Short Christmas

It is a short Christmas for Rose and I. We both have to work on the 26th and today. So we get a one day break. Better than nothing.
The big news around here is the small possibility of afternoon snow tomorrow. I talked about this about a month ago. Forecasters always call for snow that never happens. I doubt this will be an exception.
Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. This year I am amazed at the authentic way that God choose to show himself known through the incarnate baby Jesus. It is through this baby that we have life abundant. Here are some other good thoughts on Christmas.

What is God showing you this Christmas?

Hard As Nails

Last night on Nightline ABC they had a showcase on Justin Fatica. He has an HBO special documentary coming out called "Hard as Nails." He is an unordained Catholic priest and he travels around the country speaking to youth at churches and schools. He is a very polarizing person and a very intense speaker. He has people beat him with chairs while telling students that Jesus loves them. He makes students carry a wooden cross so that they can better understand the pain Christ went through. This certainly opened my eyes. I don't doubt that his heart is in the right place, but I wonder if we really need to go this far. I mean the next step is put a crown of thorns on our heads so that we can better understand. Is all that really necessary? Here is a Nightline article and video.

Fridays are for New Music .3

I got this song a while back and have neglected to share its awesomeness to all of you. So without further ado. Phil Wickham's "True Love" is an incredible song and this video is an acoustic version but his great guitar skills and unreal vocals show even more because of that. In heaven I might be able to sing like him......I said might.

Church Politics: Afterthoughts

I have thought a lot about my three posts on church politics this past week. Even though my hardest experience with them happened over four years ago, it still feels very real even to today. I guess that is the problem everyone has with politics in church,. Church needs to be more than a business environment. There are people, that if I saw right now, I don't know how I'd react. I like to think that I could be cordial and leave the past in the past, but I thought a lot this week about that. I still think church politics exist in every church, but I hope I didn't come across as hardened by my experience. Such as simply thinking that they exist and we just need to deal with it. Partially, this is true. But also, everyone deals with emotional hurts and pains different. Some people never recover from being hurt by church leadership or even in a small group and they allow this hurt to wreak havoc on their relationship with Christ. The bottom line for me is that if you are expecting church to be a bubble from the crap of life, you are fooling yourself. If you put yourself into church ministry whole heartedly, you will get hurt at some point. The saying goes...better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. This applies to church politics because you can only get out of ministry what you put in. If you never put your whole self into it, you will never get everything out of it that you can. Only CHRIST can be that safe haven from life's crap. He is our comfort. Him alone.

God Tube .2

Tonight at Insight (Sunset's High School group), we showed a video that I've heard many, many people talk about. This is a "buzz" of some sort created by God Tube because that is where the video is found. Now could this exist on You Tube and be highly successful....of course. But I don't want to debate that again. For the 95% of you that have seen this, sorry. This is for the 5% of you that haven't. The first minute or two are a little boring but give it time, you will be blown away. If God Tube can provide a place for original content (like this video) then I can guarantee it will be a success and a success I will support.

Good Reminder

One of my favorite churches to glean from is LifeChurch in Oklahoma. Their pastor has been doing a short blog series called "spiritual esteem" that has really got me thinking. It is easy to do ministry for people because a lot of ministry is trying to reach people for Jesus. However, I think Lifechurch's pastor Craig Groeschel is right on when he says, "You are not what you did, what you do, or what you are going to do. You are who Christ says you are." Check out his post here. I always find myself living in the moment and living for success in a human perspective, but not very often do I truly live for Jesus. It was a good reminder.

PS. Tomorrow I'll post the final piece to "Church Politics"

5 Reasons I Love "It's a Wonderful Life"

For the past six or so years I've always watched "It's a Wonderful Life" on Thanksgiving weekend. It is definitely my favorite Christmas movie. I know, its black and white and old but I just love it.

