Zephaniah 3:17

door to door evangelism

thoughts

I find myself ever more in the pursuit of finding God's love. Whether in the mundane, tragic, ghastly, simple, remote, or busy events of life his love is ever present. At times it is hard to find, but it is there. Sometimes it is loud and evident and other times eerily quite. But the God who in geneses, broke on the scene with quite walks with us in Eden and who in Mathew came to us with peace on earth and good will toward men, is here on this planet pouring out his love and mercies. I'm not entirely sure why God has pursed me with such love and blessings, but as a Christian it is my privileged obligation to whole heartedly focus on his love. This pursuit of his love is something I have missed my whole Christian life, but is now something I refuse to put down. God is love and they will know we are of him because of our love. Not our persuasive words, are clean theology, our inclusive clamor, no they will know we are his because we love.

You see the reason I am not living a life that is drenched in the realization of God's love is because as a fallen creature I am inherently self focused-- pursuing the things of this earth. With that misdirected thought process I miss the love of God at most every step; until of course during those times self focus God reaches through in a lovingly overbearing way and shows me anew his loving kindness, which then I am forced to ponder his goodness. At those times my heart sees his provision and I instinctively praise him. But because we do not set our minds to pursue his love we lose the vision of his love within days.

Our highest calling from Christ is to love the Lord our God with all our heart mind and spirit. But who are we loving? We are loving Love. Yes love. God is love. That is who he is in all his great unspeakable glory. All of who He is can be wrapped up in one seemingly simple word: Love.

With that said may I restart the process of fulfilling Christ's greatest command. "Love the Lord with all your heart with all your mind and all your soul."

I wrote this to myself on February 04^th 2006. I thankfully found it tonight, just when I needed it.

Again, my comments are still down..... Someone remind me to get with my host about it.... :-)

Celebrating Ezzo week

TulipGirl is blogging about Ezzo week. Please stop by her blog and take a few minutes to read some of her posts. Here are two links (1 2)

This reading is not just for new parents. Make sure you know who Ezzo is so that when he and his books are brought up in conversations at church you will be able to speak intelligently about topics such as Failure to Thrive, Loss of Milk Production, Lies about Family beds (remember they use to call SIDs "Crib Death" for a reason), Cry it out, and Gary Ezzo's 2 Excommunications

Back when I went to school up at Ravencrest one of the guest speakers had a saying that still resonates with me to this day. He said: "Rules without relationship leads to rebellion". One of my biggest beefs with Ezzo is that he focuses on the rules and behavior and thus lets the relationship take the backseat. Remember that God says "...with loving-kindness I have drawn you" Jeremiah 31:3b. One easy question that we should ask while rearing our kids is: Am I drawing my kids into a relationship with me and by proxy into relationship with God, through loving-kindness? I think ultimately you could ask yourself: Am I parenting my children the way that God parents me?

Though, the problem with my last question is that a lot of Christians are so busy punishing, chastising, disciplining, and belittling themselves that they don't have a clue how God parents them. All they know is what their legalism tells them, not what God in his word has told them. Yes, it ain't pretty.

Scientology

It says I am a Reformed Evangelical

You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die. Fundamentalist 82% Reformed Evangelical 82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Neo orthodox 57% Emergent/Postmodern 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 36% Classical Liberal 36% Roman Catholic 21% Modern Liberal 4% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Hat Tip to Daniel over at In the Lion's Den for the link to the quiz.

What the HECK!

Take the time to read the letter below the fold. What a load of garbage, and the fact that they actually got 10,000 clergy members to sign it is a complete outrage. Really!

Here is a little quote:

Here's another:

Let me interpret what they just said: If you don't believe in evolution you are not using your mind and in effect rejecting God.

Again, what the heck.

Isaiah 55:9

That's what I'm talking about!

