More Muslims than Catholics

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican’s newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world’s population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

“For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us,” Formenti told Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world’s population — or about 2 billion people.

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.

Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the world’s population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was growing because of higher birth rates.

He said the data on Muslim populations had been compiled by individual countries and then released by the United Nations, adding the Vatican could only vouch for its own statistics.

What motivates ministry?

The ministry today can be motivated either by a burning sense of wrong or by a grateful sense of high privilege. It is possible to build a church with the energy of a burning sense of wrong. There are angry Christians who don’t like the way things are going and will rally around someone who validates their anger. But is that the gospel at work?The apostles did not fuss and wring their hands and moan, “What’s the world coming to?” They gladly announced, “Look what’s come to the world!” Like Christ, they had a grateful sense of high privilege. And the impact was an explosion of joy that has been setting people free for 2000 years — and is showing no signs of fatigue. Ray Ortlund, Jr.

On fire for Christ

The idea of being on fire for Christ will strike some people as dangerous emotionalism. ‘Surely,’ they will say, ‘we are not meant to go to extremes? You are not asking us to become hot-gospel fanatics?’ Well, wait a minute. It depends what you mean.

If by ‘fanaticism’ you really mean ‘wholeheartedness’ then Christianity is a fanatical religion and every Christian should be a fanatic. But fanaticism is not wholeheartedness, nor is wholeheartedness fanaticism. Fanaticism is an unreasoning and unintelligent wholeheartedness. It is the running away of the heart with the head.

At the end of a statement prepared for a conference on science, philosophy and religion at Princeton University in 1940 came these words: ‘Commitment without reflection is fanaticism in action; but reflection without commitment is the paralysis of all action.’

What Jesus Christ desires and deserves is the reflection which leads to commitment and the commitment which is born of reflection. This is the meaning of wholeheartedness, of being aflame for God.”
John Stott, What Christ Thinks of the Church

“A graceless pastor is….”

“A graceless pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of optics, philosophising upon light and vision, discoursing upon and distinguishing to others the nice shades and delicate blendings of the prismatic colours, while he himself is absolutely in the dark!” C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students

Moore on Jeremiah Wright

The main problem with Jeremiah Wright isn’t that he’s anti-American.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ has lit up the radio and television airwaves with his youtubed comments on conspiracy theories regarding American “state-sponsored terrorism.” Almost everyone this week has seen Wright call on God to damn America. Almost everyone has heard his echo of Malcolm X, that the September 11 terrorist attacks on the nation were simply America’s “chickens coming home to roost.”

Wright’s comments make for easy discussion fodder because they are shocking, angry, and, frankly, well on the way to delusional. Some of the talking heads have discussed Jeremiah Wright as though his kind of rhetoric is essential to the African-American church, a claim that is patently untrue, and easily verifiable as such. At the same time, many of the pundits seem to assume that Jeremiah Wright’s style of ministry is unique in America’s pulpits. Truth is, Jeremiah Wright’s name is Legion, and one is just as likely to hear his kind of preaching in a white congregation as in a black church.

Wright, after all, is not simply making this stuff up. What he is preaching is a form of liberation theology, leftover Marxist theory baptized in the narrative of Scripture and applied to a set of political goals. The tenor of the Trinity United Church of Christ ministry is one that is defined by race and politics. The church is “unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian,” it says, and the language of black liberation theology is everywhere in the public presentation of the mission and identity of the church.

What is disturbing to me is that too many Christians have been diagnosing the particular political aims of Reverend Wright and his church as though this were the preeminent problem.

But what is the root?

Read moore here

Read to the last line

John Fischer writes a daily devotional, is an aging rock and roller (It happens to all of us), and is a very insightful Christian thinker. Here is today’s column.  

Having second thoughts about that “Honk if you love Jesus” sticker? I have a solution for you. I have something you can cover that sticker up with. Not that there is anything wrong with honking or loving Jesus, but that sticker means something entirely different now than when it first came out.

