this text is very ironic… intended to communicate a message! well hopefully

Not sure if most of you, readers are familiar with the concept of church planting… but if you don’t have a clue about it, here is the definite most common used strategy for church planting.

1) Social Implementation with the “unsaved”

Yup! that’s right - if you want to plant a church… first you gotta make contact with the people around you. And to make social connection, you gotta start doing good deeds… well! deeds like “cleaning the streets”, “helping the elders”… prettttyyyyyy much everything that has do be done socially and which can be “seen”… See the fact that it has to be seen, is very important… why? because that’s how you make connections in our world.

Now Jesus said that whatever your right hand does, should be kept secret from the left. Fact is, for people to know who you are, they must know what you have done or hear about it. In fact! it has to be “seen” directly, indirectly… through pride… or faked humility… whatever you do… make it known!

So… social deeds… it has always amazed me that whenever church community would gather to discuss evangelism.. all the great ideas for social deeds start popping up. One elder says “we need to give limonade every day at the corner for free”… another young lad would rise and say “we need to wash cars for free this saturday”… Considering the fact that most community are implemented for quite some years… it gets very fascinating, that only with the need to reach out, that people starts finding ideas on how to be a blessing for others…

In order words, let me reformulate it…. when you wish to evangelize, start doing good.

2) Connect and Connect

Usually, the general next steps after the good deeds, will be to gather all together for more fun. Well gather under a tent, invite the “unsaved” you impressed with the good deeds, but make sure you don’t take them to church yet… but just invite them and have fuuuuuuun.

Fun, it is important, because having fun is a good way for you to avoid having to tell the “unsaved” why you have invited them… Ok OK… that was too much! I agree! well… a little too much doesn’t hurt, isn’t it

Sooo back to our church plan strategies, it is important, you have foods and get movies… see you wouldn’t want the “unsaved” to start asking you 100000 questions and also I mean, what is there for a christian to talk about if not about God… and ohhhh ohhh of course, you don’t want them to feel threatened right ? so chips, fast food and movie, and you killed 2-4 hours with the “unsaved”.

3) Small groups

So you have hanged out with the unsaved, one time, two times, three times… and now it is time for the real stuff. So get together with a bunch of people, and invite the unsaved you have selected, usually “one”! why? because one is vulnerable… Ahhh before I forget… make sure to pick the emotional ones or with the most problems in his/her life…. Again Again! that was too far Ali!!!… oh well! otherwise where is the fun!

So invite the unsaved to a meeting to talk about life questions… Make sure to have chips and coke!

4) Enter the Holy Gates

So the unsaved has been meeting regularly and here it came… you did it! congratulations! you offered the unsaved to come to church… and of course with all the junk (the junk food of cooooooooooourse :-p) you have been feeding him/her, he/she has accepted to come to church.

So he/she comes to church… but prior to his/her arrival, make sure to tell the people of the church to “know”… an unsaved will be there… that is, treat him kindly, don’t ask him to do stuff… be nice! smile! don’t get offended if they do something bad - but of course, you can get offended when one of your brother/sister does something about you.

In other word! make sure when the unsaved comes to church! all he/she sees is holiness, perfection and good

5) Make use of them

So you have been investing time and effort in cleaning the street, just to get that one man to come to the meetings… you have been spending money on chips, renting movies, and coke… then you have invited that poor soul to your home! Ach! your electricity bill got higher… you had to buy more chips and coke… and now you gotta pay for fitness with all the weight you got from the chips and coke… so how do you repay and regain all you have lost… well!!! it is easy “use them”.

Yup! after bringing them to church, after treating them like little precious babies! it is time to use them. Ask them about what they can do… call it a “gift”… tell them “they are special”… and make them to do it.

Conclusion:

It is easy to plant a church… all you gotta do is love. Yes Love so they can come to your church.

cheers,

Ali

According to ossur.com, an amputee is “a person who has had all or part of a limb removed/amputated or is born without a limb”.  According to Princeston University, it is “someone who has had a limb removed by amputation”. So… as easy as it is, an amputee is someone with one or more limbs missing, it could be an arm, both arms, a leg or both legs (well that I guess will be the most basic understanding of what an amputee is).

