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Tim Tebow vs. First Baptist Church of Dallas

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Tim Tebow vs. First Baptist Church of Dallas

First Baptist Church DallasI imagine that First Baptist Church in Dallas is peeved that Tim Tebow backed out of speaking at their “Grand Opening” month-long celebration for their new $130 million state-of-the-art,ย accessory-filled sanctuary.

Though Tebow previously had agreed to speak during their celebration — along withย David Jeremiah, Charles Billingsley, Jim Cymbala, Phil Wickham, the Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers,ย and Dr. James Dobson — he backed out the other day after a reporter for CBS sports gave Tebow an online shellacking for the decision to align himself with a pastor who condemns gays, Mormons, and Muslims to hell, and who associated President Obama with the Antichrist.

So it got me wondering…

What would Jesus do?

I know, I know. That question usually makes be gag too. It is usually asked by people who would rather wear WWJD wristbands and t-shirts than go out andย actually do what Jesus would do, but in this case, I am going to ask it anyway:

If Jesus were aย Heisman-trophy winning all-star celebrity multi-millionaire quarterback, what would he do?

…On second thought, that question doesn’t make sense…. which just goes to show you another reason why I don’t like the question.

So let me rephrase the question.

If Jesus were ministering today, would he go speak at the First Baptist Church Grand Opening Month-long Celebration?

Maybe a video would help you decide. Here is a construction video from First Baptist Church in Dallas:

http://vimeo.com/58754562

All I can really say to this video is “Wow.” …and not in a good way. I laughed out loud at the end with that Las Vegas style fountain around the cross of Jesus…

I agree with Alan Cross at Downshore Drift who wrote this:

…one must ask what kind of bells and whistles are involved in a $130 million price tag for a 3,000 seat sanctuary.ย One mustย ask if spending $130 million on a 3,000 seat sanctuary with fountains and glass and other luxuries is even the religion that Jesus had in mind when he died on the cross alone and rejected.ย First Baptist will celebrate over theย next month.ย Theย world wonders what they are celebrating.

I am not a fan of churches spendingย obsceneย amounts of money on fancy buildings, and have proposed elsewhere that if we siphoned off just some of the money we spend on church buildings, we could solve the world’s water crisis.

But at the same time, I always remember what I learned in Kindergarten, that whenever I point the finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at me. Where am I wasting money that could be spent elsewhere? How am I “splurging” on unnecessary accessories?

I guess maybe part of the difference, however, is that I am not spending this money “in the name of Jesus.” But is that even a valid distinction, or is it a pitiful attempt at self-justification?

But I am getting off track…

Would Jesus speak at the Grand Opening of First Baptist Church in Dallas?

Jesus preaching at First Baptist DallasI suspect Jesus would speak at First Baptist Church in Dallas…if they were dumb enough to ask Him. He would get up there and tell a parable… probably something along these lines:

There was a man who had great wealth. And he wanted to use his wealth to help the poor, the homeless, and the hungry in his city. He saw their desperate need, and wanted to do all he could to help them.

So the first thing he did was move into the midst of the poor and the naked. He knew that to minister to the hungry, he needed to live among them. He bought a small and humble home, and began to feed and clothe whoever had need.

One day a man walked into his humble abode, dressed in fine clothes and carrying a leather briefcase. He looked at the work the rich man was doing, and said, “This is wonderful! You are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and providing lodging for the homeless! But your space is so limited. You can only feed and clothe a few. Imagine what could happen in this city if you expanded your operation so that rather than feeding and clothing dozens, you fed and clothed thousands! Imagine the change that would come upon this city! Imagine the good you could accomplish! If that is what you want, I can show you how.”

The rich man looked around his small house. He did feel rather guilty that despite all his wealth, he could only feed a clothe a few. Every day he had to turn away people who needed food and lodging, simply because he didn’t have enough room. So he looked at the man in the fancy suit and said, “Let’s do it! The more people I can reach, the better! What do I need to do?”

So they began to plan.

First, they had to tell the poor and the homeless that for a short while, they could not come to get food and clothing any longer. The rich man had to explain to them that this was only temporary while he could build a larger structure toย accommodateย more people. They seemed to understand, but he saw doubt and fear in their eyes and tried to encourage and convince them that this was for the best. But many of them did not seem to understand as they shuffled off into the night.

It was painful to watch, but the rich man knew it had to be done.

So he and the man in the fancy suit got to work. They planned. They prepared. They started small and modest, but the more they dreamed, the grander their vision became. Nothing was too good for the poor and the homeless. When they entered those front doors, they needed to be treated like kings and queens! They needed to be greeted with a vision and foretaste of the pearly gates!

