Thoughts from church: Revelation 5:1-14

Revelation 5:10 reads, "And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth." There are other places that mention Christians 'reigning' with Christ: 2 Timothy 2:12a ("If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.") and a few more spots in Revelation; I think there are similar verses elsewhere. What are we reigning over, if we're ALL reigning?

Verse 13 reads "And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”"

 The person who was preaching - he wasn't the regular pastor, I think he may be an intern - said that some people say this means the animals, and he doesn't know about that but anyway - and I'm sitting there thinking, people will ignore the black and white words on the page to keep animals in a subjugated position. Because if animals are capable of praising God - and throughout the Bible animals and the rest of creation DO praise God - can they really be kept in the role of dumb creatures that can be treated however we want to? Or do creatures that were made by and praise the same God that we do have worth of their own beyond what we assign to them, worth to God, worth that means they should be treated better than they are? That maybe God cares about them too and how they're treated, for they are His creatures and He hears their praises, too?

Finally, I don't remember what the context was, but he asked the question What has God done for you today? Which I think shows a very different theology than I what I have. I've noticed the same in some of my reading, too - 'love God because He is love and goodness' is in the same vein. I don't worship God because He does anything for me or because He is love and goodness or for any similar reason; I worship God because He is God and therefore worthy. He could do absolutely nothing for me ever and be cruel and capricious - He is still God and therefore worthy of worship. We're blessed that He is good, but we don't praise Him just because He's done something for us. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, was the context - he was talking about how we can write new songs of praise based on what God has done for us recently. He doesn't have to have done something for us recently - or ever - to deserve praise. He is worthy because He Is. Thinking further as I write, I think that kind of theology can really set people up for disappointment if they go through tough times where it doesn't seem that God is doing anything for them - if they've been told to love God because He loves them, and then they don't feel like they're experiencing that, what's to keep them believing?

What happened to the Church?

I read an article the other day in the December 2005 National Geographic about how Buddhism is growing here in America which said "Buddhism is gaining Western followers drawn by its ideals of pacifism, selflessness, and social action." And it makes me wonder, how did we let this happen? Our God is the Prince of Peace who calls us to care for the widows and orphans, and yet somehow we aren't the ones people see as peaceful and selfless. Somehow we let the focus get on to who's a bigger sinner instead of how can we help people? Somehow we've gotten the idea that being a Christian is all about who can yell loudest, who can point more fingers, who can build the bigger church rather than about taking up our crosses and going into the world to help people. What has happened to the church of Christ that all we're known for is condemning homosexuals and protesting at abortion clinics? What happened to the shining light of our good works in Matthew 5:13-16? What happened to the cheerful giver of 2 Corinthians 9:6-9? How on earth are the people who are called to be the salt and the light of the earth not the people seen to have ideals of selflessness and social action? How on earth are the people who are called to "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also" (Luke 6:27-29) not the people seen to have the ideal of pacifism? How have we allowed ourselves and each other to so misrepresent Christ that when people think of Christians, they don't think of the God of mercy and love, but only of hateful, proud, rule-bound people?