Faith Falters

Is the church dead?

2009-03-12T15:30:00.001-07:00

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html

I found this article interesting. I want to disagree with it completely but as I read it I just have to take many of his comments to heart. What do you think?

Why I'm afraid of Jesus Christ's return

2008-07-15T12:35:00.001-07:00

What? I was raised that you are supposed to wish for Christ's return to this earth, you know Revelations and everything. It's a good thing right? Rapture, Jesus rules the planet and once and for all defeats Satan. I hear all about it and am supposed to be ready for it and excited about it...

I'm Not!

Here is the problem as I see it. A little over 2000 years ago there was a belief that a Messiah would come. He was, they felt going to crush all the opponents they had. He was going to rule the world and begin a Golden Age for God's people. That's not how it happened! That's my problem. God absolutely fulfilled his promises. He did what he said-- it was just that his followers didn't understand what he said.

So now go forward a few thousand years and here we are. We believe Jesus will return and that he is going to crush all our opponents and that we will begin a new era with him in Heaven as he will now rule the Heavens and the Earth. We read it in the scriptures, we understand it and we know what it says. But my problem is will it really happen that way?

The real problem to me isn't whether it happens the way I think it's going to happen or not. Basically I believe God is in charge and he can do it however he wants to do it and when all is said and done it will be clear that God absolutely fulfilled his promises... to me and to everyone else. It doesn't matter one bit if it happens the way I believed it would happen. I know that what does happen will be God's will and that it will be right and good. The real problem is if I am alive when this happens will I recognize it? That is critical to me. When Jesus came most of the people that studied the scriptures and were sure they knew what was going to happen were wrong. But there were some who were open to God's Will and recognized it when it did happen. There were some very important guys who recognized it when they saw it and made the correct choice. These people didn't say it HAD to be a certain way.

Making the correct choices every step of the way and finishing up this life having made the correct choices is key. I hope I will recognize God when I see him and recognize his work as it is done! I hope I don't have my mind made up that he will come as a King and rule and not be able to recognize him has a child or even as a baby. I sure hope I make the right choices because if I know anything they probably won't be as easy as they seem.

Technorati Tags: Jesus return,Revelations,Rapture

What's with Love

2007-10-04T08:44:00.001-07:00

LOVE...

It is not everything but it is the most important thing. Love should be my most important asset. It's not tax deductible but luckily it isn't taxable at all either. Love doesn't cost any money but it will cost everything else. Love will get you through every challenge. True Love that is!

What! There is Love that isn't TRUE? Yes, that which is evil in the world wants to dilute the power of Love. At times Love is even redefined. We say making Love which is really just Sex. Sex does not equal Love... but it can be a great expression of Love. It often is just something physical, which Love is not. You can express Love by cleaning the house or washing the car but those aren't Love. Love can be created without any of that.

Love is not what you feel for Ice Cream or Chocolate. That is a dilution of Love. Love is only between spiritual beings. Spiritual beings don't have to feel love they can feel a diluted form or they can feel lust or they can feel indifference.

Love will sacrifice but it will also be greatly rewarded. You can't even count the wealth generated by true Love. If you have it you value it dearly.

Love is created from nothing. It doesn't seem to come from anywhere, there is no formulae for it and it is not on the Periodic Chart of Elements (Lv). Since Love is created from nothing there is nothing to kill, it can not die. Love will endure. With Love--- you will endure.

You need Love. If you don't have Love life is pointless. Because of this seek Love. You can find Love anywhere on this earth it is all around. It isn't flashy however and if you are not careful you can miss it. Look harder!!! You can find it. If you do find some keep looking, you aren't done yet. There is more Love. Always more Love to find. Even when you have tons there is more. Keep searching, Keep trying, get so much that you have to give some of it away because of the abundance.

Repeat Process.

What does a church look like?

2007-08-13T14:49:00.001-07:00

This is something I have been thinking about for a while. I've got a number of ideas on the subject:

The Non-Church Church.
The Late Night Church
Multi-site Churches, they are all the rage but how are they different from a denomination?
Church on the Internet
Convenience Store Churches

These are some of the ideas I have had in a cute title and maybe I'll write some of these as well. For now I want to ask what is a church? There are many groups that call themselves churches. The church I believe is undergoing come cultural changes and will continue to do so in order to make itself reach more people.

But many churches today all have a certain look. They have a building or more than one building. These buildings are all on a piece of property or sometimes more than one piece. People drive or walk to the building come in to a large auditorium, they sing songs, listen to somebody speak and maybe... hopefully talk to a few people on the way back home. People with many different beliefs all do the same thing. You could walk in and participate and often it would take a while or maybe even weeks before you realize a church believes different than you do, or different than the last church you went to.

So would Peter or Paul walk into a church today and say, "this feels like church"? Seems to me the way the church has become is far, far different than what their experience was. Church has adapted to culture as well as enjoyed success. The churches that are started in somebody's living room may feel more normal to the old Apostles. Could also be that the Bible Studies that meet at coffee shops or restaurants or in a park would seem more "normal" for the experience of a couple thousand years ago.

Even though many of us attend the modern church there are churches that meet on the beaches of Hawaii and Mexico. There are churches that meet in movie theaters.

So how far can you push the IDEA of church and have it still be ok? Can you leave out the worship service? Could you for that matter leave out the sermon and add a video sit-com? Could you leave out the offering but charge admission? Does a church have to operate as a Non-profit organization? I've got some ideas but I hope to hear others.

What does church LOOK like?

True Friend Disease

2007-08-07T11:32:00.001-07:00

Last night we were driving into Seattle to take my daughter to her Aunt and Uncle's so she could do child sitting for her cousins, they are much younger than she. We were driving across the 520 bridge and looking out over Lake Washington. It was after 8pm which this time of the year up here is when the sun is beginning to go down on the horizon. It is the time of the evening we call Twilight. It is not only beautiful but it is also an emotional and maybe even a spiritual boost to experience a twilight like this.

I have a great friend that I have known since Jr. High (which is a long time). He has often proclaimed, "twilight is my favorite time of the day". I agree with him whole-heartedly. And for some reason at that time of the day I think of him. I think his love of that time of the day has rubbed off on me. A true friend will do that to you. Their likes become your likes. Because of the deep relationship that you build and the respect you have for them you begin to see things from their perspective.

Maybe twilight is just a universally wonderful time of the day but I would like to think that it is special to me because it is special to my friend. I believe that a good friend changes who you are... and that's a good thing.

Could you spread the "Good News" without a Bible?

2007-08-03T16:05:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. I asked a number of people the question. This is kind of a series I'm doing on mixing or messing things up. I have a number of different thoughts on this topic but the question that sums it all up for me is that "Could you spread the 'Good News' without a Bible?"

Why would you want to? You may ask. After all the Bible is a pretty amazing book. There are a number of ways to look at this book. Most of Christianity considers it basically a Love Letter from God. In this Love Letter God spells out all the "realities" of our personalities. He acknowledges that we are not at all perfect and yet he still LOVES us and will always do so no matter what. In addition he also LOVES the person next to you so you may as well treat them with some respect. There is a lot more in it than that of course but if you view it through that lens you would be doing well... I Believe!

Even if you take a colder approach to the Bible and say that it is simply a collection of Letters, Songs, Historical Docs written by multiple authors over the course of thousands of years and that God has not particularly inspired these words it would still be a pretty amazing Book. The true Cynic would say that the whole thing was written by some early church fathers after Constantine made Christianity the State Religion. Even if that were true which is pretty difficult to support at least on the Old Testament side, it would still be a pretty amazing book to still be in circulation and to have fooled so many people for so long.

So hopefully you accept that this is a unique book in all of history?

The point I'm making is if we are trying to witness or share Good News with people they don't necessarily accept this book with the same authority that we do. It would be like trying to prove the Law of Gravity with a textbook written by ME. Well ok not quite that bad but still you will find people that know the passages of scripture better than you do but don't hold it in the same regard. If that is true they probably have a better argument against believing than you do for believing.

Now there are the other kind of people that know nothing about the Bible. Even in churches you will find very few people that actually read or have ever read the Bible. They just don't. I went to what we commonly call a "Bible School" for college and even in that crowd I found few people that had read the book from cover-to-cover, every begat and all. Only a few people read the Bible! It's sad really but true. So what are we proving when we learn 4 or 5 scriptures to throw at somebody to prove that they are going to hell unless they follow steps 2, 3 and 4!!

Read the Bible, Memorize the scriptures, let them influence and change your life-- But share the change that a certain Love Affair has made in YOUR own life and I believe that is more powerful. Sure have a scripture in mind when you are talking to somebody but don't quote it or throw in Thee's and Thou's accidentally. Tell people your story... then once the Affair has started for them hopefully they will want to read the Love Letters. Turn away from being an Ugly Christian to a person who is beaming the effects of that Love on your face. That will attract people and that will hopefully start a more earnest desire to read this Book we call the Bible.

Progress - when life goes by too fast

2007-06-15T10:40:00.001-07:00

Well I'm sitting here and thinking boy it's been a long time since I have written a post for this blog. Sure it's because -- I've been busy. So what! Life is busy for everyone.

So I was thinking what should I write about? After such a delay! I came up with Progress. I should probably look up the definition but I'm thinking of progress as "accomplishing what I wish to accomplish". So have I?

Well I know for a fact from many years of experience that if I keep on a routine each day but only do maintenance I'm not going to see much change.

Example... hum I'm thinking.

Ok so let's say I have a goal in my back yard to have a swimming pool. So every week I wake up on Saturday and go outside and mow the lawn and weed the gardens and blow the lawn debree off the deck. This is all a stretch because I rent and so therefore I could never build a swimming pool in the backyard and anything other than portable would be dumb. Also I definitely don't wake up each Saturday ready to mow and weed, etc. The point is that if I don't make any progress toward the pool it ain't going to happen. Now the yard would look nice it doesn't from mowing etc but the pool won't just magically appear. Does that make sense?

I hope it does make sense, but the point is that certainly it's easy to see that the pool isn't going to ever get built if I don't start digging and then take the next step of whatever it takes to build a pool. Likewise if I have a desire to be a better Christian but don't pray, read Bible, fellowship with others, etc. it ain't going to happen. In case you were wondering this is going to be an ouch for me as I do about as well on those tasks as on getting up every Saturday morn to mow the lawn, why would I be surprised about how my spiritual lawn looks?

