Comments on: Suicide Bombers and Old Evangelical Men http://findinggrace.com/blog/2007/01/16/suicide-bombers-and-old-evangelical-men/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:50:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: kimobelton http://findinggrace.com/blog/2007/01/16/suicide-bombers-and-old-evangelical-men/#comment-272 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:09:33 +0000 http://findinggrace.com/blog/2007/01/16/suicide-bombers-and-old-evangelical-men/#comment-272 I wonder if the 'older' muslim men feel that they have already done enough and don't feel the need to make such a sacrifice, or whether there are doubts in their own minds about their own faith. I am an older christian man (43 yrs), but I am relatively young in my faith. The truth is that I have done very little in my life to serve Jesus. While I know that salvation is free, I am beginning to learn that following Christ will cost me everything (my time, my energy, my money, my obedience, my trust). If I had alot of worldly 'stuff' or was a person in a position of power, I know it would be more difficult to follow Christ. The difficulty of this is illustrated very well in what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19: Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.' " "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matt 19:16-23) Not being a rich man, I cannot say that I know how difficult this would be. But, I know that no matter what, I would be better off by being obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, I don't know how I would be better off by blowing myself and other innocent people up in the name of allah. With this in mind, I can understand why older muslim men are not willing to strap explosives onto themselves for the honor of giving their lives for their cause, but I cannot understand why older Christian men are not 'knocking down the doors of the church to give 10, 20, 40 hrs a week for a cause that Jesus laid at our doorstep and a cause which has direct eternal implications'. And just so you know that I am not being self-righteous, the above statement applies to me as well. I have no excuse. I wonder if the ‘older’ muslim men feel that they have already done enough and don’t feel the need to make such a sacrifice, or whether there are doubts in their own minds about their own faith.

I am an older christian man (43 yrs), but I am relatively young in my faith. The truth is that I have done very little in my life to serve Jesus. While I know that salvation is free, I am beginning to learn that following Christ will cost me everything (my time, my energy, my money, my obedience, my trust). If I had alot of worldly ’stuff’ or was a person in a position of power, I know it would be more difficult to follow Christ. The difficulty of this is illustrated very well in what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 19:

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man inquired.

Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
(Matt 19:16-23)

Not being a rich man, I cannot say that I know how difficult this would be. But, I know that no matter what, I would be better off by being obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, I don’t know how I would be better off by blowing myself and other innocent people up in the name of allah. With this in mind, I can understand why older muslim men are not willing to strap explosives onto themselves for the honor of giving their lives for their cause, but I cannot understand why older Christian men are not ‘knocking down the doors of the church to give 10, 20, 40 hrs a week for a cause that Jesus laid at our doorstep and a cause which has direct eternal implications’.

And just so you know that I am not being self-righteous, the above statement applies to me as well. I have no excuse.

]]> by: mikalik2 http://findinggrace.com/blog/2007/01/16/suicide-bombers-and-old-evangelical-men/#comment-271 Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:38:37 +0000 http://findinggrace.com/blog/2007/01/16/suicide-bombers-and-old-evangelical-men/#comment-271 Hey I was just downloading a past message I missed and saw the link for this blog. This is really cool, you should promote this more in the bulletin or something. I think this blog could be a great place to trade thoughts with everyone. Just a thought from my experience in Iraq on older men: they're lazy and apathetic. It seems in Iraq the older you get (males anyways) the more right you have to do nothing. I don't know if this same apathy is felt or accepted generally in the US. Could that be a contributing factor to "laziness" in spreading the word? Hey I was just downloading a past message I missed and saw the link for this blog. This is really cool, you should promote this more in the bulletin or something. I think this blog could be a great place to trade thoughts with everyone. Just a thought from my experience in Iraq on older men: they’re lazy and apathetic. It seems in Iraq the older you get (males anyways) the more right you have to do nothing. I don’t know if this same apathy is felt or accepted generally in the US. Could that be a contributing factor to “laziness” in spreading the word?

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