Let me be honest

My dad every year tends to give us self-help books for Christmas. I think it tends to conjure up a bit of angst on the part of all of us kids for one reason or the other. I would bet just about all the money in the world that I am the only one of my siblings that actually reads the books he gives. The main reason I read the books is not because I want to "get better", but because I want to honor my dad and respect him in the position God has placed him in. Yes, I realize that I am 30+ years old, but I still feel God has placed him in my life and that part of honoring the position Christ has placed him in is to accept his leadership.

All of that said my parents were passing through on Saturday and dad gave me one of my Christmas presents early. He gave me Joel Osteen's book Daily Readings from Your Best Life. I have to admit that I am not excited about it at all, but as usual I am going to read it. The problem is that I am so cynical about the whole Christian 7 step books. I have really begun to dislike popular Christian fad books. You know, the let me chop it up and feed it to you on a rubber baby spoon kind of Christian books.

Well, since this is a devotional book Leslie and I are going to read it together. Last night was our first night. It was pretty good. The first devotion had to do with Hebrews 11 and faith. He used the Hebrews faith passage to talk about following God by faith to wherever He has called us. His point was God either puts a drive in our heart like Abrahams father to go to Canaan (promise land) or a direct call in our lives like he did with Abraham. The problem is that like Abrahams father, we get comfortable at some point in our journey and settle in a land that is nice but not everything God has intended for us. Olsteen's call was for us to continue the journey we started. That we should take the land He has given us, and that we should not grow complacent with what God has already blessed us with.

All in all it was a good read. Leslie and I had some interesting discussions afterwards. But truthfully, there is something about books like this that rub me the wrong way. Dad says it is my inner negative self talk that has conditioned me to fight positive influence in my life. There is probably some truth to his point. I think part of my legalistic sensibilities just stops me from drinking in God's grace and blessings in my life. Am I the only one or am I just over thinking it?

speaking in tongues

Daniel over at In the Lion's Den did a little post about the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board forbidding missionaries from speaking in tongues. Southern Baptist or not, I would be interested in hearing some of your comments on it. If you have a chance, then jump on over toDaniel's site and leave your two cents.

fyi....I'm turning off comments on this one.

hanging out where the goldfish are edible

Hixson Presbyterian Sunday School

It was our turn to help out with children's church this past Sunday. Leslie was with Elliot in the crawlers and I was with John David in the 3 year old's (give or take 6 months) class. In an effort to help us find our spiritual gifts and to develop a heart for the childrens ministry our church has all the members take turns helping with children's church. I'm certain what my primary (if there is such a thing as a primary) spiritual gift is, and I can tell you emphatically it has nothing to do with helping out with 12 three year olds for an hour. To be honest it probably has to do with me being lazy, but 12 three year olds require a level of energy that I am just not capable of mustering up.

The first time I realized that the hour was going to be a long time was after I had read three books, played legos (check out this link) for a while, and resolved four or five tug-o-war\toy disputes only to look up and see that 20 minutes had passed. Luckily they have this thing, which is oddly missing in the adult service called "snack time". I'm considering going before the next meeting of the session to get the scoop on what happened to snack time. Well, after a little song\prayer snack time began. It kept them occupied for another 10 minutes or more.

I guess I am totally out of the loop because I did not know the words to the snack time prayer song. The funny thing is that another parent happened to walk in right before the song prayer began and jumped right in. I think John David and I were just amused by all the little kids folding their hands and singing. To be quite honest I kind of felt like I did the time or two when I visited a catholic church. You know, not sure when to stand, sit or kneel. Yea, it is kind of an odd feeling to have in a PCA church.

Well, it was while they were eating their goldfish and fruit drops that I pulled out my camera. I'm going to have to keep the camera in mind going forward because as soon as I pulled it out they totally became mesmerized by it. I had to hold the camera way above my head in order to get them all in the shot, so I was not able to get a really good shot. John David is at the top right.

