Month: November 2007

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she doesn't get it … do we?

first & most important pam is back from the operation smile project she was on in honduras.

secondly, i ran across this today and it made me laugh. it’s an article about ashlee simpson postpoing her new album for fear of going up against american idol singer blake lewis. the part that makes me laugh is a quote from one of ms. simpson’s friends.

ashlee hates american idol, and she thinks the show makes stars out of nobodies, taking credibility away from real musicians

she thinks the show makes starts out of nobodies? apparently she doesn’t remember getting her start because of big sis’ and a reality t.v. show or maybe she’s forgotten about an internet petition to ban her from singing that made the circuit (or maybe she’s forgotten her dad pimping her and her sister out).

it’s sad when you see someone say or do something that is the exact opposite of reality. it’s even sadder when it is a body that is supposed to represent CHRIST. i know we all make mistakes. that’s just a part of the game. the problem to me is not so much when we followers of CHRIST make mistakes but rather when we are not humble enough to admit them or even the possibility of them. i’m not even really talking about sin issues here. rather it’s the egotism that i sometimes see within churches. i believe that JESUS is the way, the truth, and the life but i don’t believe that i understand or know HIM completely. while standing firm in my convictions i want to do so with a sense of humility and not arrogance because the day may come when i find out exactly how far away from GOD’s truth i am. i don’t think humility concerning our beliefs is in opposition to standing firm on our convictions. i believe JESUS (WHO i believe really did know TRUTH perfectly) stood on HIS convictions in humility. HE was able to converse and relate to people who completely disagreed with HIM while treating them with extreme respect. HE used the TRUTH as a means to bring people to the FATHER instead of as a means to pound people into the ground. the only people HE kind of even “pounded” on were the religious ones – who thought they already had the truth all sown up.

i hope we followers of CHRIST will “get it” more often than not.

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JESUS project

in the morning
if i was still in baton rouge and in youth ministry this would have been the first day of the annual fall retreat, the JESUS project, that we did at parkview. the JESUS project was always one of my favorite weekends of the year. for seven straight years it was an incredible weekend of pushing boundaries and having a great deal of fun doing it. as a matter of fact, if i was still there and doing the fall retreat we would be in the midst of two things: 1) a voluntary prayer labyrinth, and 2) a huge voluntary game of capture the flag at this very moment and about half of the adult leaders would probably be in the woods with water balloon slingshots launching water balloons at every kid that ran within their targeting range. ah the memories.

then of course, monday morning i would be sick. that pretty much happened every year too.

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the long and winding road

today i went to the monthly bay lakes associational pastor’s gathering. the meeting is in appleton, wisconsin which is about an hour and a half away from the stevens point area. usually i carpool with another pastor or two who live on the way there. because of these guys plans for the day carpooling wasn’t an option and so i was on the road solo. the good side of this was that i was able to listen to a couple of mp3 lecture recordings that were great.

here they are:
[display_podcast]

the first was a lecture of n.t. wright & anne rice – it’s here and it’s amazing. the second lecture was one by ron sider talking about the historic chance that stood before the church to be a real difference within poverty in america. it’s here and it’s incredible.

the only problem with listening to sider is that what he says has a tendency to refocus your priorities – which isn’t really a problem unless you’ve set you heart on something that obviously a large luxury. listening to ron i suddenly realize where the money really should go. thanks ron.

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darn jw

i’m a block of ice presently because i just spent an our on my door step talking with a jehovah’s witness. he wouldn’t come inside and apparently he hadn’t spoken before with someone who has a historical sense of theology of the trinity. being okay with mystery is a pretty decent answer to someone who believes that you have to be able to rationale explain one doctrine but can’t others. i’ll write more later (maybe) after i warm up.

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good curling

as i found out tonight at my first official full length curling bonspiel “good curling” and a handshake are the appropriate method of beginning and end a curling bonspiel. i had a blast tonight and thanks to some cheap slip on rubber all-weather shoe coverings i didn’t ever come close to falling and busting my butt like i did last week. it was a good evening and i will not be sore tomorrow.

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intro & glory

i am a firm believer in premarital counseling. this april i am officiating the first wedding that i have not been involved within the premarital counseling of the couple. some of you know haley and john, for the rest of you i’ll just tell you that they are great kids. i can’t do their premarital counseling because i’m in wisconsin and they are in missouri. the phone thing doesn’t work well for premarital counseling (at least for me) because i don’t believe premarital counseling is so much about me imparting knowledge, as though i was an expert, but rather about helping the couple to make sure that they have discussed and thought through some important aspects of marriage and that doesn’t work so well through a phone call. so another pastor is doing the counseling. i know him and trust him but i still decided that i wanted to make sure that a few subjects were covered so i decided to type up a few emails over the next few weeks and send them to john and haley.

since, i’m too tired to post anything else tonight i figured i would post what i sent them (if for no other reason than i’ll always know where it is if i ever need it again). so here’s the first one.