Very quickly, however, the rich man realized that despite his great wealth, he would not have enough money to construct his great dream. He just about gave it all up, when the man in the fancy suit offered the logical solution.

“You need people to come along side you to support you in this great vision for helping the poor and homeless. If you want to transform this city and help the people feed the hungry and clothe the naked, you cannot–youย should not–do it all on your own. In fact, it is selfish to want all the glory of this ministry for yourself. You need to share the vision and let others share in the work.

So they started to invite other rich and wealthy people to participate. To give. To donate. And people eagerly responded. One man gave $10,000 and offered to give $100,000 if he could have a place on the board of this new ministry. Another man offered to give $1 million if they would name the gymnasium after him.

And this is how it went for the next six years. Thousands of people joined in the work.ย Donations poured in. Decisions were made. Budget committees formed to make sure the money was all accounted for. Ministry committees multiplied to plan and prepare for the eventual day when they would start taking care of the poor and needy in the community. Television specials and interviews aired on the local news stations about the grand work that was being done to beautify this once-decrepit downtown block of the city.

The rich man became popular among the popular and the rich. He was asked to write books and speak at conferences.

And one of these days, if he can find the time, he hopes to once again give a coat to a poor man and a meal to a hungry child. Until then, well, he is “raising funds” and “raising awareness” which will be more help in the long run. At least, that is what the man in the fancy suit says…

Then Jesus would sit down, and everybody in the grand auditorium would glance nervously around at each other, thinking to themselves, “Was he talking about us?” But they would forget all about it when the next speaker bounded up on stage and started off with a witty joke about falling asleep in the padded pews during long, meandering, pointless stories from untrained preachers.

That would perk everybody up, and nobody would notice as Jesus slipped out the back of the building to go hang out with the homeless under the bridge a few blocks away.


God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship, Theology of Jesus

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A Cold-Case Detective Investigates the Murder of Jesus

By Jeremy Myers
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A Cold-Case Detective Investigates the Murder of Jesus

J. Warner Wallace was a homicideย detective who specialized in solving cold-case murders. His work on cold-cases has been featured on numerous popular television shows and have revolutionized the way capital offense trials are presented around the country.

One year, though he was an atheist, he decided to take up the biggest “cold-case” of all time, the alleged murder of Jesus Christ some 2000 years ago. As a result of his investigation, he became convinced that the claims within the Gospels are true, that Jesus really did live, die on the cross, and rise again three days later from the dead.

cold case christianityAnd he recently wrote a book about how he used his training and experience as a cold case detective to verify the truths of the claims in the Gospel accounts. His book is calledย Cold-Case Christianity,ย and he recently sent me a copy of his book for review on this blog.

If you have ever read Lee Strobel’sย The Case for Christ,ย this book is very similar, except that rather than the research performed by an investigative journalist, the research is done by a cold case detective. I really enjoyed Lee Strobel’s book when I read it about several years ago, and I enjoyed J. Warner Wallace’s book, ย Cold-Case Christianity, for many of the same reasons. Apparently, Lee Stobel likes the book too, since he wrote the foreword.

One of the things that makes the book the most interesting, is that Wallace begins each chapter explaining some of the tools and approaches he used as a homicide detective, and then he goes on in the rest of the chapter to show how he used this tool or approach to investigate the claims of the Gospels about Jesus Christ.

So, for example, chapter 8 ย is titled, “Respect the ‘Chain of Custody.'” This is basically the idea that when evidence is passed on from person to person in an investigation, there needs to be a paper trail to show who had the evidence, what they did with it, and where it went after they were done with it. Using his experience as a detective, Wallace showed the “Chain of Custody” of the evidence which was recorded in the New Testament Gospels and how they went from the actual life of Jesus to the “courtroom” or the Council of Laodicea in 363 AD where the four Gospel accounts were officially accepted into the New Testament canon.

[Read more…]

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Reading

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Christmas Redemption

By Jeremy Myers
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Christmas Redemption

Christmas RedemptionInย Christmas Redemption,ย I admit that Christmas is a pagan holiday, and go into some of the history and origins of Christmas.

Christmas Redemption then looks at the date of Jesus’ birth and how Jesus fulfilled many of the biblical Jewish holidays in His birth, life, and ministry.

Following this, the book takes a brief look at one of the non-biblical Jewish holidays that Jesus also fulfilled, and ask the question that if Jesus could fulfill a non-biblical Jewish holiday, why can He not also fulfill any other non-biblical holiday?

I believe He can… and He does.

Christmas Redemptionย ends with looking at some of the symbolism and traditions of Christmas, including gifts, the Christmas tree, and even Santa Claus and showing how all of these can be celebrated and enjoyed by Christians as a true and accurate reflection of the Gospel.

