I don't get it

So I really try to be a nice guy, but I think that I get run over too often. I guess that I could write a bunch of times this has happened, but the current ones are that I am still waiting for a mailbox key, even though we moved over a month ago. I also feel like I bother people if I call them too many times to remind them of what they are supposed to do.
Do I have a right to feel like I need to be treated right? Do I need to take it every time someone runs over me like that? I know that patience is a virtue and that we need to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, but how do we exhibit righteous anger? And is it worth it for me to do that? What is better for my testimony, having patience and being run over, or gently urging someone to do what they have promised? Maybe someday I will just end up a punk.

Why the Catholic church has succeeded

I am not sure if the Catholic church has started to lose followers lately, I think they have, but they sure have been successful as a church in the past as far as getting a crowd. In Brazil, I have heard that the Catholic population to be as high as 85-90% and that is just one country out of many that have Catholicism as their main religion. Why is that so?
I was thinking this morning about a conversation I had in Sunday school a while back with someone who was not in line with our Baptist belief. She was convinced that her friend, who was not religious, but very good, would not be sent to hell by God. "He, in fact, was better than most Christians she knew." And you know what, it makes sense. I think that is why Catholicism has been successful, because according to our natural beliefs, it makes sense. We all tend to know what is "fair" and always want to be treated fairly. Catholicism says, basically, that if we do more good than bad, we will go to heaven. And that is what comes naturally to believe. And since everyone believes themselves to be basically good in their own eyes, we will all go to heaven.
That is the main reason I think it has done well, but there are others like having an official representative for God, offering plenty of works based services, being state run often times, and other things that I can't think of right now. But for now, here is a video to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrLzYw6ULYw&feature=related

Family

I guess I do a lot of posts (in proportion to how many posts I actually write) dealing with family, but I guess it is because family is important. Recently I feel like I have seen a little bit about what the Bible says about family in one part of the Bible. Someone asked Jesus about leaving their family for His sake and He replied saying that they would receive a hundred fold as far as family goes. I think what He meant by that has something to do with what we have experienced here in Brasil.
By no merit of our own, we have a bunch of mothers here and fathers and brothers and sisters. There are so many people that would do so much for us and care so much about us. Recently we moved to an apartment where we will live for six months. We needed a few little things like plates, cups, and other kitchen things as well as a few other items. We had so many people here help us out with whatever we needed. Also to rent we needed a cosigner. And the process is a lot more involved with cosigners here. We had a friend who took care of so much of it for us and even though he is very busy, was available for whatever we needed. The relationships here have been amazing and we are so blessed despite how much we do not deserve it.
I write this not meaning to talk about ourselves, but just cause I thought that it is neat to show how God provides and fulfills His promises.

Romans

So we have been going through Romans in our Sunday school class as well as in our church services. I have really learned a lot and am so glad I have the opportunity to study and teach the book. It is so rich and deep and our discussions have really grown me in my walk with God, as well as my appreciation for His Sovereignty. This week we learned from Romans 5 that God justifies us and then does not leave us hanging. The Spirit is there to guide us through, to make us holy, and then one day glorify us in heaven. I am so glad that He is still working on me, to make me what I need to be.

The Soccer Tourney

Last night Sarah and I laughed about quite a few things. The night before we had gone to a renewing of the vows wedding ceremony for some colleagues of ours. At the wedding a little boy asked us, "When you laugh, do you laugh in Portuguese, or English?" We laughed and then I told him that when I am on the computer it depends on if I am writing in English (lol, haha) or Portuguese (hehe,jajaja).
We left the wedding early enough to attempt to get a good night's rest before we woke up in a flurry of preparation for the soccer tournament. All week I had seen that the weather forecasts called for rain but I had not given up hope, until 45 minutes before the tourney was to start when it began to downpour. I called and canceled everything, and then went to the field to meet my friends and tell them it was canceled. By the time three of them had showed up the rain had stopped. The three meteorologists then predicted no rain for the rest of the day despite the full cloud cover (and weather.com forecast of rain all day). On top of that, they said that they could not do the tournament any other day and talked me into still playing. So I called everyone back and we went on with it. Three teams showed up and we started playing with a light rain that turned into a heavy rain by the second half. Then we played the second game in a lake (and the field we use is all dirt inside a tall fence). It was muddy and sloppy to say the least.
The main purpose of the event was to share the gospel a little as well as to invite the guys to study the Bible. That mission was accomplished and we had one young man that was interested in possibly coming to our Thursday night Bible study that we do at our house. So even though the tournament was not all that I imagined it would be, and much shorter, we still accomplished the main purpose and for that we give praise to the Lord.
We then went back to our house and I handed out the prizes, said a little something about being there to share about the Bible, our Pastor here gave his testimony, and then we ate (all took place in our car port because everyone felt bad about entering the house).