I actually wish to improve my abilities in written communication. Why? Well because I want to communicate better. I actually have a hope that I can become more efficient by being a better writer. I believe I can help other people through writing and I believe I can enhance the businesses my customers own by giving them good stuff to read. Sure I want to do a nice job of talking too but I've spent a lot of time talking on the phone, teaching computer classes, etc. I wouldn't say I'm good at speaking yet - and I'm still working on that also, but I have the desire to write. One motivation for this is email. That's right I have sent and received email that was not received the way it was intended. I have thought somebody was upset when they weren't and probably have thought they were fine when I should be picking up on more. Written word is tough to interpret but those who write well seem to do better than most. I'm sure they are mis-understood as well but they are better. You can't see a persons face when they write so the writing has to get the point across on it's own.

How does this relate? I think it's guilt. I want to be a better writer and yet I get busy and neglect an opportunity to explore my writing in this blog for a long period of time. I'm sorry. I don't know if I will get any better because life does go by fast but I do realize that if I don't I'll never swim the the cool water of the literary stream.

Choice or No Choice (but choose well)

2007-04-19T15:43:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I have written. Yes I've been busy but the truth is that writing is just not a solid habit for me yet. It's one at which I want to do a better job, but there are so many things I'm working on changing in my life that this new habit of writing just doesn't come out as a priority. It's easy to get away with it because barely anyone reads what I have written anyway. I guess when it comes down to it I really have to make the choice.

We all have choices to make. In a parenting class I took long ago the teacher said that your children will make all the important choices on their own. You know that is so true. The more I think about it the more true it seems. I can force my child to practice piano, I can lecture them till my face is blue about the evils of drugs and pre-marital sex. I can even make sure they are in church every Sunday but I can't make the choice for them about how they view these events. They can be in church and resent it. They may get a friend in youth group who then treats them poorly and they can make a choice about whether that means that person was a jerk or that all people in church are shallow people. It's a choice... and they get to make it not me. Some day I won't be able to pressure them to go to church or play the piano and they will decide for themselves if they will do it. They could play the piano expertly but still resent having to do it. They could even hate every minute they play the piano.

Just about every circumstance in life carries along with it a choice. I myself get to choose how I deal with every situation. Sure sometimes I feel pressure to choose one certain way but in reality I have a choice.

I was going to pick on one of my children here but then I decided to pick on myself and confess a stupidity. When I was young a second cousin of mine wanted to treat me to a fun day. She was probably 18 and I was 9 or 10. A girlfriend of hers had a car and they said they wanted to take me to the beach. I was excited to go to the beach, I put my swimming trunks on under my pants and off we went with a towel and I was on my way to the beach with two cute teenage blondes (a situation I have never been able to duplicate since). We didn't go to the beach! Without my knowledge they actually were taking me to Disneyland. Pretty cool right? Well I was miserable. My swimming trunks were uncomfortable and it wasn't the day I had figured on. As I look back that was just about the stupidest choice I could have made. I was a kid at Disneyland. To this day every time I go to Disneyland I'm still a kid. I had momentary fun but I chose to stay miserable pretty much the entire day. Of course I made my two hosts miserable as well. I now feel terrible about that and the fact that I still remember it is something.

How could a kid make a choice to be miserable at Disneyland? I don't know. I often think about these choices as my kids are growing up and realize how true it is that we all make our own choices. Some choices we make because of horrible events in our lives. One child could resent the fact that their parents divorced while another will take it in stride and decide it doesn't have to effect them. In that case you can see sense in either choice.

I'm thinking about this today because of the recent shooting at Virginia Tech in which 32 people were killed. Some of the motivation is starting to come out. You can't always believe what you read about in a paper because of how interviews can almost be lead in a direction. In this case the young man sent information directly to a news organization. Apparently in it he had a hatred of wealthy and religious people. At least that's how they are reporting it. I can't imagine being so upset at somebody who has stuff or has faith to the point that you would feel you have no choice but to kill them. It's a choice this young man made. We all wish we could have gotten to him earlier and helped him work through these issues. I'm also sure that many will blame the guns and seek stricter controls. We could of course eliminate guns and hate wouldn't stop, neither would killing. I think it wasn't the fault of a gun. It wasn't the fault of the wealthy or the religious or even the pious.

At fault was a CHOICE.

What if there was no Heaven?

2007-03-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

This is a question I've been asking people that I come across in religious circles. It's something I've been thinking of myself for a while. The real question I've asked goes like this:

Would you still be a Christian if there was no Heaven?

The reason for my question is because of my upbringing I suppose. Growing up I went to youth groups, and camps. Often a speaker got up in front of a roaring fire or at a pulpit or just at the -somehow head position- in a circle, and began to relate a story...the story would tell of a person who put off their salvation and what do you know they got in a car accident or ate the wrong food or something and died. They were going to Hell. It would shock us all and we would of course be moved to commit our lives to God right then and there. It's pressure sales but it works, even if it was only a commitment for one night it would often work. It would scare a young person to think about spending eternity in a Fiery abyss.

Now don't get me wrong I'm not trying to diminish that possibility but if Christianity is simply "Fire Insurance" then why not save it till you get old or otherwise close to death. Hopefully you can see it coming and pray a quick prayer and bam...your IN! Along the way you can have a lot of fun. You can have sex with whoever you want, you can try any drug you wish, you can eat every yummy treat you want and you can steal your way to wealth and fame.

In many religions there is a concept of the afterlife, but some if I'm not mistaken focus on Life at least as much as Death. That is the key to my answer to this question. I really want to hear what other people would have to say and what other people would teach their children on the same subject. If you had to get up in front of a group of teens and try to shock them what approach would you take?

My answer is YES I would be a Christian if there was no Heaven or as a long time friend from those old days in youth groups replied to my question, "Hell Yeah!" (She's in Texas) The reason for me is because of the Life. A life of sexual promiscuity can lead to disease, a life of drugs can scramble your brain, a life of over indulgence can lead to an unhealthy body and a life of wealth won't make you happy. Of course all of those things can be wonderful if God is in control of your life. Sex is good, Food can provide Life, Drugs can heal and Money can change the world.

A Life with God is better than the alternative and Heaven is a bonus.

The Dreamer - Astronaut Farmer

2007-02-28T16:13:00.001-08:00

I saw a movie the other day called "The Astronaut Farmer" with Billy Bob Thorton. I loved it and at the same time it was very difficult for me to watch. I believe it is much, much more than a cute story about a guy who is a little bit looney who has a dream of getting into outer space. This is a movie about having a dream and is for all those who have a dream. The second version of his space ship is called The Dreamer.

I enjoyed the movie because it helped me to realize I'm not alone. There are other people with a dream and sometimes they even suffer through more to accomplish their dream than I do.

The movie was difficult to watch because as one with a dream watching the movie made me re-live some of the difficulties I have experienced trying to realize my dream. Like Farmer in the movie I have people very close to me who believe in me and are very supportive. Some of them support me and my dream but some support me but don't understand why I would hold on to the dream. In the world of people who have had to grow up and face the real world it is extremely difficult to hold on to a dream. Everything at times seems to be designed to rip the dream away from my grasp. Sometimes it doesn't even feel as if I have hold of the dream at all...it appears to be a short distance away. It should be within reach but for some reason it is not.

A couple of years ago I watched my dream cause me and my family problems and even financial hardship. I began to search the Internet to see if anybody had any advice or any solution that would allow me in some way to begin and complete the process of giving up on my dream. I actually wished in my heart that I could give up on my dream. My dream wasn't as big as flying a rocket ship into space and it doesn't take as many resources as that nor as much intelligence but my dream was to build a business. I wanted to help people with their corporate computer networks, I wanted to find a way that they could use their computers to build their business and hopefully their dreams. I wanted to help people use their computers and not curse at them.

Not all obstacles come from the outside, some are within. I made mistakes that caused my dream to erode. I tried to do it on my own without bringing along others to help. I neglected to inspire others to assist in the task. So I can't blame others for messing up my dream but at the same time I can't sit around and be too hard on myself or the dream will never get accomplished. After much research and prayer I didn't find any successful solution available for giving up on a dream. Quite the opposite, I only found encouragement. Well at least it should have been encouragement... it really wasn't because I really wanted to give up and move on to something else. No matter what I did or what I tried I was unable to give up. I read a little book by Bruce Wilkinson (Prayer of Jabez fame) called "The Dream Giver". It identified for me what the problem was, dreams are given to us by God. If God gives you a dream it is almost impossible to give it up. You can try but then you will be out of God's will (which is something we call sin) and it will mess up everything about your life. Oh sure, it seemed like the dream was messing up my life at the time-- but I realize that wasn't true.

Today I find myself unable to give up my dream and as of yet unable to fulfill my dream. It is still some distance from my grasp. I still wish I could give it up...but I still can not. This new movie brought up a lot of emotion for me (which is dumb because it's a cute feel good movie with a completely unrealistic plot, for now). The past and present all came flashing back at me rapidly and have caused me to think about The dream I have-- and The Dreamer I am. It is not a comforting thing really to have a dream. There are many who do not complete their dream. Take Martin Luther King, he had a dream and gave a famous speech about it. His dream cost him is life and he never got to see his dream become reality. In fact his dream is still not reality. However he did inspire others and they are still working on the dream. Others have died in the process, still more pick up the goal. There again my dream, my goal is nothing as important as people of all colors working together but it is still what was given to me.

Being one with a dream given to him by God, I wish that at least I could become a supporter of others dreams and never be a "squasher of dreams". Unfortunately on this task I also fail. I really want to be the one to encourage other dreams because I know how discouraging an unfulfilled dream can be but I am sure that I have done that which I do not wish to do. I am sorry.

Tomorrow I will wake up still containing the dream which wishes to burst out, wishes to inspire and wants to do good. Tomorrow I will be one day closer to that happening. Tomorrow I will be one step closer to meeting the one who has given me this dream and hopefully then I will understand what I need to know about how my dream shaped my life and my family and the children's children yet to come. I will never meet them but I hope they too have a dream.

Was I an addict?

2007-02-24T16:32:00.001-08:00

I am going to follow up on my last post about Changing for Quality.

Food, is yummy and certain foods seem more yummy than others. There are some that I crave. I will hopefully get this correct and our nutritionist may have something else to say on the matter but I will try to relay what I believe she said as well as explain what I experienced myself.

The Elimination Diet - this is the website of our nutritionist and her thoughts.

We apparently crave most - the foods which are not good for us. There is a very good reason for this we have a dependency on those particular foods which are different than our normal need for food. It is almost as if those foods for us are as addicting as a drug.

On the diet we went on, we were told that we could eat as much as we wanted of the approved foods. Here is the thing that the nutritionist knew, I believe. Once we are eating foods that are good for us we don't feel the need to over eat them. We actually self regulate after a while because we don't sit around and "feel" hungry. We don't obsess about food.

