A Parable by Vince

The following is from Vince Anonucci's blog.   www.vinceantonucci.com

A Parable

Picture this: It's 9/12. The morning after the terrorist attacks in New York City. Experts believe that there are people, possibly hundreds of people, buried alive under the rubble that was only a day ago the World Trade towers. Rescue workers have been called in to dig through the rubble to search for people who might still have a chance at life. And the rescue workers are standing next to the rubble ... arguing. They're debating why the terrorist attacks happened, different philosophies on how to find survivors, what's the best brand of shovel. Meanwhile people buried under the rubble are dying.

I think that's the church today. We were called by Jesus to be rescue workers, helping people to find life. But for some reason, unfathomable to me, the rescue workers spend their time arguing. Many even enjoy debating. Meanwhile the people we're called to save are dying.

For him who has ears to hear...

Happy Birthday To Me!

I'm 37.  I feel like I have the body of a 60 year old, with the mind of a 12 year old.  Go figure!

Just Like Daddy

I've said before how much my son Simon is like me. Some days it's like looking in a mirror at myself. It shows up in many areas (except for the whole liking vegetables issue...). For example, at school they have "show and tell" days where the kids bring something from home that they want to show the rest of the class. For the last two times guess what he's brought in to show - Superman toys! Yah, dats my boy! I haven't been coaching him to like things like that either. For a while I was worried with him having a couple of older sisters. I would go downstairs and they'd all be playing dress up and there was my 'y' chromosome wearing a dress with high heels and matching pearls. Sigh... But now he likes to play with trains and trucks and cool toys like action figures. He's like obsessed with Astroboy! I love it! But even though I haven't been purposely pumping him full of my desire for him to like these kinds of things, it has rubbed off from him just being around me. And God has just made things to be that way. When your Dad likes to watch the Ninja Turtles so do you. When Dad picks up a toy sword at the Dollarama and holds it over his head shouting "By the power of Grayskull!" well, little eyes are watching and want to imitate. Hopefully Simon won't be as warped as I am (no Star Trek pun intended but it did fit nice), but it certainly makes you realize how much your kids look to you for guidance when they are growing up. I hope my kids look to their Dad for other things too though. I hope I am a good example of how to love God and love other people (even when I fail repeatedly behind the steering wheel).  Be a good parent folks and use every day to teach your kids about life and what's important (and not so important).  There's no better or greater job and trust me, those little rugrats grow up fast!

It's almost winter!

A Rant...

Okay, so there I was the other day sitting in my office working on my sermon for Sunday, when in walked a gentleman. After he introduced himself he immediately went on to start asking questions regarding our church. By the nature of his questions and of course his southern drawl I quickly concluded that this was a man from the southern U.S. who was part of a non-instrumental Church of Christ. For those of you who don't know, there is a "split" mostly in the states between the Christian churches and churches of Christ that is differentiated by the fact that the churches of Christ don't believe that "real" Christians should use musical instruments in their worship services. Their reasoning behind this is based on the notion that the New Testament makes no mention of using them to worship God (which in it of itself is wrong...but I don't want to chase that rabbit!). Now if they grew up in that environment and that's what you prefer, fine...fill yer boots! I can respect that as long as you respect my thoughts on the matter too. However it was clear that this chap did not. In fact he stated flat out that it was all right for me to worship with him at HIS church...but it wouldn't be okay for him to worship at mine. At that point I wanted to say, "Um...think about that dude," but I held back. I am never surprised by people anymore and their arrogant attitudes about being right and holding so tightly to the dumbest non-scriptural issues. But...I was saddened by the lack of desire for this man to associate himself with me simply because I held an opinion regarding a non-issue in the Bible a little different than he. I could call him a brother, but I don't think he would have referred to me as one. He even said that his churches needed to work harder in their evangelistic efforts "up here." Apparently we are not reaching anyone for Jesus because we play guitars... Sigh, oh well. I wonder what this brother in Christ thinks about Paul's statement in 1 Corinthians 9:22: "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some."

Sing Church!

Gotta Love That Beaker!

Traditions...

Some say that the church today is trying to "remove the great traditions of the faith." To those I say this: read Mark 7 and see what Jesus had to say about this subject. I can guarantee you that we would never remove any tradition given to us by God in the Bible. So we don't do an altar call, don't wear suits, don't sing the doxology before the offering. But where did the church get those traditions? Men. Not God. And doesn't Jesus say here that we don't have to continue in the traditions of men. In fact, isn't He implying that it's dangerous to continue in the traditions of men, because we can easily allow them to supersede the word of God? And so, if a church is "non-traditional" doesn't it make that church more Biblical?