Church Hires Convicted Sex Offenders

How, exactly, am I supposed to react to this news item?

On one hand, as Christians we should be all about second chances. We should be willing to help and pray for these people. Why shouldn’t we open our lives and our churches, even to pedophiles?

But, the part of me that has studied criminal behavior knows that this is the one class of offender that never stops. Pedophiles will offend again as soon as they get the chance; no amount of prayer, group therapy, or electroshock aversion will stop that.

This is one of those situations where we must be thankful that we have the grace of God. He will forgive us. Faced with that situation, we must follow the leading of the Lord after much prayer and mediation. For “[a]nything that is not done in faith is sin” (Rom 14:23).

For all the negativity that I usually post on this blog, I heard this story on my way into church this morning, and God laid it on my heart that I should look at the positive work His people do:

TiVo Gets NAE Seal of Approval

I’m not so much opposed to the crap that passes for television these days as I am apalled by it. I am not entertained in the least by reality shows, that (unfortunately) make up 60% of television. That said, it is difficult for me to find shows that I can actually watch.

Almost none of it is suitable for children.

This is why I am happy that someone is doing something about that. With all the technology we have access to these days, someone should find a way to utilize it to block all of the incoming garbage rather than facilitate the entry of said garbage into our households.

Sunday School Teacher Dumped for Being Female

Pastor Leaves After Church Turns Away Biracial Boy

I usually find a few items of interest on Religion News Blog, but finding these two stories today absolutely insensed me to rage. I cannot believe that a group of people supposedly in tune to the Word of God could miss certain messages plain as day to anyone who cares to find them.

In the Gospel of Luke, distinct pairs of miricles appear. Every healing touch for a man is accompanied by a similar healing touch for a woman. The subtle message here is that Jesus believes in equality of sexes. In fact, Jesus broke many cultural norms, most notably in his dining with tax collectors and interacting with Samaritans. Could the underlying message in that be that our cultural norms are not right in the eyes of God?

Most likely, Luke sought to bring that teaching out in light of Paul’s obvious misogyny. That way, we can fall back to the example of Jesus Himself when faced with verses like 1 Corinthians 14:35 or 1 Timothy 2:12.

Using 1 Timothy 2:12 as a reason to fire a Sunday school teacher is simply outrageous. That is pulling the verse way out of context. The key word in this verse is “I.” Pull out a red-letter edition and open to 1 Timothy 2:12. That verse is typeset in jet black. That means that Jesus never issued this heinous command. In context, “I” refers to the letter writer: Paul! Based on other writings, where Paul relays personal stories or opinions, Paul has a misogynistic bent: his writings are purposely unflattering to women.

Paul is giving his opinion on using women as leaders in the church. Obviously, Paul of all people would not want a woman to teach a man anything. Therefore, he sets the rules up that way. Paul’s letters were probably never meant to be considered holy Scripture by the apostle himself, so he would not have been so keen to not let absurdities like that creep in. It is very doubtful that it would have mattered at the time.

What is important to remember is that throughout Paul’s writings it is clearly delineated what is his own idea and what is God’s decree. A careful reader of Scripture should be able to easily distinguish the two and not force the news to make a spectacle of the church again.

Read the entire article here.

What is the only chemical that is less dense as a solid than as a liquid?

What is the most abundant chemical on earth aside from the element hydrogen?

The answer may surprise you. The answer is dihydrogen oxide, or what is simply referred to as WATER. That’s right, good ol’ H20. We don’t normally think of water as a chemical, but the fact is that if fits all the requirements of one. But it is so vastly different in most respects from your average chemical that my high school chemistry book dedicated an entire chapter to it.

In fact, one of my best jokes revolved around water. When I used to work at Wendy’s, one of my fellow co-workers mentioned something about water that got too cold. So, with the most serious look on my face that I could muster, I scolded him by saying, “Wendy’s has an official name for water that got to cold.”

Being the more senior employee, and having mangement that was very hung up on the scandalous issue of calling “rags” by the more Wendy’s appropriate term of “towel,” my co-worker naturally didn’t want to make this sort of mistake anymore and so asked what the official term was. After a short, appropriately dramatic pause, I said, “Ice.”

All kidding aside, the importance of water to our own bodies cannot be overstated. As I sit here, drinking a Cherry Coke, I state emphatically that the best thing to drink is still water. Man hasn’t invented anything that works better with our body’s systems, nor provides a more efficient energy source than plain old water.

So it is not surprising that water is mentioned througout Scripture. The first place that Scripture mentions water is in Genesis 1:2: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” I read somewhere (where I can’t remember) that one of the secular scientists promoting the Big Bang Theory concluded that unless water was present at the very formation of the universe, nothing that we see today could have ever came into being. Nothing! Interesting, then, how Scripture specifically mentions that water was present at the formation of the universe!

Water is portrayed as the protector of God’s chosen people. As the Exodus began, the Israelites walked across a span of the Red Sea, but when the Egyptians tried the same feat, God brought all of the water crashing down on them, destroying the army and effectively ending their pursuit. (Ex 14:21-31)

Water is most prominently displayed through Leviticus 11, 14, and 15 as a cleaning agent for anything ritually unclean. With all of this Scripture saying that water purifies the unclean, it is no wonder that the customs surrounding baptism began! If water can purify the unclean objects, why can’t it purfiy an unclean soul?

Obviously, water can’t do that, but I think that God would have at least appreciated the spirit in which the offering was made, and there is Scriptural evidence suggesting that He still wants us to do this. But, only Jesus can truly purify our souls. In fact, I think that the famous walking on water episode was selected and placed in the gospels to illustrate just that point.

Think about that for just a second. Jesus literally walked across the water!! He has, in effect, shown Himself to have conquered the water, to be superior to it. That’s right, water (even in the baptismal sense) doesn’t clean and purify your soul. Jesus has shown Himself to be above the water, better than the water. It is under His feet, and it submits to Him. Baptism is a symbol, an outward showing of your love for Christ. Like all works, they don’t save you; but they should flow from you in response to receiving God’s Spirit, that He may be glorified.

UPDATED VERSION OF THIS POST HERE.