Muslims, Christians and Jesus

This was a very interesting book to read. Written by Carl Medearis, it talks about how to talk to Muslims about Jesus without turning them off to the good news. It explains the 5 Pillars of Islam and points out a multitude (I lost track at 80) of verses that mention Jesus in a positive light along with a correlating Biblical Verse.

The book also talks about the things that Christians do that turn Muslims off to Jesus. One of the most interesting things about the book is how focused the book is on Jesus and not the Christian faith and it's not hard to see why. It's not Jesus that turns people off it's the way we follow (or don't follow) him that turns them off.

Reading that book gave me insights into the Muslim faith that I didn't have before and answered some questions that I did have. It was far more instructional than watching blowhards on the news argue about whose religion is better.

For Jesus it was never about religion, why do we keep forgetting that?

Truth is a moving target, or is it? (updated)

Over at American Power, Dr. Douglass posted an essay discussing giving animals the same status as humans, thereby making all animals equal, which is a direct shot at the Judeo-Christian view in which we are at the top of the heap and the animals to one degree or another are below us. In addition, there is an essay by Dennis Prager that is worth looking at. In this article Dennis discusses the difference between the Judeo-Christian ethics and the secular, postmodern ethics.

The main difference between the two systems are this. People who subscribe to the Judeo-Christian view, have held that certain things are right or wrong, that's why we tend to hold things like the 10 Commandments in such high esteem. Secularists see everything as shades of gray, what is good for you is good for you and all that nonsense.

These two world views are polar opposites of each other and at some point one or the other will be tossed aside. Make no mistake about it, the secularists are hell bent on removing the Judeo-Christian morals from our culture and replacing it with moral relativism. Where instead of concrete ideas of what is right and wrong, you're constantly shifting until it feels right for you. Needless to say this is bad for society, we need set rules of behavior, where people know that there are certain things you just don't do. Of course many of these are moral things like fidelity, modesty, honesty, and not having sex just because, which is why the secularists don't like them.

So is truth really a moving target after all?

Update #1:

I was thinking about this thread when I made this post to start with. It starts out with the usual indignation about the cover on the New Yorker and then when the cartoon of the McCain's comes out (thanks Dr. D) I posted it since at least one person said they'd be just as offended if one were published. Funny thing, since one is a magazine cover and the other 'just' a comic, they're not the same, at least according to people there. That would be moral relativism in action for you.

A Crisis of Faith by Vegas Art Guy

Time magazine had an article detailing the crisis of faith suffered by Mother Teresa. At first glance it looked like an attack on one of the great Christians in the last oh, 150 years or so. But once I had really gotten into the article I realized that God was merely answering her prayer to share in Christ's suffering. I shall pass on noting that you really need to be careful on what you ask God to give you. ;)

Every Christian worth their salt has had at least one real crisis where they felt like God was nowhere to be found. It could have been a marriage that fell apart, or getting molested by a family member. It could be an addiction, or an accident, job loss or a myriad of other things that may or may not be caused by them.

I have been through them, my pastor has been through a few doozies and now we know that Mother Teresa had them as well. Simply because God looks like he's not paying attention and does not care, the opposite is true. He does see and He does care. He never promised us an easy life, we're going to have great times and horrible ones. I wish it weren't so, but it is. He did promise to be with us every step of the way.