When we would splurge as we called it and eat something that wasn't good for us we found that after eating it say, a couple of times in a row, we began to crave it more. We would desire to sneak in a little more and we would actually begin to eat larger quantities of it.

On the other hand when I eat items that my body didn't react to I naturally do not over eat. I just don't have as much craving for it.

So what does this have to do with a blog about faith? Well I'm going to try to tie it in. Here goes... If I am to believe that I am created with a purpose and that was done by a divine soul then I am important on this planet. I need to be here and my presence is no accident. If this body I have been given has a purpose I should make sure it is in the best shape possible so that I can carry out that purpose. There you go maybe it's not the best but I believe that whatever my divine purpose is my task is to constantly improve myself. I need to read, and attend lectures so that I can keep my brain active. I need to get exercise for my body to perform at a peak level for as long as possible. I need to educate myself about finance so I can have the resources I will need to perform my purpose. I need to pray so I can be in contact with the one who has put me here. And I should eat to nourish my body not harm it.

Changing to Quality

2007-02-21T12:13:00.001-08:00

I have mentioned in previous posts that I let myself get out of shape. After college I went out and got a real job and worked real hours and got a real marriage and real kids and got real busy...so I didn't work out any more. I also started to enjoy cooking so I made some yummy food. (In fact in a recent post I mentioned being 50 pounds overweight and not having higher moral ground...well I was talking about myself only it was more than 50 pounds.)

I don't know if my approach to this problem was unique or not but if the whole diet food, magazine, pill businesses have a big market then I think I might be. I'm certainly unique in almost every other way. I wanted a change in my life but to be truthful I didn't really care that much if I lost weight. I didn't want to change my weight I wanted to change my LIFE.

Simple right? Well not really. I didn't want to change my life for a week or 6 months or get in shape for my High School Reunion, I wanted to change some things in my life forever. I knew that if I was going to do that I would have to start slow but steady. I have watched a lot of guys approaching my age decide that they need to get back in the gym. They wake up early and hit the weights as hard as they did in High School. They figure, "hey I used to work out 2.5 hours in the weight room so I better do that now." Who has the time for that unless you somehow make money with your appearance?

It all started when my wife ordered a mountain of dirt about 7 years ago. The dirt was dumped in our driveway and it sat there for a while. I dreaded moving the dirt but I started moving about 10 wheelbarrows full every night. It took probably 30 minutes and took me weeks to move the whole thing. By the time I was done I felt like I had started a workout program and it turned out I had. I thought I should keep this going so what next? My wife had purchased a treadmill that we never used, so I started walking on that for 30 minutes a day, and I started taking some vitamins. This actually started making me feel pretty good so we cleared a space in the garage for the weights that were ancient and I began doing some workouts.

This went on for a while and I started to look around for a system that I could use efficiently. I found the Body for Life Program by Bill Phillips. I never signed up for the competition he had but I read the books and adapted my workout to function like the one he suggests. Again big progress. My tummy started to flatten and I probably lost 15 pounds but there wasn't much physical change in basic appearance. So I kept this up for probably a couple years and decided that I probably should change something about the way I eat. I began to work more on how I fixed food changing slowly to more of a program like Body for Life. I like so many other Americans had too many carbs in my diet. After a while of this I probably changed another 10 pounds for the lighter.

So probably 6 years went by and I have made slow steady progress and have kept it up. The next step was to take the whole family to a nutritionist and get some ideas for how to eat better. She put us on an elimination diet (The "diet" we did). This diet isn't a weight loss diet specifically it is a diet to find out what foods your body doesn't work well with. Once you limit the foods you don't process well things begin to change rapidly. We learned a lot about our bodies during this time. The thing I like the most about this is that our nutritionist doesn't say we have to give up anything. I don't know about you but if I only get to eat one piece of chocolate a week or one attempt at any yummy food, I'm going to make it count. I'm not going to eat a cheap candy bar and blow the whole thing I'm going to get a piece of high quality chocolate and savor every bite. I love lasagna but we used to buy a lasagna at Costco (still love Costco so don't get me wrong) and when I had that it wasn't worth the once in a blue moon test. If I'm going to eat lasagna I'm going to Pizza Bank in the Kingsgate area and get their yummy pan of Lasagna. It doesn't have as much of the Ricotta Cheese but has a ton of meat sauce and Mozzarella Cheese, love it. Love Pizza as well but we have found a few that just aren't worth it when our pizza splurge isn't as often as it used to be. If I'm going to eat these things that are bad for me they are going to count big time. That's changing for Quality, that's changing for life and that brought off another 25 pounds.

So I've started applying the same principle to other areas of my life as well. I don't want to stay busy and run out of time I want to accomplish big things with my time. I have big dreams for business but I also have bigger dreams for my wife, my family, my health and my faith. In every area I'm changing to Quality. Some people use quality as a justification for not spending time with their kids. They say they have quality time not the quantity of time. I just want you to know that's not what I'm talking about but at the same time that doesn't excuse me from trying to make everything in my life of high quality. It's really just making sure that I am in fact staying true to my major goals and not getting caught in the quicksand of life. (More to come...)

A Man's Religion

2007-02-06T13:12:00.001-08:00

I have had opportunity recently to think about religion and more importantly church. My last posting was on a topic that makes many people uncomfortable and my approach and unwillingness to completely condemn pornography is probably controversial to many. For myself it wasn't controversial it was confusing. I thought I had some of this subject worked out but as I wrote it I realized there is still a jumble of thoughts inside my head.

I don't know why but as I have contemplated this issue the subject of Men In Church has come to the forefront. Really it was Sex that was in the forefront but I'll stick to the Men issue. For years I have been very open about the fact that I think about sex. Ask anybody that knows me! But I notice that not everybody is the same way. But the truth is the present company makes a big difference. When I am working, doing my IT thing for customers I often find out that there are many men just like me. They think about sex also, in fact many of them have a much more aggressive approach to sex than I do.

But then I hang around at church or at family events and I notice that people are not so open about this matter in those situations. Of course one of the reasons is that I am often the only male at some of these locations on a regular basis. So I have a bunch of women around and they don't seem to think their husband thinks like this. I wonder what's up? My wife knows where my heads at.

So sometimes I think it's just me then...I look around and notice there are still clubs in which women dance with practically nothing on. I often wonder if those places are empty. I also notice that if you are trying to sell something to men you usually will see barely dressed women, specially in commercials during sports games. These women are usually fairly good looking and have attractive bodies. I'm probably the only one who has noticed and I probably am also the only person on the planet to whom these ads are directed, even though I don't watch too many sports games.

So I looked up this thing about men and church and I came up with a website I found interesting.

Not your wife's church

They said a lot of things but primarily that the church today is losing men at a rapid rate. They say that they are not about trying to help build a Men's Ministry in a church (because largely those are failing in most churches as well). They are about trying to help church make their general congregation more masculine, without the hypocrisy.

Good thing I hope they are able to accomplish what they are setting out to do but as I look around I believe they have a long way to go. I have noticed Men's Ministries being a big struggle and I often joke that they would have all the men attend they wanted if they had a keg of beer and a stripper. Yeah it's a joke but you know what, it's also the truth. So what do you do with that and how do you make church more masculine? You can't have nude pole dancers during worship (hummm, I'll think about that for a bit). So how do you accomplish the mission of making church appeal to more men? Maybe one step is to admit to ourselves who we are. Women aren't Men and Men aren't Women, luckily.

So you don't have to agree with my last posting but hopefully you will think some about this issue. The solution could mean literally the future of the Christian Church in the world. A lot of men have faith according to the website above but they don't care much about church events. What's in it for them? And here was a startling fact if a Dad is involved in church their children are far more likely to attend in their adult life. This is a much bigger factor than if Mom attends regularly. So if you thought I was just being funny about the future of the Christian Church I really wasn't.

Pornography vs. Art

2007-02-02T16:00:00.001-08:00

Before I start here realize I am not trying to support the pornography industry by typing this post. In that business there is a lot of exploitation that takes place that I don't like to see going on.

One question I have is trying to define pornography.

I looked it up in Encarta and here is what they say:

Definition:

1. sexually explicit material: films, magazines, writings, photographs, or other materials that are sexually explicit and intended to cause sexual arousal.

So I'm thinking of all the museums I've been to, yeah that's right I got some culture, and I have seen a lot of stuff on the wall painted by a master that could easily fit into that category. So how do you make a determining difference? If it actually shows the sex act? Maybe, but there is some Eastern art work that has been around for centuries that falls into that category as well and probably is also regarded as art.

I've thought, is it different because it's a photograph and not painted with brushes? It doesn't seem to me that this one makes since either, just because cameras didn't exist a thousand years ago doesn't mean the content, intent or the message are any different.

So why do I even want to bring up this subject? Am I trying to rationalize something? Maybe--- I would like to think however it's for a better purpose. This post has come to me because I have noticed that a lot of churches seem to be focusing on this area in their men's ministries. Maybe it was a memo that went out from Promise Keepers, I don't know. Maybe it's a huge problem, and getting bigger because of Internet distribution!

Growing up in churches and believing that a church is actually a good place for a person to hang out I just like to make sure that the message a church presents is making sense. Not turning people away. Of course the big task here for any church is that they stay true to the Bible. Beyond that they have to carry the accurate message of the Bible to the community in which they live and make the message relevant and meaningful. I guess that's a good place to start, does the Bible say anything about pornography? Maybe somebody can help out there, I don't recal any specific references. Of course there are a lot of things without specific references so that's not the best argument. Ok, so going out on a limb here...by the above definition the Bible could in some cases actually be considered pornographic itself. I become a little aroused reading Song of Solomon, and there are plenty of other places where sex is mentioned in the Bible(and some pretty twisted stuff at that). I suppose you could not say it was the intention of the writers to cause sexual arousal, but that could in fact be the result.

Being a guy I am aware that there are many things that can cause sexual arousal, a cool car could do it. A woman within 100 feet could also cause significant feeling, no matter what she is dressed in (actually the THOUGHT of a woman within 100 feet could do it also). A warm breeze I have heard can make some men stand at attention. My point is...Is it even possible to eliminate everything that causes sexual arousal, and if we did where would be be? My next question is what should be the churches message with this issue? What do you think? I think that the church could be a lot smarter about this stuff.

You see here's the thing even though this post is about pornography it's about a lot more than that...it's about being relevant. I have written before about the big mistake the church makes when it tries to condemn specific physical behavior rather than point to the real message of the Bible which is about Love. Go back and read those posts and you can probably tell what I think should be done.