When the “Honk if you love Jesus” sticker first got pasted on a bumper, Christians were a minority (at least we thought we were). A lot of followers of Jesus were meeting each other and growing spiritually outside the church. Stickers and buttons were a means of finding each other in the marketplace and that created a sense of newly formed family. And to those outside the church and Christianity, this growing band of “Jesus Freaks” was no threat. In fact, the idea of Jesus being championed by hippies and street people had many looking on curiously. Many even came to Jesus-oriented events just to find out what it was all about.

Today Jesus represents something entirely different to those outside the church. To most of these people, Jesus is the champion of a conservative political base. The Jesus who always stood on the side of the poor and oppressed, who stood against established religious rule and authority, who advocated turning the other cheek and loving your enemies is nowhere in the lexicon of what is perceived a Christian today. In fact for a crash course on how many view Christians today, reflect a bit on this bumper sticker: “I’m for the separation of Church and Hate.” Hmmmm.

So “Honk if you love Jesus” today means, “Honk if you are on our side…” “Honk if you are one of us…” and all that honking only confirms the fact that those who are not honking don’t want to have anything to do with those who are.

So I promised you a new bumper sticker. Here it is. I saw it on my neighbor’s car. “Honk if you love cheeses.” It’s an ad for a local wine and cheese deli.

This bumper sticker will do two things for you. 1) It will put you on “their” side. To those who are familiar with the original Jesus sticker, they will think you are making fun of Christians (which you are), and you can start in with how there is a lot to make fun of; and 2) it might put you in touch with wine and cheese lovers, and that just might lead to a relationship, and isn’t a relationship what it’s all about?

Anything that makes a relationship is far superior to that which makes an enemy. Besides, I don’t think Jesus wants to have anything to do with a whole lot of honking.

The Will of God

It is one of the most frequently asked questions: “How can I know what God wants me to do?”

Does God care what shirt I wear this morning? Does God care if I paint the bathroom rather than mow the lawn this afternoon? Does God care which college I attend? How can I know what is my decision and what is God’s will?

Some say God’s will is like the bubble in a level – it is a constant balancing act to keep it centered. ”Center” is the key word. You are either in the “center” of His will or you are disobedient.

Others see God’s will as dynamic, with a great deal of freedom. One writer says…

God gives us the Bible to guide us to what He expressly commands and forbids. Beyond those black and white commands, He gives us great freedom to live our lives. He does not expect or demand that we will stop to demand answers from a “still small voice” for every situation we face. Instead, we fill our minds with Scripture, we study His commands, and we live life in the freedom He offers.

In other words, God’s will is more like a wide highway than it is a level. You can drive fast or slowly. You can drive in the right or left lane. You can speed up or slow down. Your choice. Just stay on the road.

I’ve concluded that there is a lot more freedom in God’s will than we normally think. I love what St. Augustine said: “love God with all your heart and do what you want.”

If God desires we do a specific thing, take a specific path, speak to a specific person -he is well able to make that clear. Otherwise, we stay in his word, walk in prayer, and use the minds he gave us.

One passage sealed it for me.

A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God. 1 Cor 7:39-40

You would think that something as important as marriage would require seeking the center of God’s will. But notice:

She is free to marry, or not to marry. Her choice.

She is free to marry anyone she wishes (although some choices are better than others!).

There are two stipulations:

1. If she decides to marry, she must only marry a Christian. That is the Biblical principle.

2. The decision of whether to marry or not is based on what would make her happier. Is that a strange criterion or what?

No – it is the question – which is the wiser thing to do: marry or not?

The point is: she is free!

Challies has some fine resources that teach this perspective. I encourage you to check them out.

Kashmir

Two of the most incredible years of my life were 1999 and 2000, when Ruthe and I traveled to Kashmir on two different occasions. 