A miracle on an amputee would therefore physically produce the regeneration of the missing limbs or body parts, as well as reconstructing all physiological elements that are involved in having a leg grow for instance. Ligaments, muscles, all those individual parts would therefore grow back and be put in place.

According to the US national statistic society,  “It is estimated that one out of every 200 people in the U.S. has had an amputation”. That of course doesn’t include those who were born with no limbs or body parts. If one out of 200 people have had amputation, that means therefore, on a national scale, you would have the sum total of the people living in the US, divided by 200 to find out roughly how many people are amputees (AGAIN this doesn’t include those who are born with infirmities). On the 2008 census, it was estimated that 304,154,000 people lived in the US… 304,154,000 / 200 = 1520770 amputees. Now a million of amputees??? that’s quite a lot… and with all the millions and millions of “healing crusades” that have been happening in the US, not a single amputee did ever show up nor was healed.

Now… one would wonder… “blind get sight… people with hearing loss, can hear… people with headache sundenly feel alright… people with cancer get healed” YET, I cannot find at all any single testimony of an amputee who grew flesh.

The question I then would obviously wonder, won’t God heal amputees? or can’t God heal amputees? of course this statement is framing on the belief that God does heal people.

If all the healing crusades are TRULY healing crusaded (meaning empowered by God), why won’t any amputee therefore show up? or let’s put it differently, why won’t the miracle workers invite amputees out of faith?

A friend of mine sent me a video link of a revival healing crusade going on in Florida, where it is said that the thousand got healed and each one with different deseaces, yet, after researching on the different crusades, they had… not a single amputee did show up…

So can anyone tell me why God doesn’t heal amputees, or let me rephrase it, Why God through those “SO EMPOWERED MEN OF GOD” doesn’t heal amputees?

Now, let me ask you a personal question, if you had to choose to pray for someone who has an headache, you would surely be praying for the headache to go away… for peace of mind to be restored, yet, if you were asked to pray for an amputee, what would you prayer be… “God, give peace to this man/woman and help him/her to do the best out of his/her life”? or would you dare praying “God I pray that you will make this limb grow back”?  What would you honnestly faithfully pray?

Now did God ever healed amputees? According to the narrative story in the gospels, Jesus did restore the missing piece of ear-flesh lost by one of the captive soldier while fighting with the disciples. So did God make flesh growth? looks like… but why won’t He be healing amputees during those crusades meetings?

Using a bit of logic and sticking to the biblical narratives, one would just come to the understanding that there are three pausible answers:

1- God doesn’t truly care about amputees

2- God can only heal everything else but just can’t heal amputees

3- Those healing crusades are just bubbling jokes that once again reflect the missleading concepts that have been shaping christians, doctrines, dogmas and christianity’s core for centuries

Which would you stand on?

Warning: The following article does not reflect in any case my own personal standpoint on prostitution nor any other issues mentioned. This article is rhetorical, intended to stimulate our “stagnant” neurones. If you succeed to draw a personal statement on my own standpoint regarding whether I agree or disagree with the things mentioned, then I advise you to re-read the article as you would have missed the point of it.

Blessed be the hookers, the prostitutes and the army!

Now, before you start thinking “what the flip”, let me take some lines to go over one of the fundamental baseline of Christian theology “thou shall not judge”.

In the book of Matthew chapter 7, verse 1, Jesus says “Do not judge or you too, will be judged”. I am not going to make an exegesis of this verse (although that would be pretty stupid), but I will use it as a trampoline, not to validate my sayings but for you to have a repair of what I am trying to communicate.

Today’s Christianity, or I should say “Christianity” has developed itself into a subsequent form of self motivated organism, self-sufficient in itself to draw rules and doctrines, on which most “stagnant” Christians, based on “morality” and “ethic” have drawn the distinction between accepting certain norms of life and rejecting others.