So should the church just ignore this? No probably not, after all there are people that have a problem and that problem is getting in the way of their relationships. It gets in the way of their relationship with God, with Spouse with Family, etc. There are a lot of other things besides pornography that are a problem. So if you are 50 lbs. over weight and your preaching to sombody with a sexual adiction don't think that you have the higher moral ground. I think the better approach for the church is to do 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Annonymous. That way if you have a problem with Pornography the guy talking with you says, "I have a problem with pornography as well, let's talk about what we can do about that...buddy".

You see when the church keeps preaching against stuff they actually I believe make it happen more often. When a kid is told they better not take a cookie from the cookie jar then that's just about all they can think about. Cookies, cookies, cookies...sex, sex, sex. It's time for a new message I believe.

I don't know if this post became about Pornography or about something else but I think part of that has to do with the fact that I'm not sure pornography is easy to define. I thought I would write this post to sort things out in my head but I think I'm more confused than when I started to write. There may be artistic expression in some of it and there may also be a big dose of perversion. Maybe it depends on the medium or maybe not. The one who delivers pornography may be the one to blame or maybe it is the person who consumes it. Maybe it is there if you see it and not if you aren't paying attention?

Value of People

2007-01-21T18:13:00.001-08:00

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the value of people. Some events have occurred to make me do so.

My wife and I have been working on corporate values as an exercise in preparing a Business Plan for a new idea we have.
I had a couple boys confess to a bit of vandalism on my car.
My daughter got into her first accident while learning to drive, prior to getting her license.

These events have brought me to realize that I value people more than "stuff". I guess I have known that for a long time but two of these events involved damaging my stuff. I find that I am not that worried about he cars, my concern is about the people.

I have made my money for a long time by working with computers. That is the simple way to say it but in reality I don't enjoy computer hardware as much as the stuff we can do with them. I really enjoy computer networks. It is when people come together to collaborate that I get excited about computers. I think of the computers as a hammer in the hand of a carpenter or a paint brush in the hand of an artist. The computer is a tool for humans to do great things. I enjoy the computer working for people. I don't like it when a computer is not functioning for somebody. People and the time that people invest are much more important than the computer equipment.

People are intelligent and amazingly creative. Many people unfortunately have not put themselves in the right "place" to make the most of their talents. They may also wrongly assume that being gifted is enough. Some people seem to be noted as more exceptional than others and usually it is because they have taken a gift they have and worked hard to support it. At the same time they discovered their weakness and find a way to avoid it. They get support for their weakness or find a partner that can eliminate the weakness because it happens to be their gift or talent.

Cool way to re-write history

2007-01-02T20:38:00.001-08:00

I just read a post by my pastor. It was inspiring as his posts and other writing usually are but the thing that caught my attention was a book he referred to called "Forgiveness-The Power to change the past" by Dr. Smeedes. A link to my pastor's posting is here...

Forgive and Forget

I don't now why this would be appealing to me but maybe just maybe there are things I would like to change about my past. Hummmm...yep there are some things. I have often believed that there is nothing I can do to change the past but leave it up to God to come up with a way for mere mortals to live outside of the bounds of time...after all HE does.

So this is revolutionary to me but alas not necessarily easy. Forgiveness isn't so easy sometimes. I have to forgive the customers who took 120 days to pay their bill to me, a bill which represented almost 2 months of my time. The delay in payment caused a lot of financial hardship. One customer would be difficult but just about the time I was recovering (but didn't quite make it) it happened again. It still stings, so not so easy. How about the employers that cut the way they paid bonuses tying it to their debt and therefore meaning I would make about half of what I had previously. When you get used to any amount you can't imagine half. I have to forgive the college professor that taught my missions class in college and taught principles and wouldn't entertain alternative thoughts, such as "Missions is a Science". I had a hard time accepting the concept of missions as a science and even though the question was an essay and most of my professors would accept an opposing position if it was supported, this teacher did not and I was handed my F on a silver platter (I disagreed with more than one thing). Or how about the girl who in High School commented on the way I chewed gum? I kind of had a crush on her and the comment crushed me. Some of this stuff goes back quite a ways and obviously I am still holding on to some of it.

The good news is there are some things that happened and some times that I was wronged and I swore that I would get even but today I don't even remember what those events were. I forgave and forgot. Those events whatever they were are no longer in my past. They are not a part of who I am nor a part of how I view the world. By forgiving and then taking it another level and forgetting I have changed the past. Even if I don't forget I can forgive and re-write the future as well. You see the customers that caused financial hardship have changed my future in so many ways it isn't funny. The first time it happened I adjusted the rules I followed when I took on another "BIG" project. When it happened a second time I have changed even more rules. But wait there is more. I have not only changed my "rules of engagement" I have also come up with new ways to service my customers. I have thought of a whole new way of making money, more money by reducing the cost to my customers and increasing the level of service while reducing their downtime. I am still working on making this a reality and my wife has joined forces with me to make it possible. There are actually some other radical changes I am making to my business based on what I learned. Soooo when I look back in a couple of years I will probably look back at those financial hardships as valuable investments into my future. Woah! This is powerful!

I am unleashed. I think I am ready to begin to do more forgiving. Maybe I can erase every wrong ever done to me in the past and no longer carry it into the future therefore completely changing not only the PAST but also the FUTURE.

The next hard part about forgiving is to forgive myself. Now that one is tough. I can't believe some of the stupid things I have done. I regret the ways I treated some people. And some of the choices I made along the way...DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!!! After thinking about this whole thing however I am going to work really hard to even forgive ME. I bet I can change all kinds of history if I did that. Some of these things I would rather not forget. I don't want to forget how I treated some of my friends growing up, because I don't want to make those mistakes again. I want to treat everybody I come across with high value and as if they really mattered to somebody. Maybe even as if they matter to me, I'll have to think about that one.

If you knew some of the posts I plan to write in this blog you would know that right now I will probably have to forgive myself for what I am about to write. It's a good thing I found this special treasure now before I continue to do my damage by blogging. I forgive myself here and now. I have some really tough questions to answer in my own thinking and I hope to work them out right here. This has been a special gift for the New Year, I have thought of other resolutions but I think I will add to or replace the others with beginning a new season of forgiveness.

Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come

2006-12-26T12:21:00.001-08:00

What does the future hold for Christmas? For that matter what does the future hold period?

Obviously my last few posts have been themed from the ever popular story about Scrooge. Scrooge is a person that has lost his way in life. He is successful in business but doesn't remember how to value other people. He doesn't remember how to value the Holy Season. He only remembers how to value money. He has one thought consume his life. The thought isn't just about money, he is really consumed with HIMSELF.

I feel that I probably fall into this trap too often myself. It's pretty easy to get caught up in my financial situation, or my business activities, or maybe I'm just hungry or tired. And what happens when MY computer is acting up and needs to be fixed? After all I am a computer guy my computer has to work or my persona may wither and die. How do you put yourself aside and concern yourself with other people? I don't know about you but it's hard for me.

This Holy Season we have had a lot of time to talk. That's really cool. Sometimes it was because there were no lights, no television, no computers, no video games, no electricity. Even after the electricity came back on and we all started warming back up we still found a lot to talk about. One of the things we talked about is faith. What our faith means to US. I said that I felt the most important things were to LOVE GOD, and LOVE OTHERS (I got that from somewhere). I think this is something that many churches, pastors and christians forget when they write their "mission statements" if you will. Most would love God, that's not a problem but when it comes to Love Others they may too narrowly define who others are. Sometimes it's easier to love somebody across the globe in a developing country than to love the people down the street in a "crack house", or gay bar, or senior center. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to me. After all this blog is called Faith Falters and I'm not talking about your faith, I'm working on my own faith. See there I go thinking about myself again.

I have big dreams and plans for my business ventures. I have ideas for the future but in some ways I realize I am glad that up until now I haven't been wildly successful with what I have attempted. You see I think that I needed to go through a lot of stuff so that I would learn to not focus so much on myself, my finances, my business, and not even my computer. I still, after all the setbacks and struggles have big dreams for my future, in fact I have set even bigger goals. And part of the huge goal I have is that the business shouldn't just benefit me. If I do it right I will benefit not only my whole family but also the families of the people that may some day work for me around the world. I hopefully will also benefit the families of my customers and vendors.

When I talk about benefit realize that after all the past I talk about, I'm not just speaking of money. Yes I have told you before that I am a good capitalist, but money isn't everything. When you think about it Time is a much more valuable resource than money. I have the same amount of time as a Billionaire. I also have the same about of time as a skid row bum. The difference between all of us is how valuable we make our time become. The other difference is how we spend our time. I don't want to spend all of my time on making money such as Scrooge does, but on the other hand I don't want to spend my time like the bum does. When I talk about benefit I am hoping to maximize my business efforts and maximize my relationship efforts. My relationships include God (primarily), my family (because I don't want my kids to think other things are more important), and everybody else I may come across. Part of my business goals are to come across and effect as many other people as I can. I hope that when I come across them I can inspire them to also value time and money in the same way I do. I hope I can inspire them to value their own health so they can enjoy the time they have left on this planet. I hope I can inspire them to value their mind, their creativity and their own goals and talents. I know that if I do my life will be fulfilled and probably will have more than enough money to live on.

In future Christmas Holiday's I hope that the spirit I see most is one of Love.

Spirit of Christmas Present

2006-12-20T21:19:00.001-08:00

This posting is a bit later than I wished it to be, however there wasn't much that could be done about it. I am just now recovering along with many of my neighbors after a severe wind storm came through Washington State and knocked out our power, phones, cable and our lifestyle. The storm hit on Thursday night December 14. My house got back power on Tuesday December 19. We finally got cable today December 20. There are some still without power. The winds were major for this area with all of our trees but were made much worse because last month we had some of the largest amounts of rainfall we have ever seen. Combined with the rain we had a lot of snow that knocked out the city for days. Very wet soil, along with tall trees and winds exceeding 60 MPH do not make for pleasant times.

It's amazing how much we depend on many services. Sure when electricity goes out that means the candles come out. Of course if this were to happen in the summer it would be somewhat tolerable. The days are warmer and much longer. This time of year it's dark before 5pm so the evenings are very, very long. Not only were they long but they were cold. The temp inside our house got down to mid 40's. It was just warm enough for food to spoil but too cold to function well. Many gas stations were unable to function so fuel became a major commodity.

Christmas has always been for me and every other kid about gifts. As a kid I always wanted so much. I would make my list . My kids do the same today, although I must say they seem much better about the subject than I was as a child. The older I get the less I become wrapped up in "stuff". You see we have been through a down-sizing in our lives and have moved into a smaller house than we once had. So to survive we have had to get rid of stuff. As I have watched the stuff go I see things that at one time I was sure I must have. The problem was I rarely used it. This stuff just took up shelf space--and now it's gone. We have cleared it out and we are clearing out more. So now when I think about new stuff I think, "do I really need it?" Don't get me wrong I am still a consumer, especially if it comes to technology.

