Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Times Tribune]
When Mary Louise Salerno saw Jesus Christ in a bucket of pizza sauce, her instinct was not to alert the media or even to tell many friends.

She did not want people descending on her family’s West Scranton pizzeria, and she did not want to invite critics or doubters of what she felt was a clear sign.

“To us, it was something special,” Ms. Salerno, 65, of Old Forge said. “God smiled on us that day.”

The image of Jesus has a history of unexpected appearances, from rocks and windows to medical X-rays and a tortilla. Add to that a sauce bucket at Brownie’s Famous Pizzeria, a long-standing eatery on Luzerne Street. It happened on the first Friday of Lent.

Read more here.

[From me]

Looks more like Sir Walter Raleigh…in a can. We better let him out before he suffocates.

[HT] Steve Thompson

I was a pretty good debater in high school and college. Lets don’t kid I probably still am. But one thing I learned in my life is that I can’t debate someone into heaven.

There is one thing that everyone had better be right about and that is to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. But I’m amazed that people (whom I used to be one of them) will argue over issues that have nothing to do with bringing a person to a relationship with Jesus. People argue over Spiritual Gifts, Predestination, the Rapture and Second Coming of Christ, alcohol, gender, etc…. Not to say that these aren’t things we should have a distinct opinion and base our doctrine on. But much of the “minor” doctrines that Christians fight over don’t bring people to Christ. I see the world in “Black & White” but unfortunately I learned that the world is pretty “Grey.” That has been hard for me.

Today I heard a few pastors arguing on a Sports Talk show in Birmingham over gambling. One pastor called the another pastor a sissy pastor. Now, will that kind of talk from one Christian to another on a secular radio program encourage a non-believer to explore Christianity? I would doubt it. There are some things in the Bible that we can be certain that we must do or not do. How do we know? The Bible clearly states them. It is certain that the only way to a relationship with God is through the death of Jesus and our believing in Him. But we don’t have to argue about every little thing do we?

Is being right more important than loving our fellow Christians? Is being right more important than loving non-believers and reaching them for Christ? I realize there is an absolute truth and that is Jesus. But is being right about “grey” areas in the Bible going to encourage a non-believer to come to church? Is having a silly church sign that only speaks to those in the “club” going to make someone visit church on Sunday? I don’t think so.

I’ve never met anyone who has been argued into a relationship with Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to bring people to Christ. Our job is to love people and live out the Bible. I slip up every now and then and my legalistic tendencies come out. But my friends are quick to point out my hypocrisy and I have to repent. When we add laws and rules to non-believers they see that as hypocrisy. Funny thing is so did Jesus. The only people that Jesus ever got angry with were the religious leaders of His day. To those who were caught in sin, He told them to leave their life of sin and move on.

I want to be right but in I Corinthians 13 it says that the greatest thing is love.

[Times 24]

WHEN Rob Millist lit a fire in the lounge of his Old Hatfield home as he set up for a party, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.But after a few minutes he was stunned to see the face of JESUS CHRIST staring back at him from the flames.

The defining features of a gaunt face are clearly visible in this snap he took on Friday night.

And Rob, a freelance video editor, reckons it bears the resemblance of the son of God.

The 29-year-old, of Church Street, said: “We were taken by surprise.

“On the corner of one of the logs, the ash part was the face. You can see two eyes, a nose and moustache.”

“It’s very spooky, and very profound.”

Rob is a member of the Welwyn Hatfield branch of Friends of the Earth, and is currently campaigning against an incinerator being built in the county.

He said: “Maybe Jesus is opposing incineration too!”

And Rob added friends and neighbours who had seen the fire, or his photos, were equally shocked.

“Everyone I’ve shown them to do not say anything. They just stare and their jaws drop open.”

Read more here.

[From me]

“It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing;
That’s how it is with God’s Love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
Your spread the love to everyone
You want to pass it on.”

[HT] Steve Thompson

I was a minister of evangelism for several years at a great church in the Southeast a few years back. It was my job to train people to share their story with their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. My favorite style of sharing my faith has always been relationship oriented. However, because I was the “Evangelist,” there was a lot of pressure on me to see people give their lives to Jesus every week. Which meant I had get them to “walk the aisle” every Sunday during the invitation. It got to the point where it became more of a job than a concern for people. I became convicted that I was teaching people a form of evangelism that I didn’t believe in. I was leading people to Christ, but we would see people accept Christ and leave the church shortly after because we had no relationship with them. I even led someone to Christ on a dare with some other ministers at dinner one night. The turing point came when a man on my street had a crisis and we didn’t even know him because I was too busy evangelizing people who visited our church when I should have been building relationships with my neighbors! I began to feel like a professional evangelist instead of a friend and someone who really cared about people. That is why we left to start a church.

I’ve been serving as a minister in the workplace on and off since 2001. I worked for an organization that placed chaplains in the workplace part-time for 4 years while we were planting a church in Atlanta and then for a while in South Alabama. What I found out while I was a workplace chaplain was that I enjoyed being a chaplain more than I did pastoring or being on staff at a church. You see, I left coaching football and the business world because I wanted to minister to the people I worked with and I didn’t know how. However, once I became a pastor I was separated from the people whom I really had a burden to reach.