1. George Bailey is the story of every man (and woman). In the beginning of the movie his dad asks him to stick with the building and loan and he says no. He has big plans, like lassoing the moon. Of course, life gets in the way. His dad dies and he sticks with the building and loan, and then his brother gets married and has a good job offer. Just because he never travels the world doesn't make his life less significant.
1a. Everyone has had life unravel just like George's does when the money is lost in Potter's newspaper.

2. Good versus evil. It is the story of good versus evil. Bailey versus Potter. Potter is out to make a buck and has bad public relations but George Bailey and his family are selfless and live a middle class life so that they can bless the lives of others.

3. Everyone likes to think they are giving and selfless but few have done what George Bailey did on his wedding day.
3a. Everyone would love to see what kind of impact they have had in the world.
3b. Everyone loves to be appreciated for what they have done.


4. Clarence Oddbody is cooler than any angel I could think up.


5. The ending makes me tear up every time. Call me a woman or whatever, but the ending is perfect.

Jonestown

Tonight on SportsCenter they had a showcase on Jim Jones, one of the most infamous men in US History. I have to admit that I had never heard of him. It isn't common for history classes to teach modern religion history is my only excuse. I consider myself a person who knows a fair amount for my age but this I did not know. Here is a video about Jim Jones and Jonestown, Africa.


SportsCenter was showing this because Jim Jones' grandson is now a freshman on the basketball team at the University of San Diego. Jones' son was in the capital of Guyana at the time of the mass murder-suicide. He and some of his brothers had formed a basketball team and they were playing in a tournament in Georgetown, Guyana. That is how only a few descendants of Jim Jones survived. Really...an amazing story despite how shocked I was that I had never heard of this event specifically.

I know this isn't news to most people who read this. It just amazes me how much the Gospel can be skewed.

Role Play

A friend of mine from college, Scott Mackey, wrote a blog that kind of sparked my thinking. You can take a look at it here.

He says, "Perhaps someday there will be a movement of young (or even old) professionals to the streets. The message of the “the other” will penetrate the veneer of the corporate world and we will witness communities of people who are accountants, successful doctors, executives, suburban pastors, and the like moving into simple housing with large closets for their business suits; choosing to ignore the values of the American Dream for the sake of the other."

This got me thinking. Mother Theresa was poor and made a big difference. Bill Gates is rich and makes a big difference in the world too. I am not distinguishing between making a difference for poverty or for Christ...for this piece, they are the same.

The Bible says that it is harder for the rich to get to heaven and to me this makes a lot of sense. The rich don't need to rely on God as much as someone poor because they can provide for themselves. I remember when I first started my copier sales job...My boss made a legit 400k and he went to church every Sunday. He said everyone in church plays a role and our role is to make a lot of money so that we can tithe a lot. I don't think you can say that is wrong, but it has to be more than just showing up and dropping a big check in the bucket. God doesn't care about the outside, he cares about the inside.

So just as my friend advocates for those who are choosing to be poor and live an abnormal life, I think I'd say that my old boss was right about everyone playing a role in the Kingdom. It might be more difficult for a rich person to rely on God but the one that does and uses their money to make a difference for poverty and/or Christ can do a lot more than most poorer people. Each person has to decide what their cause will be. I left my business job to pursue ministry, but I know that without generous givers at churches I won't have a job. Everyone plays a role.

In but Not Of .3

Willow Creek pastor Bill Hybels has recently written a book about relationship evangelism. It is called Just Walk Across the Room, here is some info about it. He is basically encouraging believers to enter into the non believers world instead of us waiting for them to come to ours. This seems to reciprocate what we've been discussing quite well.

On to numero tres.

3. Buy season tickets to a local sports team. Not only will you create relationships with other season ticket holders with seats close to yours, but there is no way to go to every game. You can use this to bless friends from all walks of life. Now make sure you have the money for this...season tickets ain't cheap. Baseball has the most games so if you are really wanting to be able to give a lot of tickets away, that is the way to go. In places far away from sports , like my in laws, thanks for reading gar and lynne :) you will obviously have to be more creative. Tickets to underwater basket weaving are great.