This year however I am looking at gifts in a whole different light. You see electricity is a big gift that I often take for granted. The Internet is major. Wow that has become very important and a big gift. Food is wonderful and if the refrigerator and freezer can not keep your food cold then it will spoil and all the sudden Food becomes a big gift. Being able to sit in a warm house is today a gift. There are gifts all around that I have taken for granted as if they would always be there. Today I realize that what I thought would always be there may not some day. It is important to look around and realize what may be a gift for me. As I say it seems amazing to just be able to sit here on my computer, type and post this to my blog. Very Cool...but thankfully not at all freezing cold. It is nice to sit in my house with a shirt on and not have 2 or possibly 3 other layers on top of that. Big time gift.

Gifts are all around and are a blessing much more important than stuff. Even with the power out we sat around the candles and fireplace and read books and talked and just spent time with our family and with other people. To be able to share our experiences was also a gift. It was important to realize the gifts all around before the storm but also to now see that there are even a number of gifts that exist in the storm. This storm was a literal STORM, but a storm can also be a difficult time of life and I am quite certain although it doesn't always seem like it that there are even gifts during those times. Thank you for the gift of this Present Christmas!

Spirit of Christmas Past

2006-12-14T15:36:00.001-08:00

I have fond memories of Christmas Past. I guess the one thing it meant to me most was...family. When I was young I always looked forward to Christmas because we usually made the trek from Albuquerque to Southern Sunny California. Yeah it was much warmer in California than New Mexico that time of year but as a kid I probably could have cared less. The thing I wanted to do was see my cousins. We always had a ton of fun. We played, we dreamed, we talked. That was the best time. It was just about as important as presents, but hey my cousins usually came with presents so Bonus.

Not only did we just see one family but I had Aunts and Uncles, Grandmas and Grandpas and much much more. My Mom's side of the family often had a pretty big Christmas party. Her Mother, my Grandmother had 4 sisters and they all had kids and grandkids. Many of the grandkids were at least somewhat close in age so there again more fun playing. As the families all got bigger we had to do that party further and further from Christmas because each sub-family had increasing obligations. When I was young though we had a big tradition of lots of family. My Dad's side of the family was much smaller by comparison but still very special. My grandparents always made it a very special time.

I went to college in Southern California and got to see my family often. The Holiday's didn't take on the same excitement as they had when we made the big trip each year. It became a series of duties we had to perform at Christmas time. I began to recognize that the Holidays can stress people out. The adult world sometimes had a different feel to it. I saw that some people loved to use the time together to complain. Complain about their spouse, their kids, their health, their job and everything else in between. I don't blame them life does that to people. It can beat you down and you can find that all the joy is gone.

Christmas became an obligation. The fun was draining. I didn't get the same joy about it. I began to figure if other people were put out by having to make an appearance why should I try. I mean maybe if I didn't show they wouldn't have to and everything would be better for me and for them. I don't think I actually every missed a Christmas Party (of course I could be wrong) but it sure seemed like a possibility. I never really became a Scrooge but I certainly didn't get very excited about it.

Then it happened. I met this girl...a beautiful young girl...a sexy, beautiful young girl...a sexy beautiful young girl who actually paid attention to me (so I married her). She wouldn't let me become a Scrooge. She loved Christmas still, loved the decorations, loved the presents, loved Santa, loved the Baby Jesus and the Nativity. She loved Christmas trees and Christmas lights and Christmas candy. She even loved the Chex Party Mix that everyone makes for the holidays. Those were the days that Chex mix couldn't be purchased by the bag, Grandma had to make it...and she made it good. My Aunt made all kinds of special Christmas Cookies and those were to die for. My girlfriend, yeah I wasn't letting her get away, re-introduced me to Christmas. As a family we decided to make Christmas a special time a wonderful time, a magical time. It is a truly beautiful holiday.

Maybe this young beautiful and sexy girl was my Spirit of Christmas Past. She made me remember what Christmas was about, most importantly about a family. Christmas is in deed about the beginning of a family. I suppose you could say it was a blended family, part man and part God. Talk about your differences. Whether or not this event took place on December 25th or any other time that is the time we celebrate the beginning of that special family on Christmas Day. I will try never to forget that.

Is Christmas Real?

2006-12-11T19:21:00.001-08:00

I am not going to do a bah humbug type of post here. After all I am a grown adult who believes in Santa. I recently read something that my pastor wrote about Christmas.

History of Christmas - by Tim White

I was completely surprised to find out that some Christians don't celebrate Christmas. I met a guy at a customer of mine. He was a very devoutly spiritual person and we were talking about all kind of issues and this came up. No Christmas? Are you serious? Now I had learned already about some of these historical roots of Christmas. In fact my pastor growing up (Ken George in Albuquerque, NM) told us in his sermons that most likely this date December 25 was not the actual day Jesus Christ was born. It's true. As the link above explains most likely this is just a Christian replacement for a pagan celebration. You can look up the whole thing in many places. I have read some articles online that act as if it is all some Christian cover-up.

All to often we want to believe there is a big conspiracy. Was the early church really trying to cover-up this whole pagan celebration with a more Holy-day and make up the Christmas thing? I doubt it. After all they had the political leaders help of the time to make this Holiday come into being. There weren't tons of books all over the place it would have probably been pretty easy to eliminate any or most of the evidence of previous celebrations if they wanted to. I don't think they wanted to. They were just trying to provide an alternative that was focused on the values they wanted people to celebrate. This alternative by the way has become pretty popular.

The link above talks about a priest called Nicholas in Turkey who we celebrate as Santa Claus. There are many traditions that come into the Santa story we have today. Saint Nicholas the priest died many years ago but Santa Claus lives as far as I am concerned. I have seen him accomplish way too much. I have seen him light up the eyes of too many children. I have seen him make old people grin. I have seen him hand presents to people and it was exactly what they wanted.

Christmas Time is magical. It is utterly amazing. Kindness happens during this time. The whole world lights up and yes with real lights. Christmas makes people do strange, bizarre and wonderful things for each other and for themselves. Christmas is more important to most kids than their own birthday. Christmas is also a time when relationships and differences heal. Battlefield soldiers, cold and tired have set down their weapons and come together to celebrate Christmas. Families that split over nasty disagreements have become whole during this season.

Like everything else in life it comes down to a choice. You can choose to see the cover-up or you can choose to see the revelation. You can believe people had a sinister motive or you can accept that people are trying their best but sometimes make mistakes. Christmas is a choice. You can decide if it means anything to you or if it is meaningless.

For me because of my experiences Santa is at work today and Christmas is real.

Bono of U2 Live at Washington Cathedral in Redmond (Not)

2006-12-04T10:25:00.001-08:00

But he is going to appear via taped interview. My church will be playing a taped interview of Bono by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek. It's pretty cool that they will include it as part of their Christmas Pageant this year. I have provided a link to my church website and not the event listing on the website beause after Christmas the listing will go away and the link won't be good any more. For now the link is on the Home Page and can be clicked on.

Bono at Washington Cathedral?

Have Any Doubts?

2006-12-04T10:11:00.001-08:00

I regularly search for posts that include my church Washington Cathedral in Redmond, WA. Usually when I get the results I find that people are talking about Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. That seems to be a very popular church to blog about. This post I found said Washington Cathedral not Washington National Cathedral and I wondered if she was talking about my church. To figure it out I had to read the post and I believe she is not talking about Washington Cathedral in Redmond, WA. However in beginning the reading I got kind of caught up here in what she was writing. I found this post to be interesting and bring up some good thoughts.

Link to You Mean I Can Type Anything In Here?: Reasons Why I Dislike Christianity

I too have many doubts about the religion of Christianity. I probably could write at least as good a statement against the religion of Christianity as this person. In fact maybe some day I will do so although I have instead been thinking of writing about why I love the religion of Christianity.

You may notice that I keep saying the religion of Christianity because to me that is very different from a faith in God, His Son Jesus and His Sprit at work on this planet today. I completely separate the two. The religion of Christianity lends itself to scholarly exploration and often deserves stinging criticism such as this above post. The faith involved in Christianity is completely illogical. Spock (the Vulcan) would not find any use for it at all. Faith makes no sense what-so-ever and yet makes ones life make sense if they have it. It settles down all fears (or at least the aspect of faith called Love does). It provides direction and purpose for life. As I say those are things that don't make sense and yet if you try to take it away from somebody that has it they will do almost anything to keep it. And unfortunately in history some have done some pretty horrible things in the name of faith. Of course when they do they usually organize as a religion and there we get into the problems of this post.

I thought this was very good and wanted to pass it along. I will delve into this exploration a little more myself soon.

Twenty Years and Counting

2006-11-30T10:27:00.001-08:00

Yesterday my wife and I celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary. We had plans to go to lunch and to celebrate out together a bit. It didn't happen. Instead the schools were closed because of a snow storm and the roads were too icy for everyone to get around easily. So we ate lunch at home with some candles. We had dinner with our children. It didn't go as planned and it was a blessing.

That is my first point of advice to anybody considering marriage. Maybe you won't be as uptight as we were about everything going perfect on your wedding day...but if you are this one's for you. At your wedding and beyond the things that don't go according to plan ARE your future memories. That is what you will remember forever the things that went wrong. The more wrong the bigger the memory. So what can you do with that? Well I suggest you relax and try to enjoy it, because as I say that will be the makeup of your memories.

We tortured our children by pulling out the video of our wedding and making them watch. That right there was one of our wedding memories. The video person hired to tape our wedding was instead in the reception hall taping at the beginning of the wedding. So we do not have the first few moments (like 10-15 minutes). Luckily the tape began at the point where my Wife's grandmother (a long time minister and pastor of a church before people even argued about whether that was appropriate or not) was speaking to us and giving us advice. My wife's uncle, Rev. John Holland was the minister who married us but we wanted her grandmother to come up and say whatever was on her mind.

One of the things that we noticed from the tape and the comments people left for us at the end of the tape were the advice people had about the BIG issues in our future and to keep open communication about everything. They mentioned the issues that finances cause in a marriage. Good advice.

So afterward after the kids went to bed my wife and I were reflecting and she said, "what do you think is the biggest reason we have survived our marriage while many of our friends and families marriages ended already?" I thought back on the few (ok many) troubles we have had through the last 20 years and what really caused them. Yes many had to do with communication... communication about money, sex, relationship, etc.. The biggest problem I felt however was that at each point we had a problem either one of us began to feel like we were alone. We had to solve this problem by ourselves.

