tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post2270930494731974427..comments2023-05-25T07:17:05.918-04:00Comments on Abide in My Word: Multi-Level Marketing ChristianityRev. Thomas C. Messer, SSPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740553600700598394noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post-90148532688513126022015-03-03T14:16:38.664-05:002015-03-03T14:16:38.664-05:00ACN is one of the current biggest MLM out there sc...ACN is one of the current biggest MLM out there scamming people. Make sure to look into it before signing up...<br /><br /><a href="http://acnpyramidscheme.com" rel="nofollow">http://acnpyramidscheme.com</a>Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00649575619337877239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post-36173808891455304002014-06-06T00:14:13.596-04:002014-06-06T00:14:13.596-04:00Network marketing is best for increasing marketing...Network marketing is best for increasing marketing of the product.<b><a href="http://www.tomspry.com/" rel="nofollow">Direct Selling</a></b> is the best product that I had ever used. <br />Tomspryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13639109554415670161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post-10006885478655924402011-10-26T07:52:40.549-04:002011-10-26T07:52:40.549-04:00"While the allure of the service is its willi...<i>"While the allure of the service is its willingness to boldly challenge the status quo, the heart of the message is what keeps people coming back."</i> -- Michigan in Touch magazine<br /><br />The allure is scarcely arising from a <i>challenge</i> to the status quo. The welcome message of Messiah (MI) assures the reader that the congregation resorts to means which connect with "our culture," means which will make a "positive difference in this generation."<br /><br />Unfortunately, our culture happens to be crude in taste, jaded and sodden in spirit and thus much given to things which propel the senses into over-drive ... the louder and more eye-popping the stimuli, the better. This is a generation that won't easily accept the wisdom (and the Living, sacramental <i>Reality</i>) testified to by the cultural odd-ball Habakkuk: "... the Lord is in His holy Temple; let all the earth be silent before Him (Hab 2:20)!" It seems that for this culture, catechesis ought to be more deem of greater iumportance than indulgence of unbeliever whims. <br /><br />Traditionally, we've never been good with indulgences or "praise bands." Leave those things to the Romans and the Genevans, respectively. As the old bromide maintains: "If you can't do, teach." <br /><br />Luther concluded, rightfully, that we Christians are to fear and love God. Note the order, which is probably grounded on the thought that "the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of Wisdom." Wisdom is to know Christ as the Love Who was slain for us, while we were yet mired in sin unto eternal death, and all the while His sure enemy. So a Godly fear, a holy awe and respect, is a good thing to direct towards a God who is just ... and yet who mercifully spares our hides, anyway.<br /><br />Actually, come to think about it, I'm not sure what sort of fear a raucous "praise band" can generate, exactly, beyond a fear of contracting a premature neural deafness. Still, you never do hear much about "Confiteor bands" among those Lutherans "boldly challenging the status quo," do you. Why is that?<br /><br />The fact is, the ancient Church has <i>already</i> experimented with being "in-tune" with the culture. The grand result was the dysfunctional congregation located at Corinth, which let it all hang out. I'm pretty sure this church possessed, if not actually invented, the "Who cares? Who's nXt?" attitude of marketing to the community. The laxity eventuated in a Supper transformed into a gluttonous means of expressing class warfare; the liturgy into a babble of incomprehensibility and a feminist megaphone; a congregation inclined to wink at sexual incest; and a <i>flock</i> of concerned letters from Paul and Clement.<br /><br />I hope we are capable of learning a lesson.Michael L. Anderson, M.D., Ph.Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13158953802996685938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post-61891535931571063902011-10-21T20:34:58.279-04:002011-10-21T20:34:58.279-04:00We're supposed to be like these congregations ...We're supposed to be like these congregations yet many of us who serve small congregations have nowhere near the resources to do such a thing. Such endeavors are indicative of the culture that we live in - decadent and over the top.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2978485750390455025.post-44207042536323441262011-10-21T20:15:44.862-04:002011-10-21T20:15:44.862-04:00Another fine post. I don't understand how the...Another fine post. I don't understand how theology and practice diverge so greatly, and yet that receives accolades. I guess there are agendas everywhere, and that is really just pathetic. What you win people with is what you win them to, and if it's only an inch deep and a mile wide, it can dry up pretty fast in the heat. People leave the inch-deep churches on campus and come to the Catholics or to us. I'm not endorsing Rome by any means, but they, like us, do not hold anything back in preaching and teaching. The Word does the work, and ignites a hunger in people so strong that when they get the smallest taste, nothing else will satisfy, and they will come back not because of an impressive show; not because they know what they have to do next; but precisely because they do not know what comes next and they are yearning for more of the peace that passes all understanding. Absolution is addictive, in the best possible sense!Jon Bakkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16513172813708585923noreply@blogger.com