Keeping balanced

There are all kinds of Christians in this world. There are Christians who say that they are free to do certain things and then there are Christians who say that all Christians need to go by a set of rules. They should read their Bible, pray, go to church, be involved in the church, witness to others, tithe… Then there are other Christians who say that God does not care what church you go to, or if you go to church, what matters is your relationship to Him and that you are trying to do good for Him. Then there is a new generation of action believers which believe that you should be constantly doing good, loving your neighbors, giving to the poor, living modestly, and not worry about preaching about Jesus, just show Him in your life. Some believe that you just need to believe in Jesus and what He did and then you can live however you want to live. Then there are all kinds of different Christians who believe all kinds of different things.

So what is the right way to live? Is there one set of beliefs that is right within Christianity? I mean we have dozens of different denominations. Each denomination has a variety of beliefs held within each church. Some will focus on reaching the poor, some focus on the KJV being the most important Bible version, some say to work on discipling others, and some focus on evangelism and reaching the most amount of people they can, some are geared towards serving its members, while others serve those outside the church walls.

The Reason for God by Tim Keller talks about people who do not believe in Christianity because Christianity is narrow and non-inclusive and that Christians push their beliefs on others and that is not right. Tim Keller refutes that by saying that those people are doing the exact same thing. By saying that they don’t believe Christians should promote their faith, they are promoting their own beliefs (of not being pushy) and pushing them on others. He makes a great argument and I would highly recommend his book to read it all. But the reason I bring his argument up is that I think that this happens within Christianity as well. We argue our own position often and try to get others to do the same. I find that I am personally greatly influenced by what I have read recently. For example, I just read a book on loving others, hating war and injustice, and feeding the poor (amongst other things) and it really affected me to the point of changing some of my thoughts and actions. And I could agree so much that I buy more books on the topic and get more involved in those aspects of Christianity. Does that mean that I have found the right way to live as a Christian? But what if I read another influential book on the Spiritual Disciplines and how I should live as a Christian and I started getting into those? Would that be the right path to take considering the author shows great proof from the Bible on why I should do those things? I could go on and on with more topics, but what is the right one to focus on?

And that is where I think that we need to have a balance in our Christian life. Maybe I am speaking for myself, but my tendency generally is to read something and be greatly pulled by it to the point where it starts to take over my life. But if I read something and add it to my tool belt, I think that is where I am going to be more effective. I think that too often within Christianity, we focus on one part and that leads to self-righteousness and judgment of others. For example, within a lot of churches I have been in, I see people who are faithful to church, always dressed nicely, always volunteering, and always with an attitude that they are the troopers in the trenches for God. They then look down on those who are not as involved in church and assume that they are not as spiritual. But on the other hand I have seen those who believe that the church is broken and needs to be fixed and that they are more righteous for being outside of the church, with a right relationship with God, than in the wicked church that is full of hypocrites. I think that we need to be careful not too focus on one aspect of Christianity and look down on others who focus on another part.

Recently I read an email in which someone mentioned not pushing God’s Word down people’s throats, assuming that is what I was doing. I know what that person means, but I really do not think that is what I am doing. I am here to teach the Bible though. That person says that we need to follow Jesus’ example of loving the poor and living with them and fighting injustice because Jesus did that. I agree that should be a part of our ministry, and since I have read that book, I have tried to make it more of a part. But Jesus’ primary ministry was teaching. Look at the gospels and see how much he taught in there. He met people’s needs through miracles and a couple of times providing food for the multitudes, but His primary job was teaching.

I think that God has equipped many different people with many different passions in life. Passages that talk about our spiritual gifts show how we are all one body with different parts to it. We need people who will serve as hands and feet, administrate, teach, lead as Pastors, feed the poor, encourage others, be hospitable, visit the hospital, pray constantly, counsel others, and so many more things. We need to recognize our gift, even focus on it, but also not be afraid to work on other areas as well. And most of all, we should not think of ourselves (and our gifts) more highly than we ought to.

Grace

Recently I heard the news of another person in ministry who had fallen into adultery. This was the second time this year that I heard of someone I knew personally that had done this. In both cases though, the church has responded with such amazing grace. In the past with these situations, I just hear of rejection by the church, but now I think that the church is starting to give the proper response.
But the real reason for this post is my response. I am almost jealous. This person said to me recently, "those churches do not really understand what true grace is," which struck me profoundly when it was said, even before I knew of the adultery situation. This person explained the grace given to her after her sin through their spouse, church, and colleagues. They better understood God's grace and I do not believe that I have ever experienced that much grace in my life. So as Paul said in Romans 6, "Do I sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!"
So what it comes down to, I believe, is understanding God's grace in allowing us not to fall into sin. And also an understanding of the sin that we do commit. A good reading of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) should cure that when we learn that hate is like murder and lust like adultery. I have no reason in the world to even think of myself as more morally righteous than this friend of mine or anyone else for that matter. Paul said in Romans chapter two that if we think that we can judge others sins it is like we are judging ourselves, because we are just as guilty of them. So I must understand my humanity, as well as God's grace in sustaining me from being the horrible sinner that I have the capability of being.