Were the apostles on to something?

Just a quick thought for us all.  Biblically, baptism was the method of publicly professing faith in Christ, as well as  the means of local church membership.  In the New Testament, baptisms were done in public places, not in the shelter of a church building.  What a novel idea!  Making a public profession PUBLIC!
I'm not against baptisms within the confines of a church building, I'm just all FOR public professions of faith in Christ.  I never realized what a difference it is.  We went to Lake Lowell and "interrupted" the swimming area to perform a baptism.  EVERYONE was told that Jason had realized he was a sinner and had put his faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse him from sin, and that he was being baptized to identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I'm a people watcher:  it's a hobby.  In my "expert" opinion of body language, people were not generally put off: they were intrigued.  They were intrigued!!  This event INTERESTED them!!  The words of Pastor struck their hearts.  And I think it would be a great idea to make baptizing publicly at Lake Lowell a common occurrence.

What happened to "Good?"

Woe unto them that call evil good... -Is. 5:20


Years ago, the Lord developed a conviction in my heart to strongly guard those things I refer to as "good."  God told Moses that the children of Israel at one point didn't know the difference between good and evil.  God, through Isaiah, warned Israel, "Woe unto them that call evil 'good'."  And Jesus reminded a rich young ruler in Luke 18 that "none is good, [but] God."  Jesus obviously wasn't one to just throw this word around, or to allow others to do it. 


The word has indeed lost it's meaning in this world, but what prompted me to write this was hearing from another Christian that the movie The Hangover II was "a really good movie." I didn't know anything other than the title and the rating at the time, but simply looking at Plugged In (Focus on the Family ministry) movie review, I see that there is 100+ f words and s words, Jesus names misused 10 times, full nudity of both male and female, sex with a hermaphrodite prostitute, a monkey doing perverted things to a man, etc. It gets worse.  It is crude and offensive to the core.


I have worked in a Christian High School for 3 years, as well as worked with youth in our church for nearly 10, and I hear the word "good" used about everything and everyone that is popular in the world.  What is "good" about Katy Perry?  She is evil.  She is an enemy of God.  So is Lady 'ca ca'.  So is Justin Timberlake.  Why is Twilight such a "good" movie?  It is evil.  God hates it with a pure hatred.  He will punish all evil, so why do Christians glory in it so much?  Its because most "Christians" have never repented of sin and received a new nature, and therefore are not born again, and do not possess a spiritual nature.  These false professors put more faith in a prayer they said 5 years ago than in the living Savior, Jesus Christ.  I fear "Christians" have become much like Israel of old, and cannot tell the difference between good and evil.   And if you are one of these that call evil things good, God gives warning:  "Woe unto them that call evil good..."

You're a Christian?! ME TOO!! COOL!!

Of the millions of fan pages Facebook has to offer, I found it interesting that the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th most interacted with pages globally are Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna, respectively. I found this interesting because these are household names, especially in teen culture, and yet they trail in popularity to the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th most interacted with pages in the world: Mario Teguh, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and Necip Fazil Kisakurek. Although this looks weird to us, there are people in India today that scratch their heads and say “Beiber, Gaga, Rihanna? Never heard of them, but those Americans sure have weird names!” Yes, the rest of the world not only has electricity, they also have computers.

I'm done keeping you in suspense. The two most interacted with pages in the world: The Bible at number 2, and Jesus Daily at number 1! This must mean that the world is mostly Christian right? Afterall, we don't just have the top page, we have the top two pages! God must have the throne of our hearts. Jesus just gave a Bible smackdown to the world.

I think we all can agree that the trend will tend to be that the more popular something or someone is globally, the more likely it is that they will be on this list. Allah, is in the top twenty, as well as MTV and NBA (the NBA Finals just finished). These are all popular, so why is Jesus and the Bible up there so high if Jesus said “the world hated Me”, “the world will hate Me”, and “the world will hate you because of Me?” Was Jesus clueless? Every president of the United States has claimed to be a Christian, ALL of them. They don't seem to be very concerned about being hated by this godless society; in fact, claiming to be a Christian helps them get elected. Was Jesus wrong? If He said “follow Me and you won't be popular,” why on earth is Christianity so popular with the world?

The answer is simple, yet a hard truth: many Christians have been duped. Satan has done a “bait and switch” on the religious world. Satan has worked hard to sell a very appealing religious “christianity”, making actual Biblical Christianity, which requires humility and submission, seem so unattractive. Hence, religious “christianity” has the top two slots in popularity on Facebook, the top two movies Christians have attended the Hangover II and Fast Five, and the two books on the top shelf gathering dust in Christian homes are the Old Testament, and the New Testament of the Holy Bible.