Martin Luther

          Hello, everyone, today's blog (and last blog) is about Martin Luther.  We watched a movie about him the past few days in Bible class.  Luther was a German priest who defiled the Catholic church and popes with his ideas.  The popes believed that you needed to buy indulgences to get out of purgatory.  They also believed that good works, not faith, gets one into heaven.  Luther believed; however, that a Christian must have faith that God's mercy and love will save you, and that only God is able to forgive.  He stated that selling indulgences is a false assurance that your are saved from your sin.  He stated these things and many others in his 'Ninety-Five Theses', which he posted on the doors of the Roman Catholic Church.  This was one of the most important things he had ever done, because it was the start of a movement towards religious freedom. 

           The Ninety five Theses were found and copied in the printing press.  This and many other of Luther's works were being copied and spread all over the town.  While most of the people liked his works, the popes and other Church officials didn't like it, because his works contradicted the ideas of the Church.  He was excommunicated from the church, but he continued to write his works.  Luther was brought to court and asked to renounce his works.  But Luther replied that unless they could find any Scriptual reason for him to do so, he would not do it. So they let him keep his works.

          There are actually many times when the Roman Catholic Church tried to stop Luther from preaching, but he continued.  I think this is very important because Christians should not ever renounce their christianity.  So Luther is a very good example to follow.  My overall thoughts on the movie is that I thought it was good.

My sources were: www.greatsites.com;  www.google.com.

And since this is my last blog for the year, here are some funny pictures for you to enjoy:

This has been a wonderful year.  Mr. Mendenhall has been a great teacher.  Thank you.  And here is one more picture in honor of Martin Luther.

Don't Waste Your Life Ch. 8

In Chapter 8 of Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, it talks about how we are unique of God's creation and how man is not made to be idle but to be hard workers.  At the very beginning of this chapter it talks about how the "war" that is going on between good and evil is not geographical, or not physical, but is spiritual.  Actually, the book says that the "war" is neither spatial or physical.  So that means the enemies that need to be defeated are evil sins and spirits, not people.  This makes a Christian's secular vocation (their workplace) their warzone.  So it doesn't matter where  you work but How and why.  This means that you don't have to be a missionary or a pastor to spread the word of God.  You can do it anywhere you work.  In fact, the Bible says it is God's will that we spread out and not just work among other Christians.  (1 Corinthians 7:17-24) We were placed in this world to save non-Christians, not of it.  

Skid Row

        Okay, so we watched a movie in Bible the other day called 'Secret Millionaire'.  It was about a guy who was a millionaire and decided to go to Skid Row, a place where people live in poverty.  He had to live on $55.00,  an amount he said he could spend without thinking normally, him being so rich. 

         So, he stays in this apartment for a week there and goes around the place talking to people and learning about their ways of life.  This is what he said in an interview when asked, What did you take from the experience?  "It was one of the most cherished experiences I’ve had in my life. I took so much from it. The focus of the episode was on homelessness and it made me more compassionate and open-minded to homelesness. I realized that most homeless people are not there as a function of their own choice, but because of circumstances around them."*  The Secret Millionaire was not a christian,  so I thought it was very neat for someone outside christianity to be doing something like this,  though he had the wrong motive for doing it.  But this should be a motivator for christians to go out and do this kind of stuff.

*Taken from bizjournals.com

Lord, save us from our Followers

  Ok, so we watched a movie in Bible called "Lord save us from the followers", I agreed with pretty much everything the movie talked about.  The movie is about the clash between faith and culture.  It was a documentary with a guy named Dan Merchant walking around America in a suit that was white and had a bunch of Jesus symbols, bumperstickers, and other stickers representing Jesus.  He called it the Bumpersticker Man suit.  He did this to start conversations basically so he could interview people who were part of religion, culture, gay clubs, homeless people, politicians and people off the street.  He asked them of their opinion on faith and of evolution, and got some surprising answers.  Like, there was this gameshow type thing that was like family feud, except it was scientists vs. philosophers, and the scientists (who were non-Christian) won.  The questions were about culture and faith, like 'what christian movie seems to have caused the most controversy?' and 'what is the most interesting aspect of Christianity/evolution?'.  I thought it was very interesting how the non-Christians seemed to know more about our God than the "Christians" did.  Also, Dan seemed to care about people more than most Christians would.  Most "Christians" would judge the people they were talking to, or tell them that they were going to hell for their ways.  But this true Christian, he set up a confession booth in the middle of a Gay Pride event and apologized for the way the "Christians" and the church were acting.  I thought that was really helpful and I think that if there were more true Christians, then they would be doing something similar.  SO, to all of you "Christians" out there who are evangelising the wrong way, you are helping no one.  You need to show love and compassion to anyone you witness to, no matter what they've done in their life.

      And sorry, Mr. Mendenhall, for posting this a little late.

JESUS CAMP!!!!!!!!!

Hello bloggers, we watched a movie in Bible for a couple of days.  It was about a camp for little kids, and this camp was run by a lady named Becky Fisher (something like that).  It was called JESUS CAMP!!!!!  It was a camp for evangelist kids.

       There was a little kid there named Levi, (who I thought was smarter than Becky Fisher) that went there, and he did some preaching.  I agreed with him on most things, because he wanted to share Christ.  Actually, I agreed more with the little kids on the show than I did with Becky Fisher.  Some of these kids are surprisingly intellegent about religious matters.  But the sad part is that when they go to this camp, Becky practically brainwashed them.  She kept repeatedly saying unchristian-like things about our government, like "THIS IS WAR! WE ARE AT WAR WITH THE GOVERNMENT!" (something like that).  And she kept saying things like, "In the name of God, I command the Devil to leave this place!", as if she could tell God what to do.  If there was anything I could agree on with Becky, it's that her passion was to share Jesus, and that she couldn't enjoy heaven knowing that she didn't share the news.

      I also noticed that they kept saying that they were totally against abortion, and kept saying that they were the ones who were going to end it, but they didn't really do anything that helped.  Like, she just took a glass mug and wrote 'abortion' on it, and said, "In the name of God, this cup represents the evil in our government!" something stupid like that, and then had one of the kids break it with a hammer.  And later on in the movie, they show some of the kids standing outside the White House wearing duct tape on there mouths that said 'Life' on it, hoping it would help to stop abortion, which; obviously...it didn't.  I mean, they should have tried to gather a mob of protestors or something more noticeable, like how did anyone in the White House even see them? A few little kids with duct tape on their mouths is not very noticeable.


        So, overall, I thought that the camp itself was bad, because of the brainwashing factor, but the kids in it were good.  And the counsoler, Becky Fisher, was to some extent truthful because she really wanted to share Jesus, but she didn't quite get it, because she was so radical about it.


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Don't waste your life

       Where does boasting only in the cross happen?  I am not sure what Mr. Mendenhall is asking, but I guess it only happens in your spiritual life.  What does this mean practically in my life?  Well, I don't boast much in worldly things, but I don't really boast much in the Cross either.  So I guess that answers that.

I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
-Galatians 2:20

How does it make sense to say that "I" died and yet "I" live? Well, it means that the "I" that you were died with Jesus on the Cross.  The new "I" is you when you accept Jesus as your Saviour. "And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God."

I strongly believe in Christ, and consult Him before almost every decision I make.  Though there are a few areas where I am not living by faith.  It's actually kind of personal, so it's kind of hard to share.  I think I'll just end this blog.