A kind of alchemy

Have a look at the following list of elements and see if you can guess what it is.

Element amount (kgs)
Oxygen 43.0
Carbon 16.0
Hydrogen 7.0
Nitrogen 1.8
Calcium 1.0
Phosphorus 0.78
Sulphur 0.14
Potassium 0.14
Sodium 0.10
Chlorine 0.095
Magnesium 0.019
Silicon 0.018
Iron 0.0042
Fluorine 0.0026
Zinc 0.0023
Rubidium 0.00032
Strontium 0.00032
Bromine 0.00020
Lead 0.00012
Copper 0.000072
Aluminium 0.000061
Cadmium 0.000050
Boron <0.000048
Barium 0.000022
Tin <0.000017
Uranium 0.00000009
Beryllium 0.000000036
Radium 3.1×10-14

Now if you already know what this list describes you’re probably smart enough to know that you can’t just pick up all these items and mix them together in your mixmaster to create it. This is a human being ingredient list and an example of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” To really make a human being (from scratch) you will need a little bit of chemistry and probably an element of “magic”. And... unless you are the government of the USA, Russia, France, Canada, India, Israel or possibly soon, North Korea, Iran and Saskatchewan. You'll probably need magic to get your hands on the Uranium as well.

Anyhow, I’ve been wondering lately what makes a Christian? Here’s what the Wikipedia says a Christian is. Some people have even suggested that there are two types of Christians. I’ve been asked if I am a "regular Christian" or a “born again Christian” puzzled, I asked what the person meant. Apparently a "regular Christian" is pretty normal, goes to church and all that but still lives a "normal" life. A "born again" is someone who’s life has changed drastically and acts strange to the world. e.g. Someone who was living a life of drugs and partying and is instantly changed and becomes a different person.

Here's a possible list (with the prescriptive Latin stolen from my Dad's Pharmaceutical textbook "De Re Medica")

Activity amount (Frequency)
Saying the sinners prayer - quondam
Believing in Jesus? - semper
Getting baptized - ex modo prescripto
Repenting - pro re nata
Going to church - ad libitum
Performing miracles - si opus sit
Works - ut dictum
Faith - quantum sufficiat
Praying - ter in die
Reading the bible - omni mane
Fasting - omni nocte

This all makes me wonder if it’s possible to do all the things in the above list and still not be a Christian? Just like you can throw all the elements in the first list together and not be a human. The bible is pretty clear that some people have deceived themselves to think they are Christians and that there are at least two ways to know if we are;
1) The Spirit of God who bears witness with our spirit
and
2) By examining ourselves and testing the fruit that we bear

Fractal church

I heard this analogy from my pastor a few sundays ago.
Have you ever stuck your face in one of those cut outs of a body builder? You know the ones where you get your picture taken and it looks so silly to see your skinny little face sitting on the shoulders of a huge mesomorphic body. Everyone has a good laugh when they look at the photo because it looks so obvious that the head doesn't go with the body.

Now picture Jesus Christ as the head and the church as the body. Would it look silly? Or fill you with awe? Would outsiders think the two fit together seamlessly or do they even fit together at all? Maybe part of the body would look like it fits, maybe one arm is withered and a leg is dragging limp and dead. That's if the parts are even connected. Not funny... just sad.

A few posts ago I included a video of some mathematics visualizations. If you watch the one at the end you'll see what's called a fractal which is basically a pattern being repeated over and over again almost ad infinitum. Every piece demonstrates similarity to the greater pattern. You have seen examples of fractals in nature as well; in the clouds, in a bolt of lightning and plants.

I believe Jesus Christ is calling us to be part of His body in the same way. We are called Christians which means "little Christ". Little carbon copies of Jesus Christ. Is that what we are? Do we act like Him, watch the things He watched, and say the things He said or have we become more like the world? We need to be transformed into His likeness so that when the world looks at us they see Him, when they look at our congregation they see Him, when they look at the church in Canada they see Him and when they look at the Church in the world they see Him.

In most cases today the opposite is true, Christians and congregations conforming to the world's pattern, denominations fractured or helter-skelter and bolted together like a Frankenchurch. Useless and dead. The good news is (and it's as frightening as it is comforting) that He's coming and His winnowing fork is in His hand. He will seperate the chaff from the wheat and what's left of the church will be bound together in perfect unity.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. - John 15:5-8

Comfortably numb

I think there are only two things wrong with the Church in North America today. We are selfish and immoral. Other than that we’re pretty much perfect. The best part is that we don’t even know it.

