Prosperity Schools

I have lately been thinking about the prosperity gospel that seems to be touching the world of Christianity. It basically says that if you are poor it is against Gods will. The more you believe the richer you become. So some people have given their life savings to Jesus and have been left with nothing.However the main line churches are not innocent of this. They have these exclusive schools for the rich. The best of everything that the student needs at their finger tips. The catch you gotta pay R2000 minimum a month to belong to the school. How does this aid South Africa except aid the difference between rich and poor. The rich and poor should be separated because you are rich, you stay here and the poor are outside. You are better. That doesn't sound very Christ like to me. Seen's as the likely hood is that Christ could not read or write.
Is the gospel for the rich or for everyone? I heard of a school that put an underground sprinkler system in their rugby field. It cost R2 million. Sounds Christian to me?? (SARCASM)

Just A Quicky

I am on holiday.....and thought I would paste my marks..... Not bad for a guy who past Matric by 3%

Back To Freud

"Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock". FREUD

Are humans evil??? Are we bad??? That was the view that sparked the Renaissance and in the churches side started Martin Luther's movement into the Reformation..... The reawakening left people with hope, life and a new sense that God didn't want to fry people... How has do we see Ourselves now??? Freud in his wisdom and his experience of life became the father of Psychology and once you get past the part of all men wanting to sleep with their mothers, he was really quite good.... The sad part however is that he focused on the negative. The humans are bad and that psychology is extremely negative. I wonder if the world has adopted the same understanding??? Humans are bad. Further from that has the church fallen into the same mold?

Do we view people as bad?.

Some questions that have arisen in my mind lately....

Are we bad??

Does God want to burn us?

How do perceive our fellow human beings?

Are we living in the dark ages?

Why do we need to be saved?

What do we need to be saved from?

Who is Jesus in our context?

What is sin?

I am really just getting into the stage where I am realising God is love.... That means he doesn't wants to fry us..... People are good and beautiful and not just bad people. Yes we do bad things but deep down in us there is a beautiful piece of God trying to show itself to the world. God is love. We are so worried about saving people that we have forgotten that God is Love and he doesn't want to fry humanity.

I think that in some how we are fighting a battle in the church of the Mary's.

The church has had two Mary's..... And one has become predominant in Christian worship and the other has become part of a really lively discussion..... Which ever way you view them I think the church has taken the view of one. Mary Jesus's mother has the view of virgin, messenger, and almost perfection. I cant relate to that but the church has imposed this on people. This is who you must strive to be.....Perfection. But its left Mary Magdalene standing at the grave. She was a prostitute. Some scholars even claim that she was a high priest of a sexual religion around Jesus time. They get that from the way she cleans Jesus feet but yet she is the first one to see Jesus. She is the one that has been the worst off and yet is seen just recently to be one of Jesus disciples. A broken women finding hope and grace in Jesus. That I can relate to.

So often we accept people only if they belong to perfection... Jesus saw this that people are good. God is not out to fry us. Which leads me to my last question. If God is good is there even a hell??

The Church Vs. The Begger

I was sitting in my ethics class toady and I came across a thought and I thought that it was really some thing that could be taken a little further.

Church

• Relies on people to sustain it
• Beg for money
• Begs from a pulpit
• Sends food to the poor
• Talks about the poor
• Is Rich
• Teaches Jesus
• Lives in a house
• The world Passes By

Beggar

• Relies on people to sustain it
  Beg for money
  Begs from a traffic light
  Looks for food in where ever it can get
  Engages with the poor
  Is Poor
  Knows Jesus
  Lives on the street
• The world passes by

A minister said to me the other the day that

• When people look into the church what do they see?


• When we look out of the church what do we see?

Here are some questions that I think that are important

• What can the church learn from the beggar?


• How are they similar?


• How do we engage in that Jesus?

Where is the love?

I was reading other peoples blogs when I came across this Link for a story that rocked me to my core!!!