The strength of marriage is really the basis of marriage. Instead of one, you now have two. You don't have to come up with the solution to money, sex, diet, health, children, education or anything by yourself. Only the fact that we luckily realized that at the difficult periods when we were being tricked into believing that we had to fix it ourselves and could actually seek help from each other did we make it through. Awkward sentence right? Ok to solve our challenges we had to pull together to make it through. It by the way doesn't end. We still are doing that daily. We still are tempted to believe we are in it alone. We still have to overcome that loneliness and realize we can rely on each other. That is what makes the bond stronger. Beyond that and here is the kicker, it isn't just the two of us. We are part of a family. Our kids help, absolutely they do in many ways. Our parents still help, I guess the job of parent is forever. Our grandparents helped. We have even had to count on our friends to solve a challenge.

So that is my big advice to the newlyweds, don't attempt to do it alone. Use the relationship and that means everything no matter how personal or intemit it seems that the issue is. Odd that one could believe that they couldn't share everything with their spouse. Example: could your wife actually help if you are considering an extra-marital affair? You would probably want to keep that one to yourself wouldn't you? Don't keep it to yourself, be honest and try to explore why you would even think that way in the first place. That is just an example of a problem you may want to hide there are others. A gambling passion, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, sexual fetish (for sure share that you never know she may comply).

Anything can be shared and that is the beauty of the bond. It's not a guarantee that everything will work out in fact once you share the other spouse could take that upon themselves and think they have to solve it all by their lonesome and the problem starts again.

There you go have fun and keep it going. I'll check back on this issue again. Maybe I'll learn something in the next 20 years I hadn't considered here.

Technorati tags: Marriage, 20 Year Anniversary, Love

Giving a little credit

2006-11-28T17:04:00.001-08:00

Link to Perry Noble dot com » Blog Archive » Seven Reasons Why Jesus Could Not Have Been A Pastor In Many Churches

I previously wrote a post where I didn't approve of this pastor's approach. I'm man enough to do the same when I read something inspiring. It is possible for good and bad to come from the same source. Remember that when you read my posts and don't agree with them. Also, have you ever noticed how brilliant somebody can be when they agree with you?

The ground trembles - foundation begins

2006-11-22T19:15:00.001-08:00

Link to Deepen Our Roots: The Journey is fun

The church I attend is in a building project. It's at the stage where it doesn't look like much is happening. This seems to happen at the beginning of a project and toward the end. Those are the toughest times for a church building. People are excited about the fund raising at first but then foundations get started. Foundations on buildings and in people are boring and slow. There isn't much sexy about a foundation. It doesn't seem like much is happening. Without it you won't have much structure.

The other tough time is after the structure is in place and it looks done from the outside but there is still a lot of finish work to do inside. That's another time, not there yet.

To build a church you need a good foundation for the building but you also need a good foundation for the people. It is too easy to want a quick solution but that's not how quality is built. Anyway our pastor wrote the above post (link provided) and he is trying to make sure the correct foundation is laid...before the concrete one is poured.

Give Thanks

2006-11-22T13:50:00.001-08:00

This is the time of year that we all try to sit down and give thanks for everything. We are thankful that there is more food than we can possibly eat, we are thankful for TV and all the games, etc. that we can sit around and watch. We are thankful that the Christmas shopping season is almost here and that we are going to give an receive more than we deserve. That's not such a bad thing, after all the whole idea was that we had abundance in this country and we are thankful, yes and sometimes a little greedy.

Of course if we are being on good behavior we mention that we are thankful for our families, our parents, grandparents, children, Aunts and Uncles. We are especially thankful for our spouses.

The whole point of this time of the year isn't just to name off everything that is abundant in our lives but to get over ourselves for a day and remember than we are not the primary source of all the many blessings. There is a greater being that we believe provided all the circumstances related to the abundance. Much of the rest of the year we tend to believe that this being (God) is out to get us and to punish us for something we may have done wrong. This time of the year however we remember that in reality he doesn't punish us, it was probably just the result of our bad choices. He actually wants the best for us.

Thank you God for all the blessings you have provided for me.

Don't be so hard on yourself

2006-11-15T20:44:00.001-08:00

I mentioned previously about great way to evangelize. Rather than think like a salesman think like a friend. I think that was pretty good advice so now I want to screw up a good thing and tell you my opinion or more of my opinion. Here is what I believe the Bible tells me to do in evangelism...

Tell people your story!

That is basically it. You see going back to the salesman analogy I don't believe we have a quota that we have to reach each month or each year in how many converts we "close the deal on". For one thing how do you know? Just because you heard them say a prayer? Not! I have heard many people sound more like a sales manager for a shady product than people who represent the ONE TRUE GOD.

So I don't believe the Bible has a 4 step plan that will work every time and I don't believe that the Bible says, thou shalt "close" on 3 new converts a week, if thou preachest to 5 people a day and from those 35 approacheth the point of realization of their sin with 15 and then thouest will by Friday have 10 of those people invited to church on Sunday and of those 10 most likely 5 will show up of which 3 should pray the sinners prayer.

From what I can read in this good book I don't have any such requirements. My one and only requirement is to share with people the difference God has made in my life. That's it. The Bible does say that somehow "magically" if I do that God's spirit will convict people. I don't have much at all to do with it. Most likely it has been a series of events that person has gone through that will bring them to the point where they are ready. If I am fortunate I am at the end of that process if not I am at the beginning of their process. Either way my responsibility is to let them know what it all means for me and to be a friend no matter what they decide to do with that.

The beauty of this program is I don't have to win theological debates with people on the Bible. It is somewhat likely they know more about it than me. I am only sharing my story and they can't argue that at all. They can ask a question and I can say I don't know the answer but my life was radically changed...Period. Cool Huh?

Takes the pressure off doesn't it? No you can just go out there be yourself and start making friends. Don't hide who you are or pretend to be somebody else.

Forgiveness, Acceptance, Love and Friendships (sickening isn't it?)

2006-11-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

Ok I am encouraged. First of all I had a series of nice comments from one of the pastors at my church about my blog posts and next I found this blog entry from a church blog in Las Cruces, NM (I grew up in Albuquerque).

Link to thechurchblog » What are you tired of?

Recently I ranted a bit about another post, of course I was only ranting about that one post by a pastor. I have been reading other posts by the same author and very much enjoyed them. I wasn't criticizing the person only that one particular delivery of a message. In my rant luckily I did mention that the role of Love and Acceptance were extremely important. Seems like the good book places some pretty high value on Love. The pastor at my church who wrote a comment mentioned that Forgiveness would be a nice add to the three. Most likely that is because without that third leg the stool is difficult to sit on much less stand to reach for higher goals.

In the blog entry "What are you tired of?" this blogger talks about a form of spreading the message (evangelism) that is revolutionary. That's sad because it shouldn't be. This should be common sense. Become a friend to people. A true friend. To do that you are probably going to have to forgive people for a few mistakes. I don't know about you but I have often had to forgive my friends. Luckily not nearly as much as they have had to forgive me. That's part of friendship. Forgiveness is so important you should actually begin by applying it to yourself. That's right forgive yourself FIRST! Go ahead do it right now. Ok, now that you realize you can forgive yourself even though you are a big time screw up you can apply the same forgiveness to others. Then accept them and finally apply the Love. Now doesn't that feel good?

This approach is a lot better than the classical approach to evangelism. The salesman approach. Qualify your target, next deliver your pitch and finally deal with every objection they can come up with and bingo you have yourself a new convert. Of course to do this you have to win every argument they can throw at you. So you better really study your Bible and when you are studying you should make notes maybe on cards that you can carry with you. These cards should describe all the ways people mess up and how that really ticks off God, but that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. This sounds good doesn't it???? Not really. The only part I like about it is that the end part is true. Before I point fingers at others, it's true that Jesus died for the screw ups that I have committed. But I accept that fact because of the radical difference I have seen in others and now the radical change and comfort that has provided in my life. I didn't come to that because somebody won the argument with me or signed me up in their down-line of salvations to secure bigger diamonds in heaven. (This is a bad reference to Multi-Level-Marketing which I wholeheartedly support in commerce just on in evangelism.)

The problem with the salesman approach is the same problem that salesmen have, it's called Buyer's remorse. Just because you appeared to make a sale didn't mean you made a convert. That is true in sales and it is true in evangelism. In both cases, you the salesmen can't tell which one you have but if you make a friend you usually know it. If you are there for them and they are there for you in good times and bad you have a friend. If you have a belief your friend can't help but respect that belief, and maybe someday embrace the belief themselves.

If you have a biblically based faith forget about conquest go out and make friends. You will feel much better about yourself.

Maybe we are not all in the same "sin boat".

2006-11-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

I just came across this joke. It represents one deminsion of our silliness. It begins:

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well, are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are your Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, Me too! Are your Episcopalian or Baptist? He said, "Baptist!" I said, "Wow! Me too! Are your Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord? He said, Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are your Original Baptist Church of God or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.

There is very little to say after that (but I will anyway). The question is, "Do we draw lines that don't exist in God's mind?" I grew up believing... (and when I say believing I want to point out this is not what my parents taught nor for that matter what my pastor taught. It was the greater Christian community in which I found myself. This included such experiences as church summer camp, etc.). As I say I grew up believing that the lines were there. In many ways it was not enough to simply believe in God, Confess Your Sins, Ask for God's presence in your life and begin to live a transformed life. You really had to believe much more than that. You did in fact have to agree on numerous (mind numbing) points of scripture. You had to believe that all kinds of things were inappropriate for a new transformed Christian and that simply making that step meant all urges and patterns went away and were erased. I could go on but you probably get the point. Whether you consider yourself spiritual, Christian or not you are probably very aware of this trend of mankind to make laws and rules.

(I believe this is part of our problem with the concept many have of what sin is but as I said before I'm not ready to post on that yet.)

As I get older I realize that people don't change easy and it may be that if you look too close they don't change at all. However when a life encouters God if you observe over a period of time and step back to try to be more objective you will often see that in fact some pretty radical changes are taking place. These changes are nothing short of a miracle. People don't change easily and the fact that they do is miraculous. The interesting or cool thing is that a lot of who they are stays with them. This is the character that God put in them for a reason. Makes no sense to me, it would be easier to turn everyone into a bunch of strick "rule following" robots, that doesn't appear to be how God works. He appears to like individuals. Maybe it doesn't take a village...maybe it takes everyone on the planet.

Penis Envy

2006-11-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

I just read through my blog posts and realized that for some reason I keep mentioning or aluding to that specific part of the male anatomy. Sorry about that. I actually thought I spent most of my time thinking about the counter-part to that anatomy. Figure it out yourself.