Kashmir  is located in northwestern India and borders with Pakistan. It has been a violent battlefield, and remains a hotly disputed territory between India and Pakistan. It is also one of the most beautiful places on earth, bordered by the Himilayas and another mountain range.

It was in Kashmir that I first learned to share the Good News with muslims by asking questions as a learner or seeker of truth

It was in Kashmir that I first had the privilege of meeting some of the most courageous men I’ve ever personally known – muslims who had become Christ-followers.

In Kashmir – on Dal Lake in Srinigar – I helped baptize 4 muslims who had become followers. The kashmiri pastor, whom I will call “John” stood in the water, raised his hands to the sky and began to sing at the top of his lungs, “I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back.”

Heavily-armed troops began to gather and watch. In Kashmir, what we were doing was against the law and punishable by death. Seeing the military who were watching us, I quietly asked, “Pastor John, is this a good idea?” He replied, “Sam, bullets are small things. Small things cannot hurt you.”

I thought, “Okay, here goes,” and raised my hands to the sky and sang with John.

A very interesting article on Kashmir is found in the Atlantic magazine. Read it here.

Here She is – in all her glory

Sadie is here! Click on the picture to maximize.

Let’s celebrate Easter with the rite of laughter

Let’s celebrate Easter with the rite of laughter. Christ died and rose and lives.

Laugh like a woman who holds her first baby. Our enemy Death will soon be destroyed.

Laugh like a man who finds he doesn’t have cancer, or he does, but now there’s a cure. Christ opened wide the door of heaven.

Laugh like children at Disneyland’s gates. This world is owned by God and He’ll return to rule.

Laugh like a man who walks away uninjured from a wreck in which his car was totaled.

Laugh as if all the people in the whole world were invited to a picnic, and then invite them.

(Joseph Bayly, Psalms of my Life.)

Why Jeremiah Wright is no Jeremiah

Doug Wilson has an interesting take on Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright

In the dust-up following the release of video clips of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s rants, there has been a lot media attention, and the chattering classes have been . . . well, chattering.

As I have reflected on this, it occurred to me that I wanted to comment on several reasons why the general indignation with Wright is well-deserved, but almost uniformly misplaced. Right guy, wrong reasons.

Wright is a blasphemer in an idolatrous temple, and hence the anger and indignation directed toward him. But it is important to note that he is a servant of a rival idol, not a servant of the Lord. He serves an idol that revealed its presence in several ways.

First, the original Jeremiah did not deliver his jeremiads with a sense of bad boy glee, accented with a gaudy shirt, and with a choir dancing in the background. The real Jeremiah delivered a grim sentence condemning a city that he deeply loved. Jeremiah was accused of a lack of patriotism, but he was actually one of the few patriots in the city.

A story is told of a conservative Methodist congregation in the backwoods that lost their pastor, and so in their letter to the bishop they asked for him to be replaced with a “real hellfire and damnation” preacher. The bishop didn’t have many of those left, but he shrugged his shoulders and sent one. He lasted two weeks. The next one lasted for one. A third was sent (the bishop’s last one) and he settled in as the pastor of this congregation for the next thirty years. This naturally baffled the bishop, and one day when he was visiting with one of the old-timers from that church, he asked about it. “Why did you all reject the first two hell-preachers, and keep the third?” The old guy scratched his chin and said, “Well, the last one sounded like he didn’t want us to go.”

Second, the most damaging clip was the one in which Jeremiah Wright was railing against the United States, saying, “God damn America for . . . God damn America for . . .” followed by a litany of of die-hard leftist complaints. But what is the real problem here? I recall Billy Graham’s wife once saying, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” The real reason for the indignation directed at Wright was because he simply said God damn America, not for the screwed-up reasons he had for saying it. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson got a similar reaction when they said something similar after 911.

Suppose Wright had said, “God damn America for the abortion carnage. God damn America for sodomite marriages.” Now what? Wright is being condemned, not for having the list of sins wrong (which he did), but for being un-American with a camera running.