The organization I worked part-time for doesn’t hire full-time chaplains but I heard about Corporate Chaplains of America who does. I began serving 2 companies last year when I moved back to Alabama. My job also includes finding new companies to partner with us. I now serve 7 companies in the Birmingham area. We have another chaplain in Birmingham and one in Mobile and Huntsville as well as hundreds around the US. God is truly using our chaplains.

What I love about what we do is that we get to hang out with people who would never set foot in a church. The other thing that is great about our jobs is we do everything with the employee’s permission. Some people think that we shouldn’t force ourselves on employees. I agree and we don’t. Everything we do and the care we give is up to the employee themselves. If they don’t want to talk to us they don’t have to. There are a few employees at every company that chose not to talk to me and that is their choice. But we are always there for them 24/7/365 via our satellite paging system if they ever need us.

I never realized how God had prepared me for what I’m doing today. Two days ago I talked with an employee who is going through some things now that 2 years ago I would never be able to relate to. However, as of now, I can honestly tell this employee I can relate…I’ve been there…I am there. I can be open and vulnerable now. When I was a pastor, there were some church members that didn’t like knowing that their pastor struggled. Well, reality is we all struggle. I had the privilege of leading this employee to Christ.

While I was writing this I got paged by an employee whose father is in the hospital. I will be going by there tomorrow to see him and another employee I’ve been visiting since November. The one I’ve been visiting since November we once thought might die and may never walk again. Today he is learning to walk again. These are real life stories that happen everyday. Many of these people would have no church and no one to care for them emotionally and spiritually if it weren’t for their employers providing this service. If you want to read real life stories about what happens in the workplace I encourage you to read C-Change and The Third Awakening which are books written by our founder Mark Cress. The stories are real but the names have been changed because of confidentiality.

Yesterday I was making rounds and one employee told me he was reading Old Testament. He said, “there is a lot of strange sh@* in the Old Testament.” I don’t know if he was trying to see if I would scold him but I chuckled inside. We talked for a while and during our conversation he told me he had been kicked out of church as a youth because he threw a Coke bottle out of a church bus. What kind of discipline is that? Anyway, as we continued to talk he “Gave me Permission” to share how he could have a relationship with Jesus. He asked if he would have to quit drinking 1st. I told him that Jesus wanted him just like he was. Now Jesus may convict him and challenge his thinking later on but you don’t “clean up” 1st. So right there in this heavy industrial area this man a whole lot bigger than me gave his life to Christ.

I’m convinced that if Jesus were here in person today, He would go where the people are. The biggest mission field in the US is the workplace and people bring their hurts and problems to work. There are 115 Full-time chaplains with CCA and there are other workplace ministries that are similar. Many of these Chaplains are a whole lot more effective than I am. We have chaplains that lead people to Christ almost every day! Why? Because they genuinely care for these employees and their families. I would like to challenge those of you who do work in the secular world to be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading with your co-workers. For Pastors I would encourage you to find a way to be around people in the workplace. Our organization is now partnering with Southeastern Seminary to offer a degree in Workplace Ministry. Our founder’s dream is to see churches with Pastors of Workplace Ministry that are on staff to assist their members to minister to their co-workers. After all, most people are at work longer than they are anywhere else. If you are interested in what we do contact me, I’d love to share more about how we care for employees and their families.

[Washington Post]

The House of Delegates is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would protect Virginians from attempts by employers or insurance companies to implant microchips in their bodies against their will. It might also save humanity from the antichrist, some supporters think.

Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg), the bill’s sponsor, said that privacy issues are the chief concern behind his attempt to criminalize the involuntary implantation of microchips. But he also said he shared concerns that the devices could someday be used as the “mark of the beast” described in the Book of Revelation.

“My understanding — I’m not a theologian — but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” Cole said. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.”

Cole said that the growing use of microchips could allow employers, insurers or the government to track people against their will and that implanting a foreign object into a human being could also have adverse health effects.

“I just think you should have the right to control your own body,” Cole said.

The religious overtones have cast the debate into a realm that has made even some supporters uneasy and caused opponents to mock the bill for legislating the apocalypse.

Del. Robert H. Brink (D-Arlington) said on the House floor that he did not find many voters demanding microchip legislation when he was campaigning last fall: “I didn’t hear anything about the danger of asteroids striking the Earth, about the threat posed by giant alligators in our cities’ sewer systems or about the menace of forced implantation of microchips in human beings.”

Microchips, which use radio frequency identification, have been used in pets to identify and track them. Proponents suggest that such chips could be invaluable in making people’s medical records portable and secure and in helping to identify and find missing children. Others have urged they be used with Alzheimer’s disease patients.

But the growing use of microchips has collided with the Book of Revelation. The biblical passage in question is in Chapter 13 and describes the rise of a satanic figure known as “the Beast”: “He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

David Neff, editor of the magazine Christianity Today, said that some fundamentalist Christians believe that bar codes and implanted microchips could be used by a totalitarian government to control commerce — a sign of the coming end of the world.

Read more here.

[From me]

I don’t know if this will be a device of the anti-christ but I don’t want one in my body just for privacy reasons. It is no one’s business where I am and this is just another way for government to stick their nose in our lives where it doesn’t belong. Personally, I think the anti-christ will be more subtle than to use microchips. I just don’t want the government tracking my every move.

What do you think?