Month: January 2005

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god’s politics

i receive updates from sojurners, an evangelical CHRISTian political website with a leftward lean to it. in some of the recent email updates sojo has been pushing the book of it’s editor-in-chief jim wallis. i haven’t read the book yet so it’s hard for me to recommend it BUT i have seen an interview with jim wallis on the daily show (go to the site and look under “celebrity interviews”). i liked what he said to jon stewart.

in the interview jim wallis states that he doesn’t think that JESUS first concern would be a capital gains tax cut. some would say that the capital gains tax cut is something that will help the economy and others would disagree with that. i of course, i have my view on the subject but i think the point jim wallis was making is great. why are so many evangelical CHRISTians confusing the republican parties’ agenda with the principals of CHRIST. as follower of JESUS we would be concerned about what and who JESUS was concerned with. JESUS was concerned with the weak (and HE realized that we all are basically weak).

why have we turned JESUS into the GOD of the rich and powerful? seems to me that we CHRISTians don’t do very good when we have power or connections with powerful people. we are believers in the MESSIAH of the marginalized. we do so much better when we are on the side of those who would get pushed out of the picture otherwise.

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license to sit

here is some interesting conceptual art dealing with the growing fear of “rent wear” which is where a company reaches into your home, through the use of technology, and bills you based on the household goods you use. it’s not happening yet but it is a fear that some worry about based on where we are right now with internet usage within our homes. the artist behind “license to sit” is cyborg researcher steve mann and here’s how he describes the piece:

    the internet chair has magnetic stripe card reader and spikes that retract when a seating license is downloaded from a license server in response to input from the card reader incoroprated into the chair. the license server is in the 19 inch relay rack behind the internet chair. the license to sit last five seconds and then a buzzer goes off warning the person seated to get up. after the buzzer the spikes re-deploy.

interesting world huh?

link

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signs


pamela and i are presently watching signs by m. night shyamalan. i love this movie. in fact i really like all of shyamalan’s movies. i watched the village earlier this week. i love the fact that so many people were perturbed by knowing so early in the movie that the “monster” is fake. of course, the movie wasn’t about the monster, it was about the fact that they were trying to “hide away” from the evils of the world outside the village. the movie was a discussion of the nature of evil and the nature of humanity. the “elders” of the village had to deal with the fact that they had brought evil with them into the village when they brought humans who had the GOD given freedom to choose evil.

of course, my favorite m. night shyamalan movie is unbreakable. the development of a hero. now that’s a good movie.

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wilderness time

i just finished wilderness time: a guide for spiritual retreat by emilie griffin. i started it for our sabbath retreat but i really only read the parts that dealt with groups so that i could focus on other books that lent more to the sabbath retreat itself. since the retreat i’ve finished the book. it was quite good. it is definitely about personal spiritual retreats but it did have some good suggestions that helped formulate the sabbath. i’m going to use some of it’s suggestions for my personal sabbath retreat. the best part about the book is actually an appendix that has outlines for 1 day, 3 day, and 7 days spiritual retreats. it’s a very good basic plan to an organized spiritual retreat.

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liar, liar , liar? maybe?

it’s thursday night and the the aprentice 3 is on so pamela and i are watching it. i love the show but i think donald trump is probably a jerk (i mean he wants people to refer to him as “the donald”. what type of joke is that). tonight he was asked by one of the contestants on the “net worth” team about an urban legend concerning trump paying off the mortgage of a good samaritan’s house to thank him for helping trump while his limo was stranded. trump was asked to his face if this was true and trump said it was with out giving any details.

for years similar legends have gone around concerning several celebrities. it’s a good story but snopes has debunk the story again and again. snopes has listed an article concern this story about trump since july 30, 2001. a full three and a half years before trump’s words tonight. according to snopes the legend is false. i guess the event could have happened since 2001, thus moving it from legend to fact, but i personally figure trump is trying to get some free good publicity.

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i need your shoes

i need your shoes.

well not really any old shoes. i need specific shoes. you see this is not a shoe collection or gathering. nope this is an act of worship. i need shoes that you were wearing when you experienced GOD in a significant manner. it could be that you were wearing those shoes during an incredible moment of worship, or maybe when you felt completely alone and didn’t even feel GOD’s presence yet still you knew HE was there, or maybe you were wearing those shoes when you felt HIS comfort. it doesn’t matter what the story involves as long an experience of GOD is at the center of it. if the shoes weren’t worn by you during an experience with the LORD then i will gladly give them to the salvation army for you but i don’t need them for this worship service. it’s the stories that are most important.

if you have shoes that fit the above category and wouldn’t mind giving them to me for a worship service in march i would greatly appreciate it. i need the shoes and the story of the experience. after we use the shoes within the worship service we will take them with us on our beautiful feet mission trip so other people can experience GOD in those same shoes.

anyways, thanks!