This is foundationally a religious issue. I commented a few days ago that on paper Sean Hannity believes that America is far worse than Wright believes, and deserving of far greater judgment. I believe we are deserving of a far greater judgment than Wright believes, and not just on paper. And yet Wright pours out his vitriol outside the church and Hannity still dutifully performs the liturgical responses inside.

An insightful fellow on a listserve discussion group I belong to put it something like this. Just as we say, “The Lord be with you,” followed by, “And also with you,” so we are accustomed to hear Hannity say, “You’re a great American, my friend,” with the response of “And you’re a great American too.”

Wright is like the whiners at the end of the book of Jeremiah who acknowledged that Jerusalem deserved to fall, but who maintained that the city went down because they had not worshipped the queen of heaven enough. “Our problem was not enough idolatry.” Wright says that America should be damned because of our treatment of the poor, which is true enough. But the poor he has in mind is a group that we have given billions of dollars to, a generation of entitlement, and the outrage is that the checks are not bigger. He could care less about the 40 million defenseless poor that we have salted to death, chopped up into little pieces, or scraped from the womb to dump into buckets.

No, it is not accurate to say he could care less — if Obama’s position on abortion is anything to go by, he actively supports this genocidal treatment of the poorest among us. Wisdom is vindicated by her children, which in this case are all dead. 

Hearty laughter

“A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice.There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything; it is flippant, hollow, unreal. A hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry. I speak of that religious veneering which is pretentious, but thin, superficial, and insincere about the weightiest matters.Godliness is no jest, nor is it a mere form. Beware of being actors. Never give earnest men the impression that you do not mean what you say, and are mere professionals.To be burning at the lip and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation”(Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 212).

Be careful!

“We must put away all notion of self-importance. God will not bless the man who thinks himself great. To glory even in the work of God the Holy Spirit in yourself is to tread dangerously near to self-adulation. ‘Let another praise thee, and not think own lips,’ and be very glad when that other has sense enough to hold his tongue”  (Charles Spurgeon,Lectures to My Students, p. 212).

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!!!!

   

Rusty Cars and Lust (got your attention, didn’t I?)

The following is from Life Action Revival Ministries.     

One problem I didn’t anticipate facing when I moved north was rust. I have now discovered that harsh weather, snow and slush, salt and chemicals, and road grime take their toll on automobiles. This means that part of my regular car maintenance is rust-proofing.

Nicks and chips must be painted. The undercarriage of the car needs to be washed regularly, and other corrosion-prevention measures must be taken. The fact is, the only way to drive a rust-free car in the slushy north is to pursue car protection with intention and discipline.

The same could be said about living a lust-free life in our sex-saturated culture. Paul’s Ephesian readers lived in such a society. Ephesus was the home of the fertility cult which worshiped Diana (or Artemis), the multi-breasted goddess of fertility. Some scholars believe that part of worshiping Artemis actually involved sexual orgies and copulating with temple prostitutes.

Even outside of the fertility cults, sexual ethics were very low in the ancient world. While there were fairly high expectations for women, men regularly engaged in extramarital sex, which was socially acceptable.

Demosthenes wrote, “Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of our persons, but wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households.”

Ephesus was not much different from America today. According to the Barna Research Group:

60% of Americans believe that cohabitation is morally acceptable;

59% believe that sexual fantasies are morally acceptable;

42% believe having a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex other than their spouse is okay; and

about one-third of the population gave the stamp of approval to pornography (38%) . . . and homosexual sex (30%).

Other research shows that more than 25 million people visit porn sites every week, and one out of every ten websites is dedicated to explicit sex.

Putting all those things aside, our society is still saturated with sex. With Victoria’s Secret, Cosmopolitan, beer commercials, sitcom television, and immodest dress standards, we are barraged daily with sexual images and temptations.

And it eats away at the human heart. The following poem, written by a young college student, expresses well the deadly allure of sexual temptation: 

For the poem, source of statistics, and the rest of the article…