionaries. Throw that in and it would probably hit at least 20 cents per Christian in the world just to cover what the full-time LDS missionaries are spending.
Granted, that’s still not a lot, but when you figure that the LDS only amount to less than 1% of all Christians the real total is going to be significantly higher.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:44 AM
One of my realizations was that even if the sinners in our lives stop sinning, it won’t save their souls. So I don’t bug them about that stuff unless they ask. It always works better in life to behave, of coure, but its not the same as being an actual believer.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:31 AM
Christians believe in salvation by faith alone, not works. Mormons believe in salvation by works. Mormons are not Christians.
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Saying Mormons are Christians because they believe in Jesus is like saying I’m a Mormon because I go to church and I’ve been to Utah. I don’t run around calling myself a Jew because I believe what Moses said.
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I will never forget how Mike Huckabee was excoriated for telling the truth about Mormonism. It really does preach that Jesus and Satan are brothers, just as he said. Any religion that attacks people who speak the truth about it is scary.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Mormonism is my biggest objection to Glen Beck. He is entertaining sometimes, but the truth isn’t in him. I don’t care if he bawls on camera. He is like an innoculation against real faith in the real God.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:42 PM
I don’t want to get in an argument about whether the Mormons are right. It’s obvious that I disagree with them. But right or wrong, they are very clearly not Christians, by the definition embraced by virtually all denominations.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:57 AM
If your objection is that we supposedly believe in salvation by works, then you’ve been horribly misinformed. We absolutely, positively, without any doubt believe that salvation can come ONLY through Jesus Christ. Without his atoning sacrifice and his subsequent crucifixion and resurrection all mankind would be hopelessly lost for all eternity.
However, as the Savior Himself clearly said when asked what a person had to DO to get into heaven, obedience to the commandments is a requirement. He did not simply say that the young man had to continue to believe in Him. When the saddened man walked away, Jesus even pointed out how difficult it will be for rich people (to include the faithful one that asked the question) to get into heaven.
[SNIPPED by proprietor of blog]
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 AM
You have just pointed out the difference between Mormons and Christians. Christians do not believe you have to have works to get into heaven. Jesus did not say you had to have works to receive eternal salvation. He said your behavior determined whether you entered “the kingdom of heaven,” which is a reference to becoming part of God’s kingdom here on earth. This has to do with being baptized with the Holy Spirit and being changed by him. He makes you better able to do good, and to know God’s will, and to have faith. Jesus was talking about the days to come, following his crucifixion, in which the Holy Spirit would live inside men and make them like Jesus.
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Furthermore, there are two books in heaven. The Bible makes this clear. One says whether you get eternal life. The other determines what rewards you receive for your works. This shows the distinction between the product of faith (salvation) and the product of works (reward).
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The only people who consider Mormons Christians are Mormons and ignorant people who don’t know anything about Christianity. No sane denomination recognizes your religion as Christianity. Why don’t you tell the whole story, including the requirement that people wear sacred underwear? You also believe Joseph Smith and Jesus will judge us as a team, and that Mormons get a secret password to get into heaven. Unless the well-known Mormon revisionism has changed things, you believe Indians and blacks will turn white when they “finally” become righteous. Your “prophets” teach this stuff. Surely you realize Christians don’t believe those things. The Pope isn’t boning up so he can pass Joseph Smith’s test on the way in to heaven.
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I told you I don’t host long, repetitious comment arguments. You posted a long, argumentative comment anyway and suggested I could delete it, so I did. Now you’re posting more argument, so it looks like you weren’t sincere at all, and you are determined to get this stuff published. One of the chronic complaints about Mormons is that they are not honest in defending the faith, as demonstrated in the persecution of Mike Huckabee, who told the truth about your religion. I hope you are not falling prey to that.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:22 AM
“One of the chronic complaints about Mormons is that they are not honest in defending the faith”
…and one of the chronic complaints about anti-Mormons is that they are not honest in what they claim we believe.
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SNIP
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This will be my last post on this. I would have just emailed, but this seemed to be an easier way.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:53 AM
You have repeatedly disregarded my comment policy. You now accuse me of lying. You have distorted the Bible in the hope of sending me to do to your research for you (the wealthy young man in the gospels was not told he had to give up all he had in order to get eternal life; he was told he had to do it in order to have treasure in heaven).
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I do not have an obligation to spend my time disputing assertions that clearly are not true. I am not paid to respond to specious assertions on blogs.
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The Mormon religion has a long and well-documented history of revising beliefs and concealing embarrassing facts; anyone who thinks otherwise should Google and find out. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Jesus is not Satan’s brother. God does not live on another planet. God is not a man who grew up and became a god. Black people and Indians are not dark because they are wicked (nor for that matter were Jesus or Moses, who were dark-skinned Middle Easterners). Joseph Smith will not be allowed to determine whether I go to paradise. He will not give me a password in order to get in the door. American Indians are not descendants of the Jews. Black people are not unfit to be priests because of their race. The Mormon religion has taught all of these things. It is not Christianity.
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I cannot be accused of obscuring the truth when I invite everyone to check out the facts for themselves. The Mormon establishment, on the other hand, has a long record of obscuring the truth, and we recently saw it in their persecution of Mike Huckabee, who exposed some of their beliefs.
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Jesus and the Apostles repeatedly point out that eternal life is a gift which cannot be earned by acts. Paul said anyone who preached a different gospel (like Mormonism) though it be taught by an angel (as Joseph Smith and for that matter, Mohammed claimed) was accursed. I would be extremely wary about accepting a new gospel, based on Paul’s warning (Galatians 1:8-9). I should also add that the New Testament’s authenticity has been proven by thousands of ancient manuscripts, going back the the first centuries after Jesus died. The Jews zealously preserved the Old Testament for centuries before that, and they still do. Any claim that the Bible has been corrupted is untenable.
I invite everyone reading this to go and discover the truth, instead of wasting time reading a blog argument. Don’t believe me; believe the gospels and the Apostles. Jesus came to give us the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and with it, power to be set free from our iniquities and bondages. He did not come to add burdens to our lives, and he did not expect us to attain righteousness using only our own strength. He died so every Christian could have the fruit of the Spirit (God’s character) and the gifts of the Spirit (God’s supernatural power). Works are extremely important, but they do not determine whether a Christian enters heaven when he dies.
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I wish you could have what I have. You clearly want to please God. I will keep you in my prayers. If you think I am misled, do the same for me, and presumably, God will lead both of us to the light.
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“This will be my last post on this.”
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Let me patiently and calmly point out that this sentence is correct.