Yea back to the service. After snack time the dipper changes started. Luckily, due to some insurance reasons only women are allowed to change diapers. Normally I would think about raising Cain because of the inequality issues, but I decided to let this one go. ;-) By the time half of the most critical diapers were changed it was time to start cleaning up. I guess the real problem with the whole morning was that we were suppose to get to a bible story, but just ran out of time. I'm not sure it is a realistic possibility that 12 three year olds would all sit at the same time much less sit and listen to a short bible story. I mean, you are really dealing with a 15 second attention span. Well, maybe a bit longer if you are lucky enough to have one or two daze off into outer space for a bit.

playbook for the reformed

Here's a play straight out of the Calvinistic playbook for lovers: here

I used it on Leslie this morning. She swooned. Okay not exactly swooned, but I did get a good smile out of her.

those poor babies goldfish

How can you care more about the eye sight of goldfish than you do about unborn children? I just don't get it.

I tracked down this interesting article on abortion statistics in Italy. Here is a quote that I find really surprising.

I wonder if abortion is higher for the same subgroups here in the US. It is hard to believe that mothers and housewives would be those who abort the most.

I know I have said it before but I really hate abortion. I wish there was something I could do about it.

Gandhi vs. Christ

Halloween or not......II

Here is a little more reading on Halloween. Be sure to check out the comments as well. Both are pro Halloween. Yeah, the first quote would make you think he was against the holiday but he is not. The second quote is from a blog I don't visit often enough. I like his point -- that something which has bad beginning does not have to have a bad ending. I think his point really speaks to the nature of Christ.

From Baylyblog

From Nowhereville, USA

He makes some really good points. What does peek my interest, whether rightly or not, is that in his holiday breakout none of his holidays have any religious significance to him. Maybe I am reading a bit too much into it. I guess his "A time to enjoy friends and family through shared traditions" could also encompass any religious traditions.

Like Daniel brought up in his last comment on the Halloween or not…… post I think it is important for me as an evangelical to tie religious meaning to most if not all of my holidays I celebrate. I think it is a natural out flowing of the significance of holidays to God in the Old Testament. I do see a difference in the OT holidays, which all pointed to Christ and our modern day holidays, but where those ties in our holidays are easily made shouldn't they be?

Halloween or not....

There was a point in time where Leslie and I gave out candy and the like at Halloween, but we always kind of questioned whether Halloween was a holiday that we should celebrate as Christians. The last time we did give out candy we has some idiot (I only call them an idiot because it was a hit and run) ran into our mailbox while trying to back out of our drive way, so we decided the next year not to give out candy and for some reason we just never have again.

But, now that we have two little ones we are going to have to settle the issue once and for all. Over at Carol's Storybook she presents Halloween from a perspective I had not heard.

So what do you think, will you be handing out goodies?

new old blog

Parental Rights vs. Public Schools

Here is an extremely disturbing article on how far Ted Kennedy's home state will go to suppress the rights of those parents who feel that public schools should not usurp the their role of teaching personal values to children.

Thanks Eric

old photo

1977 at CBMC

My Aunt Sandy came across this picture and sent it my way via e-mail. She saw where I had mentioned the CBMC conference that my parents were headed to teach. The South East CBMC conference use to be held at Covenant Collage up until the mid 80's or so, and this picture is of me back in 1977 at the age of three standing in front of Covenant College.

Thank for the picture Sandy!

2005 General Assembly

he called me a fundie

Talk about little things that can make your day.

I'm the head of "one of those Bush-loving Christian fundie families:"

Hugo's Christian Business idea

a sick man in a sick world

Schindlers' spiritual advisers said the couple had been at their daughter's besides minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room.

"And so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," said the Rev. Frank Pavone.

terri's death

Here is a link on death by dehydration from the Catholic Educator's Resource Center.

gay marriage

I had originally written this as a comment on this blog, but my comment was too long.

For me it all boils down to there being unalienable and alienable rights. Our founding fathers saw this distinction also and created a system of government that protected these non transferable rights, those being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I think the founders chose life as the first unalienable right to mention in their Declaration of Independence because it is the core right given to us by God. God initiated the institution of marriage as the spring that life would flow from.