This is my last post on this. So I'd love to hear YOUR ideas?

Fusion Rundown .3

Ok here we go

Everlasting God: Capo 3 in G otherwise known as Bflat
Son of God: G
Lead me to the Cross: G
Grace Like Rain: E
From the Inside Out: E

I really liked this set. All songs we had done before with Fusion so I think the involvement by everyone was probably better than other times. Inside Out in E is a bit low for me singing wise but I think for the average person it probably works a little better. I just thought the set had good flow from song to song. Focusing on God to Jesus to his sacrifice to him transforming us. A good night of music.

Rip City

I was looking at Google Trends. A google app that allows you to choose words and look at the trends of how often people search for a word and where they do it from. So I typed in "emerging church" and it was a little weird...it shows that most searches for this word occurred in 2007 and the highest number of searches per capita happened from Portland, OR. You can look at this search HERE. I just thought it was interesting....its per capita basically so its not sheer number but the highest percentage of people in Portland out of all other cities were searching for this. It can be a sign of optimism because I don't think Portland would be called a highly reached area for Jesus.

If Jesus Were Alive...Where Would He Live?

I've often wondered if Jesus were alive and he had complete control (duh?) over where he could live...where would it be? Americans I'm sure will think somewhere within the US. Of course being from the Northwest, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to live in the Midwest (hot summers, cold winters). When he walked earth he was in the Middle East which is pretty hot, so it might seem logical for Death Valley to be his destination or Florida or Hawaii. Of course he could speak any language in the world, because he is all-knowing, so that wouldn't hinder him. And he would probably use some more of his time on earth to reach more people with the Good News. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

My opinion: He didn't really have a place he called home, outside of heaven, according to the Bible. So I'm sure he would wander. A sojourner.

Where do we draw the line?

I have a test this Friday. My first test in seminary, in my Christian Theology course. I can't remember the last time I studied this hard for a test, but don't tell my undergrad profs that. We are mostly covering some basic theological concepts and areas of study. I'm going to focus in on general and specific revelation. For those who don't know what these are I'll give a basic intro.

General revelation: God is shown in ways available to all people, i.e. nature
Specific revelation: God is shown to some people in various ways, i.e. The Bible

I don't immediately have a problem with either. God created earth and it was good, it says in The Bible, so therefore we must be able to "see" Him through nature. God has also given us The Bible in written (and audible in the 21st century) form which is not available to everywhere.

There are still people groups with which the Bible has not been translated to.

It does get more confusing to me when people say that all people must be held accountable where they have heard the good news of Jesus Christ or read the Bible. This is because God has shown himself through nature and people should be able to come to believe the one true God. But let me draw this example up for us. There is a kid born in a remote village in India, who is immediately introduced into Islamic culture and this is all he ever knows. No missionary ever visits his village and he never travels outside his village. At age 18 he dies somehow, having never read the Bible or had the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed to him. However, he has seen the wheat fields and trees and the mountains in the distance. He goes to his death believing in Muhammad and the god of Islam, but he is held accountable for not accepting the God of Jacob and Abraham. If forced...how could I tell his family that he will is certainly not be in heaven?

How can we be sure that he experienced the one true God in nature?

I believe whole heartily that everyone is accountable and everyone is given a chance to accept God. No one questions whether Moses and Abraham will make it to heaven, yet they never had a chance to meet Jesus or read of his works and resurrection. But I really become confused as to where to draw the line and how on earth I condemn this 18 year old Indian that he denied the one true God.

There is no easy answer, even intellectually. I would rather say argue that everyone is accountable than to say God cannot show himself through nature. Clearly the creation is a glimpse of the Almighty. But it feels hard for me to know that the God I praise might deny someone who has not heard the good news outside of the trees of the forest.
I see myself as appreciating nature because of my relationship with Christ. I find it hard to believe that I could have found the one true God without prior knowledge of who this God is.

The obvious statement is that I struggle balancing all this.