I'll try to not mention it again for a while, it just bothered me once I realized this fact and thought I would disclose that I knew. Lord forgive me for that there...

Meat Offered to Idols

2006-11-07T19:05:00.000-08:00

I read a blog a day or so ago that referred to an earlier post by the same person. He did in fact get my attention with both blogs:

Link to Perry Noble dot com » Blog Archive » Masturbation

So here are some thoughts:

In the later blog he mentions the recent pastor from Colorado who was caught in his own sin. The thing that made that a particularly juicy story for the media is because he was a very outspoken pastor about homosexuality and bingo that is exactly the sin (along with some others) he was caught in. I wrote a post recently about judging others (Judgement Day) in that I mention that when we do pick on somebody else's sin we are in danger of being caught in our own even bigger sin and it seems to me that from the Bible and mostly from experience it is made from the same material. Pastors should take note of this (not because I am saying it). Don't preach out so adamantly against sins, unless you are willing to admit right up front that you have a problem with that very sin yourself. It happens over and over again that a pastor speaks out STRONGLY against an issue and then gets caught in that very issue and that just makes too much good TV. It also damages the reputation of everyone trying to act like Christianity is a better way of life. You aren't perfect so maybe it would be better to admit that. We are all in the same sin boat together so the specific sins really aren't the issue, are they?

So the difficulties of judging other's mark-missing unfortunately is exactly what comes to mind- so to speak - when I hear this blogger go on about masturbation. I appreciate the apparent willingness of this pastor to talk about difficult issues but I am curious if this strong rebuke is the best way to grasp the situation. He talks about being naive and I don't want to even admit how old I was before I realized what masturbation was. I myself am pretty naive and I must say that at this point in my life I declare myself to be enthusiastically naive about goings on in this world. The more I learn about the more I don't wish to find out any more. I'm not sure that calling men sissy's is the best way to deal with the subject. God unfortunately made masturbation feel pretty good (apparently) and telling somebody that they must give it up may not sound like "good news". As with most sin there are probably better ways to expose it. (Sin - don't get me started on that. I have been working for a long time with an adequate definition of sin and I am not yet ready to post about that.)

I suppose this issue of masturbation is a better subject to be critical of than drug abuse, adultery or homosexuality because even if you do struggle with it who is going to know? You can probably keep it from everyone and your hand won't tell. It is all kept in a very small circle.

I have a hard time judging what others are doing because I may not fully understand their motivations. If a "dude" as he calls them has a wife who has a diminished desire for sexual relations (due to depression, menopause, handicap or whatever) what is he to do? As I say in my post about Judgement Day I am pretty busy with my own problems.

So if a pastor can't criticize sin what is a pastor to do? Well growing up I would have been dumbfounded by that question. I would have just said, duh I don't know. For the last 10 year however I have been at a great church, Washington Cathedral in Redmond and our senior pastor is great about preaching in ways that motivate (to repentance and life change). I could have never believed that you could preach without put downs but now I realize more what a true man of God is like, as well I understand more about the specific calling to ministry that can occur. My pastor may not approve of my posts in this blog, especially this one but he has a way of passing on God's Love not God's wrath. He is not perfect and he knows it but I will say he is the best pastor I have ever known on being able to preach Good News and motivate people to want to do better rather than feel guilty about something. And if I do cause trouble he has taken me out for a milk shake.

Guilt can work I don't discount that but Love and Acceptance work way, way better. I mean way better. If there is one thing I would like to say to pastors (other than the above comments) it is exactly that, Try to spend your time preaching about Love and Acceptance and you will find that you are in a much better position to deal with the sins going on than if you preach guilt. Guilt causes people to hide what they are doing, Love allows people to come out with their problems and feel like they will be helped. I'm not saying sin is ok far from it, but Love is more powerful. If we had all pastors preaching that rather than taking out their own frustrations of sin on others we would see first of all the media wouldn't have anybody to slam and maybe just maybe the true message of the Bible would be reaching more people.

Ok, I'll try to quit harping on this issue but sure seems like it keeps springing up. I obviously am trying to deal with some sin in my own life (since it is hard to see with this big beam maybe you could explain which one it is.)

Note: The day after writing this post I changed the title. This new title tied better to the link I was describing and created a Biblical perspective that better described what I was trying to say.

Technorati tags: Masturbation, sin, "Washington Cathedral", Love

Halloween is Cool again

2006-11-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

I grew up in church, probably been there since I was a couple weeks old. That was my parents doing of course I wasn't directed by God's spirit to go there or anything like that. When I was in High School our church used to have Halloween Parties, we even had "gasp" Haunted Houses complete with Hanging Corpses, coffin rising Mummies and pots of Witches Brew with the steam rising. The link I have provided below is a post written by a pastor and talking more about the childhood Halloween experiences but I am thinking about the teen Halloween experiences. This is the way it used to be. In church when Halloween came around we tried to scare the Hell out of you.

Then I went off to college that is when it turned as I recall. This was right around 1980 at Southern California College. The first year or so we had Halloween in the dorms, everyone dressed up, it was a little weaker in my Sophomore year and by my Junior year a bunch of people decided to pray instead of celebrating Halloween. Right around this time I noticed people in church not calling it Halloween any more. That went out of vogue.

You can probably look up history of Halloween. Ok way back it was probably a Pagen Festival of course not called Halloween. That is true for Christmas and Easter as well so why the focus on this celebration. At some point it was actually part of the church celebrations along with the others mentioned. Sure it was kind of a darker celebration but still it was part of the church.

So why did we give up this celebration and turn it over to the Devil?

I still haven't figured out that one. Like I say I remember when it happened but I can't for the life of me figure out why it happened. Even then I would look at people who were praying to "fight evil" because all the witches of the world were out celebrating and that is what Halloween was all about...SINCE WHEN???? I obviously didn't get it.

As a Christian why should I give up even one day to the Devil (could it be...SATAN?). Why can't I claim every day? Why can't I enjoy a little bit of evil in the world and basically make fun of and mock it? Does it really have that much power over me and other Christians? I don't think so!! I say it is time for Christian to take back Halloween. Remember next to Christmas Halloween is probably one of the best times for retail stores. Why couldn't it be a good time for the church as well? There I go thinking like a capitalist again. Follow the money. Harvest time is cool and you can't beat all that this time of the year yields in the way of fruit, apples alone are a good reason to celebrate Harvest. But harvest doesn't cut it...

I claim Halloween in the name of Jesus.

Link to Mad Babble From A Church Planter...: The Post That MADE me famous

Technorati tags: Halloween, Hell, Southern California College, Christians

Good for the soul

2006-11-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but music goes a long way to making things seem better. I wouldn't say I am a great music lover. I don't know who wrote what and the name of the bass player on a certain song, I just listen to music. I like all kinds of music. When I was in high school I thought only Heavy Metal Music existed. Then I took Music Appreciation in college. We had to go to the library and listen to music...stuff like classical music. I listened and I heard Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. What I realized...those guys rock!

Now I'm all over the place. I listen to classical often in the morning. At night I enjoy jazz to smooth out the edges of the day. Besides that I will listen to anything, rap, rock, country, blue grass, and yes even polkas if I'm in the mood. Italian Restaurant music is great while eating Italian food, and the same goes for mariachi for Mexican Food. But hey I'll listen to those if i feel like it. New Age Flutes haunting the air are cool also. Banging a tinkling cymbal or a loud gong can be great when I feel like it. I love listening to all kinds of music. Sometimes I sing, and I also enjoy the music of nature like listening to the wind blowing through the leaves of the tree or the sound of water running over rocks. Don't ignore the beauty of a good ole thunder storm.

This Saturday my church will be hosting a great musician. Sax is soothing, Sax is good for...well whatever you like to use it for. Here is the link to that concert. It will only last until the concert so I will most likely delete this part of the post after it is over. If you are in Redmond WA come on out.

~~Darren Motamedy at Sacred Space Concert @ Washington Cathedral~~

So what's wrong with this religion? huh?

2006-10-31T14:39:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article about some archeological find of evidence of an ancient Egyptian festival (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15475319/). So I was thinking why isn't this religion still around. Sure like the article says it sounds a lot like spring break and you could try to convince me that it is still around. But if people are so bad and don't care a thing about seeking truth represented by the standards set by God in the Judeo-Christian Bibles then why isn't there still a major religion that celebrates this "festival of drunkenness"?

I mean along with some good ole American capitalism it seems like this should be at least as big as Halloween (today's holiday). Maybe it wouldn't replace Christmas because that is good for merchants but sometime in the spring seems like this one would be a lot more fun than going door to door and collecting candy and then eating the candy until you puke.

I can't buy that just because some ruler came along and abolished the worship of this feminine god (sounds a bit like Devinci Code doesn't it?) that everybody said oh...ok wasn't that much fun any way. So what was the problem? I really hope somebody puts some responses to this post so I can hear some intelligent rational thoughts on the matter. Hopefully somebody doesn't start celebrating this new festival (or old festival) before they respond.

I have some thoughts about this like maybe there is something to this "God Thing", but would like to hear more.

What do you think?

Judgement Day

2006-10-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

Every day is judgement day in the christian world. We are always happy to do God's work by passing sentence on others. The truth of the matter is because that is far easier to do than to deal with our own issues. I should say with my own issues. This is one of the (many) things that bug me about Christians. The pleasure with which people point out others sins.

Scripture Time (without quoting the scripture which maybe I'll talk about some time in the future):

Seems like I remember that the Bible says that you shouldn't judge unless you want to be judged by the same standard. In the same breath or in a different place it talks about pulling a splinter out of somebodies eye (ouch) while having a 4X4 in your own.

Once again scripture proves cognizant of what is really going on...the reason it is harder to judge ourselves and deal with our own issues but very easy to point out anothers fault. The reason is because whenever I do that it so happens that my problem is way, way, way bigger than the tiny little problem I am noticing in somebody else. Size matters, and I have a big one (sin that is).

The only thing worse than that fact... my sin or problem or "issue", is that it is made from the same material. Notice the scripture talkes about a splinter and a beam...both are wood. For me this realization not only comes from my intense study of scripture (yeah right), but mostly from my observation in life. If I hear somebody complain about another person's problems I can tell you almost with a certainty that the judger has a bigger problem than the judgee and with the same issue. (Me thinks he protests too much.) If I've seen it once I've seen it twice and that is when somebody criticizes another for something they end up falling prey to the same thing.

So the only real advice I have is, mind your own business. Start widdling away at your beam and believe me you won't have the time to criticize or judge somebody else. Pray for help with your massive sized sin and maybe it will work out in the end when judgement day comes. It is really tough but I am going to try to keep my mouth shut and try if possible to control my mind in this regard. I will try to say to myself, "he thinks he has a problem he should see the size of MY beam". Remember I'm not bragging here. I really should have kept my mouth shut...or my fingers quiet. So go ahead let me have it tell me what's wrong with me. I can handle it. What size is your beam?