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shoes for the journey

johnny baker is doing an “instillation” that is pure genius . he asking for shoes from all around the world that have experiences of GOD linked to them. it’s an amazing idea. in fact, it is so amazing that after i agreed to send a pair of shoes of my own to the cause i quickly sent out an email to all those associated with the parkview youth ministry asking them to send me their shoes and the stories of encounters with GOD that are associated with those shoes. we will use them as part of a worship service in march and then pass those shoes on to others at beautiful feet, a homeless ministry that we work with every spring, in hopes that the recipients will also have amazing encounters with GOD while wearing those same shoes.

you can read johnny baker’s idea on this for yourself here.

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i want one

pure and simple – i want one of these puppies. the macmini is just dang cool. i don’t usually go for buying something just because it is cool – but this is cool and cheap and that makes up for allot (costs $499). i’ve fallen in love with my powerbook and i would love to have one or two of these “minis” hooked up around the house. if i ever get around to buying another computer before they come out with something better than the mini then i will purchase one of these little buggers.

stats are:

  • 1.25 or 1.4 ghz powerpc g4 processor
  • 256 mb ram – supports up to a gig
  • superdrive – dvd burner
  • wifi installed
  • ati radeon 9200 with 32mb of ddr sdram
  • 40 or 80 gig harddrive
  • firewire, usb 2, etc
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the sabbath retreat

francis-cookingthis past weekend i took some of our 11th & 12th graders to lake rosemound for an experiment in youth ministry. we had our first ever “sabbath”. in scripture GOD commands that we “sabbath” (or rest) “unto HIM”. we are supposed to stop and rest not just because we need to but also because it is a way of saying that we trust in GOD. resting is hard because we would rather trust our own hands and abilities than trust in a GOD WHO sometimes says “stop working”.

yet american culture is one in which work is worshipped. we love to work. adults and students love to work. so resting, really resting and not just swapping to working on something else, is difficult for us. we feel guilty if we are not doing something. so we ignore our physical, emotional, and spiritual need to rest. if we ever actually do take time off from the “rat race” that is going on around us we turn that time off into a time in which we work on other things. just so we will stay busy.

so the “sabbath” was about resting. we spent allot of time in silence, we spent allot of time doing nothing, we spent allot of time focused on only one passage of scripture and putting ourselves into that scripture. in other words we had a “sabbath”. truthfully it was not easy. it’s really easy to just do something, not really because anything needs to be done, but rather because we feel the need to do something, anything to keep from really being still.

it was a great weekend.

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the good ole days?

i was listening to a local radio station yesterday that was extolling the virtues of the “good ‘ole days”. they were talking about the 50s and early 60s with fond memories. the “good ‘ole days” were days when you could leave your front door unlocked, you didn’t have to worry about your kids being kidnapped or molested, and teen agers never really got into any real trouble.

WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!

the “good ‘ole days” never really existed. bad things happened even back then. robberies still happened, kids were still kidnapped, and teenagers stilled screwed up. i mean just look at west side story. apparently during the “good ‘ole days” they even fought while singing. who knew snapping could be so dangerous.

yet even if none of those things happened during the “good ‘ole days”, even if you could actually leave your door unlocked, trust your kids being outside, and not worry about your teen’s drinking or doing drugs (all of which i think is actually a “pipe dream” about the past). even if none of those modern evils existed back in the 50s and 60s there was still at least one over riding evil that we no longer have – organized societal racism. remember that the “good ‘ole days” were the days when entire segments of our population were excluded from the “american dream” merely because of their skin color. no that’s not evil is it? our government was prejudice, our towns were prejudice, our society and culture was prejudice, we were prejudice. i believe that JESUS despises racism. i believe that HE is offended when someone, who was made in HIS image, is treated as an inferior.

we still have racism. i’m not trying to say that we have eliminated that evil. i know that we still have problems with treating people different merely because of their skin color. yet in 2005 racism is no longer tolerated in an organized, societal manner within the u.s. that alone, if nothing else, is enough to make these present days the “good ‘ole days.”