The following is a copy of the letter the Anglican Church in Uganda sent to the ECUSA when the latter was going to send a delegation and financial aid to the installation of a new archbishop of Uganda. You can find a PDF version of the letter here. You can also read my post about this letter the church in Uganda sent to the ECUSA.

An Open Letter from the Church of the Province of Uganda in Africa to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America

Tags: Anglican, church, convictions, discipleship, ethics, faithfulness, Gene Robinson, morals, open letter, Uganda

What would it take to make you compromise your convictions? Maybe not a complete abandonment of your faith, but just a little giving in to some course of action that you weren’t sure was OK? Would you do it if it meant that you would fit in better at school? If it meant that you could keep your job? If it meant that you would get an A on your next test? If it meant that you could download free music or games from the Internet?

Here was the situation: The Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) ordained an actively gay bishop names Gene Robinson. The Anglican Church, which is almost identical to the Episcopal Church, in Uganda decided to sever its relationship with the ECUSA. When the church in Uganda was ready to install a new archbishop, the ECUSA planned to send a delegation to attend the event. They also offered to send financial aid that would relieve the suffering of many desperately poor people. Note to Americans: you have not seen poverty in this country. Some poor people here have it bad, but not like other places in the world.

Here is how the Rev. Canon Stanley Ntagali responded to the proposed delegation and financial assistance:

If we fall silent about what you have done promoting unbiblical sexual immorality and we overturn or ignore the decision to declare a severing of relationship with ECUSA, poor displaced persons will receive Aid. Here is our response: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for sale, even among the poorest of us who have no money. Eternal life, obedience to Jesus Christ, and conforming to His Word are more important.

The Word of God is clear that you have chosen a course of separation that leads to spiritual destruction. Because we love you, we cannot let that go unanswered. If your hearts remain hardened to what the Bible clearly teaches, and your ears remain deaf to the cries of other Christians, genuine love demands that we do not pretend that everything is normal. As a result any delegation you send cannot be welcomed, received, or seated. Neither can we share fellowship or even receive desperately needed resources. If, however, you repent and return to the Lord, it would be an occasion of great joy.

That, friends, is playing hardball. Read over that response one more time and let it sink in.

Many people want tee ball Christianity. The rules aren’t too strict. It’s mostly about relationships and fun. No one really gets hurt. No one takes it too seriously. That’s not the type of Christianity Jesus taught. Let Ntagali’s response inspire you to disown all “rights” to comfort, acceptance, and worldly ambition, in order that you may follow Him who said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

If you’re interested, you can read the whole letter Uganda sent to the ECUSA.

Tags: Anglican, Christian living, church, convictions, discipleship, ethics, Gene Robinson, morality, rights

Today, I heard two versions of “O Holy Night.” The first is, well…I don’t know what to say. Actually, I’m downright speechless. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Give this rendition of O Holy Night a listen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though. I think it’s a joke, but I’m not 100% sure… Wow. This is the worst singing I have ever heard. Really. I mean it.

If you’re interested find out more of the background of this horrible rendition of “O Holy Night”.

The second version should more than make up for what you just heard. Listen to Celtic Woman perform “O Holy Night” once you recover from listening to the first version. Wait for a minute while the page loads the music. Again, wow, but in a good way. This is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.

Have a wonderful Christmas. Remember that we celebrate God becoming a man to die for our sins.

The Son of God
Became the Son of Man
So that we, the sons of men
Might become sons of God.

Tags: Christmas, humor, incarnation, songs

“The heavens declare the glory of God…”

Psalm 19:1

We have been talking about how we can change. The Bible says that we become like God when we “see” God. Of course, no one can really see God in this life and live (Exodus 33:20). Nevertheless, when we see God’s glory, it changes us.

Can we see God’s glory in His creation? Indeed we can. Scripture says,

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

Romans 1:19-20

This is what is called “general revelation.” God reveals Himself to all people at all times in what He has made. We can learn certain things about God by looking at the works of His hands.

Karl Barth wrote a book entitled, No! The exclamation point was actually part of the title. I’m not kidding. His point? That God didn’t reveal Himself in nature. Barth is wrong here. Scripture clearly states that God shows Himself in His handiwork. Because He does, it is our task to study it as well as we can so we can learn about God. After all, we were created to know and glorify God!

So what can we learn? Romans 1 says we clearly discern God’s eternal power and divine nature. So clearly, in fact, that those who deny this have no excuse for doing so (Romans 1:19-20). Psalm 19 tells us that the skies show that God is glorious. Whenever we look at nature, we should see something of God there. If we do not, something is wrong with us. Perhaps we are not paying attention. We might not care like we should. We could even miss these lessons about God because we suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Take some time this week to look at the stars after night falls. Do you know how close the nearest star is? Just over four light years away! ¹ That means that it takes light four years to get from there to here. Let me help you realize the immensity of that distance. Light can travel all the way around the earth’s equator roughly eight times per second! 3600 seconds in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year, 4 years. Get the picture? It’s rougly 24,937,736,300,000 miles away. ² And that star is our nearest neighbor. Our galaxy alone is 100,000 light years across. That’s 587,863,000,000,000,000 miles. Scientists estimate that there are 125,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe (and that was back in 1999). ³ If you do the math, the universe is HUGE!

God made all of this. What a testimony of His awesome power! Psalm 8 tells us that all of this is the work of His fingers. Finger work does not indicate hard labor! Creating the universe took absolutely no effort on God’s part. It didn’t wear Him out. God simply spoke, and the whole universe came to be.

We’ll look more at God’s glory in His creation at a microscopic level soon!

Tags: beholding, change, creation, glory, God