More On (or Moron) Blessings

2006-10-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

http://thecatalystchurch.blogspot.com/2006/09/blessed-to-be-blessing.html

This is a blog that I recently started reading and they are trying to start a discussion (one of many) on blessings. Since I mentioned that issue before I thought I would pass it along.

Blessings aren't what I thought

2006-10-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get confused by the fact that God supposedly wants good things to happen for me. That is the case RIGHT? Somewhere it seems like I read that God wants me to have even more than my earthly Father does. That's pretty cool tome because my Father is very generous, probably even to a fault (a phrase which here means more than he should). So if God wants even more for me than that I'm in pretty good shape.

Here's the problem with my logic...so far there are a lot of things in life that have not turned out like I had expected. In fact if you must know (a phrase which here means I'm going to tell you anyway) the fact that my Father is so generous is part of the problem. I am at a stage in life where I thought I would be able to be generous to my parents. Time to buy them a car, pay off their mortgage and send them on cruises. Hey I dream big.

So what happened in my equation? I started my own business almost 16 years ago. After some economic challenges the growth cycle of business changed. It downsized we used to say. Did God let me down? Sure felt and feels like it sometimes. Not only did the economy change but technology changed, so by the time the economy came back a lot of what I did before was no longer quite needed. Bummer!

So it's taken a while but here's what I've come up with...blessings are sometimes a choice and often don't look like I expected. See I am a Father (two children) and because of the extra time I have had over the last couple years I am probably a better father than what I was heading toward before the downsizing. I want my children to have everything they need, but I know they don't need everything they want. When they were young they wanted to run into the street, they definatly didn't need that.

I think it is no mistake that the Bible compares God to a father here and in other places. Now I get it...I don't always get what I want but do geteverything not only to survive but to thrive. I wanted money and instead got good quality relationships (especially with my wife...bonus) you can't buy that. I don't know what is in my future but hopefully even if I start getting more of what I want I won't forget these lessons. Seems like it is a constant lesson, like going through high school again...AAAGGHHHH!

Teach Me oh Wiki One

2006-10-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know that a blog is not wiki software but more of a journalling where everyone can read and comment. I have decided to begin to do it as almost a therapeutic exercise. I want to share thoughts and maybe workout a few demons. It's time to recieve a little teaching through this powerful entity the Internet. I was reading a blog by a the Worship Pastor at my church
(http://soul-friending.blogspot.com/2006/09/teachable.html)
I am trying to be teachable, by expressing my opinion and hopefully hearing feedback. Hopefully it isn't too painful as Scott talks about in stretching. By the way I always hated stretching for exercise. I enjoy the weight lifting and can tolerate the cardio but the stretching NO. I read some articles saying that passive stretching isn't really necessary. I don't know if it's true but I choose to believe that it is. I also choose to believe in the health benefits of drinking coffee so don't mess with that one either.

Any way learning isn't always easy but is necessary. I think this blog thing will be a good exercise. Maybe I'll look into the Wiki Based Religion. Sounds like a failure waiting to happen. The Bible talks about wherever 2 or 3 people agree...I will be in their midst. I'm guessing that the whole 2 or 3 agreeing doesn't keep God running around too much. That would be the failure in a Wiki Religion, it is based on consensus and that probably won't happen in regards to religion.

Any way if you are reading this blog hopefully it doesn't mess you up too bad. You may be better off reading Pastor Scott's blog to recover from the painful exercise I am going through. Speaking of which it's time to go out and do some weight lifting right now. Pump Me Up.

Jesus killed a tree

2006-10-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

A story in the Bible recounts a time when Jesus went over to a fig tree and just because it didn't have any figs he cursed it and killed the tree. Why would he do that? I was thinking about this partially because of a blog post my Pastor did (http://godmadethisday.blogspot.com/2006/10/god-and-enviornment.html)

You see I like the environment. I believe God made everything around us to enjoy and to take good care of. So why in a fit of anger because you can't get a piece of fruit would it be ok to kill a tree. When questioned on it Jesus just told his disciples and further more you could throw a whole mountain into the sea if you really want to. (He was of course providing an illustration for them on faith and it's a pretty powerfull lesson, even better than Yoda showing Luke Skywalker that you could lift a space ship out of a bog if you really believed.) But why kill this innocent tree. He didn't even cut it up for firewood or carve it into a canoe. There didn't appear to be much purpose. So does God really care if we take care of the environment?

I would like to think the answer to that is yes but it's sure curious isn't it? Maybe somebody else has a good answer for me. It's for certain that if Jesus went around doing that kind of stuff today people would begin to ridicule him and want to throw him in jail. Oh yeah they did that then also. Maybe he was just getting a tree ready for another purpose like a cross, Bible sure doesn't say that though. Well I'm getting kind of hungry now, somebody better have dinner ready.

The Almighty Dollar

2006-10-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure…I am a capitalist. By that I mean I believe that as far as world systems go money is a motivator. Whenever people try to make a system work that doesn’t allow individuals to prosper (such as socialism) it doesn’t work. Let me say that I wish socialism worked. It would be cool if everybody could be like on Star Trek, they work to improve themselves and for the betterment of their cause and therefore everyone around them. In this world it hasn’t turned out that way yet. People are greedy and they try to figure out how to make the system work for them…even if they aren’t supposed to think that way. So I believe we should acknowledge that and embrace capitalism (with a system of laws that protect against the negative side of greed).

Ok, so there you go I don’t know if this post is really a working out of my faith or not but I was thinking about wealth this morning. I think about it a lot because I don’t yet have it. I spent the early part of my life wanting and working for it. Once I actually started to make some money I begun to ACT as if I was wealthy. I thought I was going somewhere. I bought suits and nice black leather shoes so I could look successful. I tried to have a nice car and buy a house, then a bigger house. I kept pushing the edges to achieve more. Everybody around me told me the bigger house was the right thing to do. It would seem expensive now but eventually it won’t and it will turn out to be a great investment. I felt rich…I wasn’t.

So maybe this isn’t a spiritual post but I was thinking about the concept from the Bible where those who are least in reality are the greatest. They appear week to all of us but in reality they are strong. The reason for the money thing is I was realizing how it is true for money as well. You see there I was trying to look rich but in reality I was poor. I look at somebody driving an expensive car or flashing a plutonium credit card and think, I wonder how close to bankrupt that person is and if they even know themselves. On the other hand there are people who in their younger years never appear to have anything. They wear worn out clothing, live in a small house, drive used cars that are always falling apart. They talk about how expensive stuff is and then one day you find out they own a second house in addition to the one they live in that they rent out to somebody. If you get real close to them you find out that they started a small business on the side of their normal job and have a couple people working for them. The also have a CPA and a Lawyer that drive to see them. And if you happen to go to the bank with them for whatever reason the people there seem to know them and treat them really nice. Their kids go to college and then you find out that one of them takes over the family business which now includes a couple of rentals and an apartment complex. Then your friend retires and starts traveling and you find out they never have to worry about money again. And maybe they even start driving fancy Mercedes (but they paid cash, unlike the huge debt you have on yours).

The least will become the greatest. Maybe I shouldn’t tie parts of the Bible to money but you know what, the Bible actually talks about money a lot so I don’t think God is against money (of course there are issues with it that do get some negative mention). God allows money to be a part of our lives. It can control us or it can be under our control. When we live on the edge of our ability and have piles of debt I would say money is definitely in control. I suppose if you have lots of money that it is possible for money to be in control there also I just don’t know about that part. Like everything else in life there is one person that gets to decide which way it is going to be (You). If the piles of debt are there they are hard to get rid of. It could be that the best thing that can happen is for it all to come crashing down. Then you have an opportunity to start over. Starting over from Zero is actually better if you think about it than the negative position of debt…at least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself. I am not yet rich or greatest but I have not yet given up either. Just don’t expect me to act rich any time soon, whether because it is a financial thing or a spiritual thing.

WWJD

2006-10-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

We have all seen this acronym. For those that don't know, it stands for What Would Jesus Do?

Good Question! Now don't get me wrong I like the marketing of this phrase. It's a good thing to ask yourself. Before you really mess up a situation or a relationship ask yourself...What WOULD Jesus Do? That is right up there with what will this box of donuts do to my waistline? Pictures of me show the answer. I am trying to change that reality. I should have asked the question before I ate the donuts (for 15 years). But now I can see the result. Just like that I should have more often asked myself what would Jesus Do?

So now the awkward part. There are some that ask this question and think Jesus would do what I think he should. La, la la...rose petals falling from the sky and snow flakes but it isn't cold. The problem I have with that is that I think Jesus would surprise us.

I think we might even be shocked to think what Jesus would do. If he were here we would expect him to act in one way and then BLAM...he would do something completely, radically different. And the sad part is if I read my Bible correctly the more spiritual I think I am the more likely he would shock me, and maybe even upset me. I would expect him to walk up to a Gay Guy, grab him by the you-know-what and say BE HEALED. He probably wouldn't do that at all. He would probably instead look me in the face and whisper to me what MY problem is (there are so many). It would make me feel about as big as a you-know-what. Then he would say so now, "what's your problem?" Then I would just have to leave and I wouldn't even get to see what he said to the Gay Guy. What would he say to the racist? I bet it's not what you think. What about somebody else? I don't know I'M NOT JESUS. Thankfully(but that's probably a subject for another post).

So even though I should ask myself before I do something (else) stupid WWJD? I don't think I'm going to go around and ask anybody else that question. It might come off wrong. And now that I've put the idea out there I don't want Jesus to come up to me and grab me... and say BE HEALED. Don't go there.

My Alter Ego

2006-10-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

That's not because I'm a super-hero or even something that is getting worked out with a therapist(although maybe I should be). It's because I have a dark side a somewhat hidden personality. It's not the visible side, it's a spiritual side. Truth is I hope it is not that hidden but I fear sometimes it is. It's that I have faith and hope (ok love too). I started a blog recently about my work with computer networks and running a business. After thinking some about what to include I decided I may wish to write about my alter-ego so I decided to put that in a different place...and here we are.

Next the name...sounds kind of negative and dark but I thought there should be truth in blogging so rather than try to lead anybody to believe I am under the impression that I am a super spiritual person I figured I should come out of the dark and let you know otherwise (you would figure it out pretty quick anyway).

The color...well that's just for effect. To be dramatic. So that is my introduction. It is likely this effort will even cause athiests to pray for my soul (but hey that would be a good thing right?)

I'll be in touch soon...