It is known that evangelicals, charismatics, well any Christians would meet, pray for their dear relatives or close people who serve in the army. Meetings, actually Prayer meetings would be held for those who serve their country; and God, Jesus would be asked to protect them, to make them safe and bring them back home.

Now let me put this in perspective.

Asking God, to bring the soldier safe back home is not different to ask Him to help the soldier kill his adversary (in case this one is in an engaged war zone); think about it, “protect him” and “bring him safe”… well if the soldier is fighting the “enemy”, and both are firing at each other… well the most probable case to have the “soldier” (whom people prayer for) back home safe, is that he wins the battle (so 90% that he kills his enemy).

Now….

Why does Christianity “accepts” and “blesses” the soldiers but do not bless the “hookers” ?

Lot of people would say well the “soldier” is serving his country, it is his job. Well isn’t the hooker working too? aren’t both making a living? one way or another, they get “cash” no?

Can you say one is “clean cash” and the other one “dirty”… if you are making the assumption that one is better than the other, in most of the case that being a soldier is better than being a hooker, then you are saying that “killing” is better than “having sex”.

Think about it for a second… which one is worse?

or not… don’t try to think about it, but wonder…

So next time you would pray for the “soldiers” in Irak or any other part of the world, would you also pray for the hookers, that God protects them, brings them safe back home, blesses them? Would you pray that they have a “good” time and “safe” time while on “duty”? I mean, you would do the same for the soldier, right?

See… why are the majority of Christians making the clear cut between “army” and “prostitution”? how could people come to such a state that their conscience is just giving them a positive attitude towards a man who takes the life of others… while the image of a girl who takes off her clothes and engage in sexual intercourse brings discuss?

why?… do you know why?

maybe because we are probably way off what Christ had taught us? way off what Christianity truly is?

It takes time to realize that maybe in our worship of God, we sometimes find ourselves off… off from knowing how to approach life? to approach true fullfilment…

This post is just an attempt… yes a provoking attempt to make you reflect on many other issues (not only the army and prostitution), but many others, upon which today, Christianity has drawn a middle line (I accept this because it “feels” right and I reject this because it doesn’t).

“quando il troppo storpia” - when too much makes it crooked.

till the next time, peace to you all,

Ali

postscript: as I do in all my articles, I ain’t going to tell you what to think… lots of people complain that I do not pursue my thoughts! why? because you are the one who should purse it, stop waiting for people to think for you, think for yourself…

This article has been translated by John Gabriel in italian, find it here (click)

Hello all,

this is going to be a quick short essay… First of all, apologies for the long silence… it is unbelievable how one can get so busy to the point to not find a time to even rest. I know I have started a topic on the “atheist video” which still needs to be concluded - promise soon!

I was just thinking of Psalm 121 and I just decided to throw out a small little exegetical challenge.

For information, Psalm 121 is considered to be Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Hello…

I woke up this morning and though to myself “what a wonderfullll worrrrlddd”.. no j/k, I though “hmm… maybe it would be good to update a bit TMC since it is has been a while”… by updating I mean, letting you know, my readers why the big silence on TMC and a bit what has been happening and what is going to happen… Read the rest of this entry »

** Youtube for some reasons has removed this video

Please watch the following video, before nailing down to the article - otherwise ya lost -__-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTHN3MPW5qQ

Many times, I have watched one of those reports and thought to myself “Dang, those are the people who corrupt the meaning of Christianitiy”. Many times I thought to myself how can many people “psychologically lie to themselves?” and follow those kind of ministers? Read the rest of this entry »

I was watching TV today and as the channel news was displaying different reports of arround the globe! something just got my attention as I was trying to digest some wonderful pasta meal. It was the report of a poor family who lived somewhere in Africa and about their extroardinary faith! The family was composed of 5 children, the dad and the mom; they lived in not more than 10 m2 room… this unique room was of couse the bedroom, the livingroom, the kitchen… and please do not ask me about where the toilet was. Read the rest of this entry »

“God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God, Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

(Psalm 53:2-3)

I often asked myself that same and same again question! Why God created mankind?!… Read the rest of this entry »