We refer to the 5th to the 10th centuries as the “dark ages” we congratulate ourselves that we live in a time of spiritual enlightenment. We cheer ourselves and thank God that we are not like the sinners we see around us. What about the church today makes us enlightened or spiritually correct? We go to church on Sunday, we occasionally read our bible, we’re nice to our worldly friends and co-workers. God has blessed us with good jobs, nice cars and plasma TV’s. We pray and He answers our prayers for sunshine on a wedding day, a new cell phone and that parking spot by the front door of the store… but a child slowly starves to death in Africa… every few moments. Either God listens to us and not others or we have deceived ourselves. If it's the latter we need to pray for mercy.

The following video captures one of the most provocative and important messages I have heard in many years. I can’t look at myself or my Christianity the same way since I saw it. If you don’t want to question the way you are living your life as a self-professed Christian don’t watch it. If you do watch it there’s a good chance you’ll turn it off because it will offend you. Or worse you'll turn it off because you’re comfortably numb. But if it hurts then that’s a good thing because that means you still have a conscience. Watch the video… if you dare…



Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
- Proverbs 27:6 NASB

Eternal threads

Do you prefer the beginning or the end of a thing?... Or neither?

I love the prairies in the summer. The smell of sage, the wind in the fields of wheat, the endless prairie. When I was young my family would travel to southern Saskatchewan to visit my grandparent’s farm each year. One of my favourite things to do was to go for walks and look for native artifacts and buffalo trails. I would walk east from my grandparent’s farm up a hill where there was an old Cree campsite. All that was left there were rings of ancient looking lichen covered rocks. And stretching down the hill and into the distance to the east was a buffalo trail worn four to six inches into the ground. It was such a thrill for me to follow it as it led me over and around hills and through coulees. As I got older each year I would discover more and more of the seemingly endless prairie.

Then one summer as a young teen I visited again. I explored further than ever before and as I came over the last hill I remember looking down and seeing something that disappointed me so keenly that I have never forgotten it. A hateful fence stretched across my path as far as I could see to the left and right. The prairie and even the world suddenly seemed smaller at that moment. It would never be the same. The mystique of the eternal prairie hanging by a thread had parted.

This year I made a new year’s resolution to read my Bible cover to cover. Reading in sequence puts many of the figures in a context that explains so much more than mining out a chapter or verse. I am seeing things I have never seen before and I am enjoying it immensely but I am worried what will happen when at the end of the year I stand on the edge of the book of Revelation? Will it feel like I’ve run up against a fence? I don't think so. Even though the language it's written in is finite and limited I believe that the meaning is eternal and even living. For example; in English we use the word “love”. What does that word mean? We say we love our spouse but we also might say we love jube jubes. Huh? That doesn’t make sense. Greek, the language that the New Testament was written in has three words for love all meaning very different things. I could easily produce several examples that show our native tongue as a clunky, cobbled together tradespeak. Ok, so the English language is limited even in comparison to the other human languages the Bible was written in, I am reading the Bible in English therefore It follows that simply by my reading the Bible once I could never completely "explore" it. Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit to lead us to the parts we need to understand and not an ancient trail made by a herd of Bison.

The beginning of a thing can be intimidating, the end can be disappointing, knowing His Word is eternal fills me with hope.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

Chemosh, Molech and Ashtoreth. Gods that stole human hearts from the true God in the past. Why would anyone cheat on the Living God for them? I don’t want to say they were stupid, but I’m finding it difficult not to. I always thought Solomon was really wise but…

He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. – 1 Kings 11:5-7

Josiah, never credited to be as wise, got rid of Solomon's idols

(Josiah) also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon. – 2 Kings 23:13

Thankfully, (insert contented sigh here) no one worships those gods anymore. We’re way too smart for that… Aren’t we? Either that or we just call them something else now.

After the fire of salvation has died away many people look for someone new. They don’t want love, they want infatuation. The love they crave is a chemical high. If they don’t develop a real relationship grounded in real love they become cold and restless. Vows are conveniently forgotten, they close their eyes as someone new whispers sweet nothings in their ticklish ears.

Who do you trust? Who flatters you and makes you feel good? Who do you spend your time with? The true God or someone else? Don’t be fooled they are real; Mammon, Ego, and Gaia. Gods of money, self and the goddess of the earth.

Thankfully we’re not alone
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; - 2 Corinthians 10:4-6