I mispell things!
the story – on it’s way back from the bahamas a norwegian cruise lines’ ship was struck by a freak 70 foot wave injuring four passengers and flooding 62 cabins with a foot of water. the ship docked in charleston, south carolina where 300 passengers decided to fly back home while 2,000 jumped back on the ship.
i think i would have been one of the 300.
dave barry has done another “play by play” on tonight’s 24 episode. it’s quite humorous. you can view it by CLICKING HERE.
i love flickr. if you are not familiar with flickr let me briefly describe the site. it is simply the best photo blog/sharing site on the internet. it’s a wonderful community within which to be involved in and i love it.
i loved them before but i love them even more after what they have done today. today, they added another year to my pro account that i purchased back in december. they also doubled the photo transfer amount that i had with my pro account and then gave me to “free” pro accounts to give away to friends. flickr has simply been a great experience to be involved in.
i was in a convenience store the other day and saw “pecan patties” for sale on the counter. it reminded me that i really don’t like the word “patty” it’s just on of those words that make me squirm when i hear it and the thought of something edible being called a “patty” just makes it all the worse. some words are just not meant to actually be used.
i haven’t quite finished it yet but after reading most of ron sider’s “the scandal of the evangelical conscience” i have to say that it is an incredible book. i’ve really been challenged by what i have read. it’s a strong call for CHRISTians to live the dramatic call of CHRIST within the real world.
ron sider is the founder of the evangelicals for social action and is a strong voice for social justice within the CHRISTian community.
i’ve also started reading “GOD’s politics : why the right gets It wrong and the left doesn’t get it” by jim wallis, the editor in chief of sojourners, and though i have only finished the first chapter within it i have been very impressed with it.
the annual church crawfish boil was today and as usual it was allot of fun. it was at least nice that the church staff won the annual church staff versus church deacons softball game. usually the deacons bring in a few “ringers” to kill us. i think the only reason we won was because the deacons were missing their “ringers.” of course, i’m okay with that because it still counts as a win.
the new york times > washington > frist set to use religious stage on judicial issue
i hate being lumped in with the people involved with this. why is it that conservative CHRISTians can be such incredible pains? i’m conservative in the majority of my believes and i really despise being associated with these lunatics simply by association of beliefs. why can’t we just calling these actions what they are … politics!
pure and simply that’s what they are. one party is trying to gain power over another party. it’s happened since the creation of our country. getting bush’s judges appointed is not a “holy war”. it’s not a battle that is going to save faith in america. in fact, CHRISTian faith has nothing to do with wether these judges get into office or not. so can we please quite acting like it does?
let me announce this for everyone to hear – unless you are handicapped or you have a small infant sitting by his/herself in your vehicle there is absolutely no reason for you to just leave your shopping cart anywhere within a parking lot. the purpose for all the cart corrals is for you to place your shopping carts in them.
i hate it when people just leave their carts strewn all over the parking lot.
i don’t usually ever criticize other churches – or at least i try not to. i figure that none of us actually get this CHRISTianity thing right and between all of us maybe we’ll at least do a decent job of worshiping CHRIST. yet this week i saw something that i just have to say something about and it concerns a church bookstore.
personally i am not a huge fan of church book stores. i actually would love church book stores if they really had anything to do with spiritual formation. my problem with church book stores is that nowadays they usually have nothing to do with spiritual formation at all. you won’t find classics of CHRISTian thought or books dealing with the depth and mystery of CHRIST within most church book stores. nope, what you’ll find is a bunch of self-help crap and dumb trinkets for sale. that’s where my criticism comes in. in my opinion church bookstores or only slightly better than lifeway book stores which are only slightly better than family CHRISTian bookstores.
this past wednesday one of the teens within our student ministry showed me a stick of lip balm. it was custom printed “God Chicks” lip balm with the church’s name on it. i figured it was just a trinket that the church gave out to get people to remember some message or event that they were doing. personally, i think giving things out that remind people of what the church has done or is doing is a great idea. we need to help people remember significant times within their lives and small everyday items are a great way to do that. of course, i was wrong about the church giving the lip balm out to remind people. nope, the church book store was actually just selling the lip balm just for the purpose of having something to sell. she said it had been given to her by a friend who saw it in the church book store and thought she would like it so she bought it for her. what in the world does lip balm have to do with the kingdom? i mean give me a break. what does selling specially printed lip balm have to do with spreading the gospel? this idea has to be even dumber than “testamints. this comes from a good, strong church that i would expect better from.
why is it that we feel the need to sell junk in the name of CHRIST?
if you really want to see something that will make you sick go to christianthings.com. the site starts off with a flash presentation of john 3:16. i guess the implication is that GOD so loved the world that HE freed us to buy crap.
awhile back for a variety of reasons my family and i decided to get rid of all but the most basic cable package. we now only have abc, nbc, cbs, fox, upn, pbs, and wgn (along with 7 or 8 home shopping and public service stations). this means that if a show is not on a major network i simply can’t see it until it reaches dvd. i’ve seen a few rereuns of the family guy but i’ve never been able to see many of the episodes. yet so many of the people i hang around with talk non-stop about the show. they say it is better than “the simpsons“. i found that statement hard to believe so i decided to rent one of the dvds and watch the show.
so now i have watched the dvd. while i think it is a funny show i would by no means compare it to “the simpsons.” it’s simply not in the same category. “the family guy” is a good, funny show. “the simpsons” is the greatest animated show ever and one of the best televisions shows ever. that’s the difference between the two.
awhile back pam, my wife, found the pastor’s retreat network – an organization whose purpose is to provide sabbath times for pastors and their spouses. they believe in this so strongly that they provide the service for free.
even though the room and board is free for pastors i would still be willing to bet that they are very rarely “booked up.” it seems to me that we pastors do not do a very good job of “sabbath-ing.” we have so absorbed the culture of this world that we think that part of our gospel mandate is to be constantly busy. we have to spread the good news. we have to shepherd our people. there’s so much for us to do. we are very busy people?
was JESUS busy? when we work so hard at “doing” things for the gospel do we convey JESUS very well.