Haley & John,

I know Frank is doing your premarital counseling and I have no doubt that he will do a great job but since I’m obviously not there I don’t know exactly what he is covering and thus I thought I would send you a series of emails hitting a few of the things that I believe are most important for a great marriage. I am not sending you this because I think Frank won’t cover them (I actually am pretty confident that he will) but these things are better mentioned twice than missed. Therefore, I thought I would just send you emails hitting things you’ve probably already discussed.

I’ll start by recommending some books.

  • Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts – Les Parrott – Seven good questions and a good start for a lifetime of learning – you will have to continually learn because there are no earthly experts on marriage, only those with a little more or better experience. The finish line doesn’t happen until one of the dies or the Lord returns. We are all learning and will continue to learn through out our lives and marriages.
  • Celebration of Sex – Douglas E. Rosenau – It’s a good enough book that Pam and I give it as our standard wedding present. If you get it let me know if you get it (though I wouldn’t read it until right before the wedding and when you are separate – temptation is a big thing) because if not you’ll get it from Pam and I – Surprise.
  • Complete Financial Guide for Young Couple – Larry Burkett – This book is older but the concepts are still very true. You will have to adapt it to 2008 life but its the book I am most familiar with that covers newlywed finances.

So those are the books that I would initially recommend. Over the next several weeks I will send you each a quick email discussing what I would normally cover in a premarital counseling session. Of course, these letters will ultimately be incomplete because 1) there are no experts only those with a little more or better experience, 2) the premarital thing works best when it is a discussion (because I don’t have all the answers) and email is a primarily one sided form of communication.

So here goes.

1. Your marriage’s ultimate goal is to glorify and bear witness of our loving GOD.
I don’t mean by this that your marriage should look like a stupid CHRISTian drama. I once heard a young couple say that the thing they were most looking forward to on their honeymoon was sitting by a fire place and doing Bible study and praying for an hour or two before they did anything else. I told them that while that was a wonderful sentimental image I thought GOD would be most glorified if they honestly prayed “for that which we are about to receive make us truly thankful” and then got busy.

GOD gave us marriage and therefore it portrays part of the character of it’s CREATOR. There’s a reason that the GOD WHO is TRINITY was so concerned about Adam being alone and made a helpmate from his side. That reason is that our GOD is and loves relationship. Look in the New Testament and you’ll see over and over again that one of the main references for the relationship between CHRIST and the church is that of marriage. GOD does not choose HIS words lightly. Your marriage has the opportunity to be a living example of the relationship between JESUS and the church. Your relationship also has the opportunity to display the very image of GOD. In Genesis 1:27 says:

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

When you get married you will be “John” and you will be “Haley” and you will be “John & Haley.” In a very limited way you will be a living example of our Triune GOD.

I believe that is one of the reasons that our GOD is so serious about marriage – HE doesn’t take kindly to HIS image being tarnished.

You may have heard it said “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words
if necessary” (this quote is falsely attributed to Francis of Assissi). I think it is dang cool that when you love each other as GOD loves you will literally preach the good news of the kingdom of GOD with your marriage.

I hope this makes sense. If you have any thoughts, disagreements, or questions just email me back. A discussion would be so much better.

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NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i hadn’t even thought of “lost” until j.t. (blessed be his name) made this comment. i really want to be on the writer’s side in this issue but this cross is too much to bear.

evil television and film corporations i will blame you if i miss “lost.” beware satanic corporate types.

my run for the day
distance – 3 miles
time – 28:45
pace – 9:35/mile

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stupid is as stupid does

i need to preface this by saying that i have never been a fan of pat robertson.

i would love to say that i didn’t understand why robertson was endorsing rudy giuliani but unfortunately i believe that i do. it’s all about power. i’m not in robertson’s head so i can’t say that i know everything thing about why he does what he does but the only reason i can think of that an individual would announce his support for an individual who is opposed to the two issues that the individual had previously said were the most important issues for those who follow him (remember that he said 9/11 took place because of america giving in to gay rights and abortion) is for power. i’m guessing that robertson thinks giuliani has more of a chance of beating hillary than any other republican and that’s what really matters to pat. if his “principals” are getting in the way of his ultimate goal of the republicans winning then those “principals” need to be adjusted a little bit. it’s all about power.

of course, robertson is not the only one to have ever swapped course in the middle of the stream in order to win a goal that was different from the one he had been espousing. it’s just not something i’m very cool with and i try to avoid it.

what do rome and jerusalem have to do with one another? what does seeking political power over principals have to do with JESUS? i can’t see anything. i hope most other CHRISTians well the same way and that robertson’s influence on some will wane now that he is clearly seen for what he is.

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darn j.t. and his blessed name

j.t. (blessed be his name) posted a video on his blog explaining why the writers decided to strike. this would make me feel bad about wish they were not on strike if it was not for the fact that their strike has postponed “24.” i understand them wanting to get their due for their work but this is “24” we’re talking about. they really should have considered that before they went on strike. i find it hard to disagree with j.t. (blessed be his name) because he is a youth ministry god, but i do have to remind him that this strike is postponing “24” and that is simply not acceptable.

SIDE NOTE – for those who are curious my cute, intelligent, doctoral wife has made it to honduras safely. she will be there until the 18th while see helps with the operation smile project that is going on down there. if you wanted to keep her in your prayers we would both appreciate it greatly.