Once moving past their declaration of independence the founders set forth to write a Constitution and a Bill of Rights which were intended to be the ideal system for those unalienable rights to flourish. I don?t think the founders ever envisioned that the institution of marriage, which produced the core unalienable right, would be in danger. They would not have seen a need to protect that institution partly because man invents new ways to commit sin (Romans 1:30). If they had seen that the institution that produced life would have been in danger, I have no doubt that it would have been address. Does anyone know if gay marriage has been attempted by any other culture that proceeded the last 500 years? I would be surprised if they did.

As a Christian, and yes I know not all Christian agree with me on this, I have a requirement to stand for what Christ stands for, marriage being one of those things. Out side of that fact common sense requires that I look ahead to see what the side effect of gay marriage would be. One of those side effects would be polygamy. Both issues have to be addressed at the same time. I know that the gay lobby calls it a red herring to bring in polygamy, but the red herring is theirs. Both issues are involved here and have to be address.

This post was one of my favorite posts because we were able to carry on a great discussion about a hot topic. I am not sure about Texas marriage laws but maybe one day they will have more content.

aborting my marriage

dirty politics

I have really made a concerted effort to lay off the political blogging here lately, but I just have to speak up on this one. When I went to Kerry-04.org I was struck by the picture of Kim Jong-il, Osama, and Sadam with the question asked "This November who would they vote for". Without a doubt they would vote for Kerry. Am I wrong about that? People might call Bush a hot head, war-hawk or something else, but at this point in our nations history I feel much safer having Bush in the WH.

On the other hand I don?t think this site helps convince non-bushies to vote for him. If you are going to present truths about Kerry's short comings to try and convince people who they should vote for, then I don?t think mocking Kerry while doing it is helpful in your cause. Though, political cartoons have been a part of our nation?s history going back to the colonist, so maybe I?m wrong.

One last thing: I just love the political process in this country. Every 4 years I look forward to the conventions and hearing what everyone has to say. The Democratic convention has been quite interesting. There have been several really good speeches and other that should have been left out. I think they should have dropped Gore from the speech line up. I think the Dems already have their base fired up and if anything they turned off some potential voters with his speech. I really wanted to catch Clinton the first night, but it came on way too late and I missed it. I am not sure why they had him come on so late, but I guess there was some reason. I might have to find his speech on-line somewhere. I love watching his speeches because I could always count on him to get my ire up. Well, that?s not the only reason. There is something about the man I find extremely fascinating.

Carters? speech was the best I have seen so far. After Carters speech I would have gotten up to go early vote if I were one of those people that needed all of their ?opinions? feed to them?.Heinz-Kerry?s speech was probably the worst.

the quiz

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sanctity of marriage

God's Sovereignty

living an eternally significant life

Well on the 3rd I turned 30. I have to say that I am starting to feel old. I really did not think 30 would be a big deal. My wife turned 30 on the 13th of May, so I had a few weeks to think about what it would be like for me to turn 30. I kept thinking that turning 25 would be a much bigger deal then 30. I mean, at 25 you are a quarter century which is half way to 50. My thinking that 25 was a big deal and that 30 would be nothing has just not panned out that way.

I guess I started college about 6 years later then the average person, so all through my college years I hung out with people younger then myself. That being the case I always felt that I was younger then I actually was. Even now, most of the people I would call close friends are 5 years younger than me. All that said, I was thinking this morning about Ronald Reagan?s death and the finality of life. I was thinking about all the great things he achieved and how history would remember him as a great man. I guess some where deep down I always had some illusions of grandeur about how my life would turn out. Not that this is the end of my life, but I do suspect that I will not achieve some of the lofty goals\ideas I had about where I would end up.

After a bit of thought, I think I am okay with that. I realize that my goals were more about me then Him.

I guess this is where I confront that recurring theme in my life of living an eternally significant life.