Jesus is in the business of redemption, andย just as Jesus has redeemed you and I, He redeems the cultural elements and traditions that surround us, including pagan holidays.

Jesus has redeemed Christmas.

To see how, getย Christmas Redemptionย today.

“Hope” and “Love” Members of RedeemingGod.com will get this book for free a few weeks after signing up. Join now.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Christmas, Christmas Redemption, ebooks, free ebooks, Jesus, redemption

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Why are Christians so mean? Here are 10 Excuses Church People Give for Treating Others Badly

By Jeremy Myers
556 Comments

Why are Christians so mean? Here are 10 Excuses Church People Give for Treating Others Badly

christian jerksChristians are notorious for bad behavior. Some Christians and church people are just downright mean. Why is this? Why are Christians so mean?

In some recent surveys (reported in books like unChristian and They Like Jesus but Not the Church),ย it appears that most people in our culture believe that Christians are about as trustworthy as car salesmen and lawyers.

And I will admit, I myself can behave pretty badly at times, and many of the Christians I know behave in far worse ways than many of the unbelievers I know. I am always amazed at the grace, love, support, and forgiveness that is found among the “unchurched” which is rarely found among those who go to church.

There are numerous contributing factors to this.

Reasons Christians are Mean

Some of it is our theology. Many Christians develop a sense of entitlement because we are the “chosen ones” the “elite” the members of the family of God. We feel this gives us the right to look down upon others who are not one of us.

Sometimes, our behavior is a result of our understanding of God’s grace and forgiveness. We feel that because God forgives us for all our sins, we can treat others in terrible ways, and God will still forgive us. While it is true that God will forgive us for such behavior, His grace is never a license to treat others so shamefully.

Then there is the critical, judgmental, legalistic attitude so often taught and practiced in churches. Since we feel we have a corner on the truth and that we are the ones who are always right, this makes us believe that it is our responsibility to be the world’s policemen, going around pointing out where people are wrong and how they are sinning. This is rarely received well by anyone, especially when we have glaringly obvious sins in our own life.

Finally, there is the fact that Christians love to pick and choose which sins are the worst – things like homosexuality and murder – while ignoring sins that are prevalent within our own congregations (which might actually be much worse) – sins like gluttony, greed, and pride. The watching world sees our blatant hypocrisy and criticizes us in return for our unjustified criticism of them.

But over the years, as I have personally engaged in hypocritical and sinful behavior, and as I have watched other Christians do the same, I have found that there are several excuses we give for our poor treatment of other people, and for sin in our own lives. When we treat others badly, we give excuses for why our treatment of them is justified.

Here are the top ten reasons I could think of:

1. We Christians are sinners too.

condemnationThere are other versions of this excuse, such as “Hey! Nobody’s perfect!” or “I’m not perfect; just forgiven.”

The idea behind this excuse is that the watching world has put unrealistic expectations on us as Christians. We complain that they seem to think we should live perfect lives, which is impossible. So when we sin, and our sin is pointed out to us, we excuse our actions by reminding others that we are sinners too.

Theologically, this is correct.

But such a statement should never be used to excuse our sin. When our sin is pointed out to us, either by a Christian or a non-Christian, the proper response is not “Hey, I’m a sinner too, so get off my back about my behavior” but rather should be, “You know what? You are correct. I messed up. I am sorry. Thanks for pointing that out. With God’s help, I will do better next time.”
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God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Discipleship

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Hooked on Fishing

By Jeremy Myers
1 Comment

Hooked on Fishing

Below is an excerpt from a book I’m writing called Adventures in Fishing (for Men). The book is a satirical allegory about Christian attempts at evangelism. He who has ears to hear…


After watching the boys catch a real, live fish on the riverbank the day before, I decided that I better learn how to cast my line into the water like they were doing. Thatโ€™s the thing with fishing. You can only learn so much from magazines.

fishing hookSo I got out my fishing pole and on the end of the line, tied the best hook from my tackle box. It was a big hook, almost two inches long, with a big, sharp barb on the end. I bought the biggest hook they had down at the fishing store because I knew I would be catching some big fish. Those boys had been using a small hook, and as a result only caught small fish. This giant hook of mine was sure to catch the biggest fish around.

I pulled the fishing rod back over my shoulder and was just about to swing it forward when my neighbor stepped out of his house.

โ€œHey there, neighbor!โ€ he shouted. โ€œWhatโ€™s going on?โ€

I sighed to myself. Canโ€™t this guy ever mind his own business?

โ€œIโ€™m practicing my casting technique,โ€ I told him.

โ€œOh,โ€ he said. โ€œI thought maybe you were trying to fish again, but this time in your grass!โ€ He laughed at his joke. I did not.

[Read more…]

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Fishing for Men

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