Child phone thief ‘deserved it’
‘People in the country are sick and tired of crime and have become completely desensitised’ Website visitors applaud 12-year-old’s shooting While police are still in the dark about the identity of the driver who shot and killed a 12-year-old smash-and-grabber, it appears many South Africans have little sympathy for the young boy. Comments on The Times website seemed to weigh in favour of the unknown gunman who killed the boy in Boksburg on Friday, with some even suggesting the killing of the youngster rid the country of a future criminal. With comments such as “he won’t be committing any further crime” to “the victim [the shooter] has done South Africa a huge favour”, website visitors made it clear they are fed up with the current crime situation. The boy was shot after he apparently smashed the window of a white Citi Golf on Rondebult Road in Boksburg, East of Johannesburg, and stole a cellphone. A witness claimed the boy ran away, but was chased by the driver who shot him in the chest and then fled the scene in his car. One visitor, writing under the alias “Fluffybunny” wrote: “That little scumbag- in-training was not just shot for that particular crime, it put an end to the dozen crimes he’ll go on to commit every single day, eventually ending in him becoming a murderer and rapist just like the rest of them ... so good riddance to bad rubbish.” Dr Christiaan Bezuidenhout of the University of Pretoria’s social work and criminology department said these views reflect the sentiment of what he calls “a gatvol nation”. “People are sick and tired of crime and have become completely desensitised,” said Bezuidenhout. “All they read and hear about is how criminals rob, rape and torture people … we are already at the stage where ordinary people actually applaud those who take the law into their own hands.” Having dealt with numerous under-aged offenders, Bezuidenhout said the youth of today are misled by what is perceived to be important in life, such as having the best cellphone and clothing. “One has to ask, where was this boy’s parents and what role did they play in giving him guidance,” he said, adding: “But we all know parental guidance is sadly absent in our society.” Commenting further on some of the readers’ remarks on The Times website, Bezuidenhout, said: “This is how crime has affected the psyche of our nation. “It is not a racial issue, but rather a shift in our social patterns. “People think the shooter is a hero because he did something the police couldn’t do.” Captain Mack Mngomezulu said late yesterday that police have received no positive leads. “We are investigating, but so far we have had nothing to identify the driver,” Mngomezulu said.

Wow I challenge people to look at some of the comments at the bottom of the article. Is this the norm in SA? Should we agree with this? Is Jesus still relevant in a country where this is happening?

One of Gandhi main principles was non violent protests. Where he believed that you show the person their lack of humanity by not fighting back. That made Gandhi a feared man in the world. A man with no guns and no revenge agenda scared the corrupt governments. Sounds a little like Jesus.....

Martin Luther King Jnr applied the same approach when the African American Race found themselves in a deep conflict with the South. Many black americans were beaten and strangled killed and houses destroyed. Martin Luther King Jnr found himself part of that and yet he proclaimed a Non Violent protest. Even at its worst the man still followed a Non Violent option. He said that when you retaliate you bread a sense of violence post your liberation......

Apartheid is wrong and I am not trying to defend the course it took. However in light of the non violent approach I wonder how South Africa would look now. The story tells of two groups. Whites attack blacks, blacks retaliate, blacks attack whites and now look the cycle is turning to whites retaliating. What are are we gearing ourselves up for?? This is such a dangerous place we find ourselves in and what does the church do?? It prays for a Saviour and meanwhile tries to create a devision that is dangerous for the land.......

The killer in South Africa is not crime but rather a breading of Violence that stems when the Dutch landed on our shores with Guns..... The britished added to it and now we live in the repercussions of our great grandfathers. Who says there is no such thing a children being cursed by our ancestors. Maybe we are breading this culture in our great grandchildren?

Women's Lib

It's true i am serious but I saw this and I thought there must be a place in the world for the woman's liberation movement

The Rich Gospel

I have been watching the Christian music scene in South Africa for some time and I think whilst they are doing a good job, I wonder if there is any place for the gospel in it. The strange thing that I find is that we have found a formula (Hillsongs, Passion.......) and we seem to be doing a windows shortcut on the whole experience. We copy and paste. Whilst that has its good news for musicians we have lost a context in our church. So we have lost the South African Jesus and replaced it with a Australian Jesus or even an American Jesus. Some might say look at Tree 63 whilst they may be South African they are an American based band and therefore have another context. Even South African worship leaders are constintly trying to repoduce the same experience that they say in other parts of the world here in SA. I wonder if Jesus had to ever walk into our churches would he ever say Is this not the vision I had for that church in Australia. The Side product of this is bad theology and meaningless songs enter our churches and we find ourselves selling our depth for a riff

The second thing that I have come to notice is that the average person in South Africa cant afford the price of a ticket to a concert. Even R40 is expensive when you have a family to feed or you have to go take your son to the Doctor. So the price of the Gospel is expensive? Should the gospel not be free. Surely it was given to us freely why then do we allow people to make a prophet off Jesus. The people who made the heart of the gospel pump are the ones we say are not allowed into our malls called churches.

Jesus has a great church growth plan..... Invite the poor