If you haven’t noticed, I have been studying philosophy and Christian thought.  I came across some ideas of Augustine that I found interested and that I wanted to engage with today.  Augustine states his acceptance of the idea that if we equate goodness and being, that we must also equate evil and nothingness.  He goes on to state that ignorance is not a reality.  (That is interesting because I know a lot of ignorant people).  He believes that it is simply a lack of knowledge.  He believes that knowledge is the reality.  Interesting… He also says that weakness is not a reality, but rather it is a lack of strength.  Strength in this case would be the reality. 

So according to Augustine, there is no such thing as evil.  What we have is a lack of good.  Obviously as humans we have a lack, but the ultimate good is God because He lacks nothing.  He is the essence of good.  So… it is intersting to ponder whether you accept it or not.  This means that there is no such thing as darkness, but rather a lack of light.  This means that there is no such thing as disease, but rather a lack of health.  This means that there is no such thing as failure, it is just a lack of success.  This puts an interesting spin on things.  See, with this philosophy everything is compared to the ultimate good which is God.  This explains why Jesus is God!  It is because He did not lack anything good.  God doesn’t damn people to hell, but rather it is their lack of acceptance to this ultimate good that produces the consequence.

So… when the Bible says in James  1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him”, there is the assumption that God is the ultimate wisdom and because you are not God you will lack wisdom and you should ask for it.  Jesus is the one thing that we cannot lack in life.  He is salvation.  Remember there is no such thing as damnation, but rather a lack of salvation that only comes from Christ and Christ crucified!

May you never lack in what is important.  May Jesus be abundant in your life and may you never lack salvation offered through Christ!  

Just yesterday in our small town a store was shut down due to some controversy about them getting a liquor liscense.  They were seeking approval of this liscense in an effort to make more money and offer beer and wine at their store.  Without putting my opinion in the mix I want to say one thing… I HATE PROTESTING!  I cringe when I see anti-bush campaigning and I cringe when I see Pro-Life campaigns with signs.  I want to say this in the most loving way possible, but I think that we must let our life be a testament of our beliefs and we must love others.  Is that not what the bible says?

I have heard all the arguments about alcohol bringing in more domestic violence and more of a chance of stealing and abuse.  But is it the role of the church to condemn and to shut things down?  We have just severed a relationship in our community.

We are all against pornography, but if the people of the church would stop buying it the industry would not exist.  There is strong evidence that a large number of us in the church are viewing it.  Protesting won’t work.  We can protest Hollywood, but if we would stop going to the bad movies, they wouldn’t make them.  We can teach our kids that we need to use polite and non-coarse language, but when we stub our toes what are we saying?  We can tell our kids that they need a relationship with Jesus but that doesn’t do much if we aren’t even willing to go to church with them.  What a shame!

REPENT!  Live a life worthy of the calling and live a life that reflects your values.  It is time to shout without screaming!

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the day that my little nephew went home to be with Jesus.  What a tradgedy.  Yesterday was a great day to be together in worship at La Fontaine Christian Church.  We sang songs of hope together and watched as Clayton’s daddy Matt was baptized into Christ!  Congratulations Matt!  We love you and Clayton would be proud of you.  My wife and I stopped at his grave site and just stood in silence as we remembered. 

 God in His sovereign nature has the ability to give and take away.  We may not understand his plan, but if it took Clayton’s life to push his father to Christ, what a blessing!  We will never forget Clayton’s two and a half years on this earth.  We miss you Clayton!

     Today I was in the bank depositing some money into my checking account.  I overheard a man next to me talking to the teller about Purgatory.  The teller proceeded to tell the man that she married a Catholic man and he was a believer in Purgatory.  She went on to explain that if you were too bad then you went to Hell, and if you were too good that you went to Heaven.  If you weren’t quite good enough, or bad enough, then you went to Purgatory.

     Here is where I was amazed!  The man then said that he wasn’t Catholic but he would sure like to know exactly how bad he could be and still make it into Heaven.  I couldn’t believe my ears.  I am appalled by the idea that we as humans seem to want to push boundaries.  It reminded me of an analogy that I often use…

     If someone told you that there was a bomb in a suit case would you see how close that you could get to it so that when it blew up you would remain unharmed?  No way!  You would get as far away as possible for fear that you would get burned.  So then I ask, why would you do this with your salvation which is worth far more than gold or silver?  Why would you risk your eternal destination to see how close you could get to the bad side and still make it into the good place? 

     The Bible challenges that we have not even a hint of immorality.  So I think we should turn our back on “the bomb” and run as far away from sin as possible.  Live a life of integrity and a life that pursues holiness!

     May the God of the Old and New Testament save you from this sin of pushing boundaries.  May you never ask how close you can get to the line, but rather how far away can you stay to maintain purity in all areas of your life.  Love God and love others.  This is not a choice, but a command!