Our new church and passion in the south!

So, I am driving down the road and see this sign for a church and think this is da place fer me!

Then I pull in and see the building and I am like yeah multi-tasking this is definetely fer me!

I head in side and see they are having a candle light vigil!

But the tops is the passion of the congregation members, turns out after the sermon is NASCAR! Or is the three stand for the Holy Trinity?

THE ULTIMATE IRONY

OK, So I could not strike for very long? I saw this and could not resist!

ON STRIKE!

THATS IT I AM ON STRIKE, I AM TIRED OF POSTING WITH NO COMMENTS SO LIKE ORAL ROBERTS I AM NOT POSTING AGAIN TILL I HAVE ATLEAST ONE MILLION COMMENTS! OK, MAYBE NOT A MILLION BUT ATLEAST HALF A MILLION! OK, MAYBE NOT A HALF MILLION BUT ATLEAST 5 COMMENTS!

Need Potty Training?

I saw my sister in law potty trained my nephew and felt bad I did not share this ad with her sooner.



We are actually considering a franchise? Let me know what you think?

Garbage in, Garbage out?

I am sure many of you have heard this at least once in your life. If not let me explain, it is the flawed premise that if you are to partake in the evil fruits of the druid secular culture you are filling yourself with garbage and therefore will spew garbage as a result. I can remember a time when I took my rather large CD collection and got rid of it to have nothing but "Christian" music. Now not to say there is anything wrong with that, and before I get blasted for approving of explicit things, which I do not, let me explain my view.
The first real flaw with this is that there is no part of society that is not tainted by sin or sinners, including "Christian" entertainment. I was watching Mark Lowry speak and I have a new respect for him, because he spoke about the only difference between a "Christian Entertainer" and the audience was three feet. The three feet that the stage is raised above the audience. Other than that he suffers with the same sin the rest of us do.
The next flaw is who for certain knows what distinguishes clean "Christian" music from unclean "secular" music? Is "Left Behind" so much better than "The Hunt for Red October?" Because it is on a "Christian" label the Priest has blessed it with Holy Water it is ok? I guess POD is no longer saved cause they are on a secular label?
Truth of the matter is "garbage in, garbage out" operates under the premise that if I see and hear sin up close, I will want to participate in it? THE TRUTH IS SIN LOOKS ATTRACTIVE FROM A DISTANCE, the closer you get to it the more clearly you see it for what it really is. I was around alcoholism my entire life, growing up I watched it destroy lives, hurt and scar people for life. This was more than enough to convince me that getting trashed all the time and becoming an alcoholic is in no way fun or enjoyable.
God sent the Holy Spirit for discernment and that requires us to use it to filter out the culture of our time. We do this in both Christian and Non-Christian environments moving toward what is good and rejecting what is bad. In order to engage the culture we live in and be relevant to today we must watch films, listen to music, read books, watch TV, shop at the mall, and most importantly engage with others. Otherwise we can't begin to do the transforming work of the gospel in our culture and we become ineffective to the ones God has called us to Love.

Its good to be at home!

Well as you all now know I am home, what you did not all know is I was living in Hellston, TX the fourth largest city in the country and the second dirtiest. I can't believe it now, but I started this little journey on July 4th and minus two weeks home for paid time off, I was gone the entire time. Well suffice it to say you learn a lot about yourself and your family while apart. I learned that I can still cook for myself. I also learned I can't do laundry for myself, see dingy grey white shirts. I found out that if you kids are watching a movie and on the phone, the movie always wins, no matter how long it has been since you talked to or seen them. This also applies to your spouse as well, I know I am guilty too! I also found that it can be a pretty lonely world out there without your family. I not only take a new appreciation for being able to spend time together, but also being able to just do the most mundanest of chores together. There is no place like your own bed, but more importantly there is no better place to sleep than holding my wife. I also found that I could get depressed without my wife to talk to. Finally, I know why God paired me with such a beautiful, young, loving, sincere, caring wife. Because, first off He could, second she encompasses everything I hope and aspire to be. She is my earthly reason for being and will make up the better half of my future here on the second rock from the sun. Till I go to be with the Son. I thank God for Him and what He has done with my life thus far, I am more excited than ever to see what He does with our future!

Its good to be at home!

Well as you all now know I am home, what you did not all know is I was living in Hellston, TX the fourth largest city in the country and the second dirtiest. I can't believe it now, but I started this little journey on July 4th and minus two weeks home for paid time off, I was gone the entire time. Well suffice it to say you learn a lot about yourself and your family while apart. I learned that I can still cook for myself. I also learned I can't do laundry for myself, see dingy grey white shirts. I found out that if you kids are watching a movie and on the phone, the movie always wins, no matter how long it has been since you talked to or seen them. This also applies to your spouse as well, I know I am guilty too! I also found that it can be a pretty lonely world out there without your family. I not only take a new appreciation for being able to spend time together, but also being able to just do the most mundanest of chores together. There is no place like your own bed, but more importantly there is no better place to sleep than holding my wife. I also found that I could get depressed without my wife to talk to. Finally, I know why God paired me with such a beautiful, young, loving, sincere, caring wife. Because, first off He could, second she encompasses everything I hope and aspire to be. She is my earthly reason for being and will make up the better half of my future here on the second rock from the sun. Till I go to be with the Son. I thank God for Him and what He has done with my life thus far, I am more excited than ever to see what He does with our future!

Tradition, Tradition what would we be without Tradition

In case you did not know what that is from it is Fiddler on the Roof. Unfortunately it is a very wrong methodology.
The problem is traditionalism fails to distinguish between biblical principles for ministry and cultural methods for implementing those principles. Traditionalism clings to dated ineffective methods in the name of staying truer to tradition than to Scripture.
Bottom line is the result of traditionalism is a Christianity that has all the right answers to all the wrong questions, why? Because the questions being answered are no longer the ones being asked. We have to be culturally relevent to today. The Bible has applications we have to translate those applications to the current days operating system. Like trying to run software on an older version of Windows, it does not work. We have to be relevant to our current culture. Look at God's Word as a prime example of this. Ever read Mathew, Mark, Luke and John? They all tell the same story of Jesus. So why would God tell the same story four times? Each one is relative to different cultural group of that time. Mathew was written for Jews, Mark was written for Romans, Luke was written for Gentiles and John was written for Greeks. Kind of like ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN each telling the news of Jesus. We have to look at how the news is told today, in color, up to the minute, and in relation to how it affects our life in the most sensational format possible. How does Jesus affect our life to today the same way? People don't want to know what Jesus did for Isreal, but what Jesus will do for New Orleans and what he continues to do for all of us in the future. So let go of tradition and start to become a good reporter. Explaining the news of Jesus and all the benefits therein. In the end everyone looks for meaning in their life and convince themselves of false meanings without finding meaning through Christ.

Survival

As I watched the people arrive in Houston going into the Astrodome and watch the peoples will to survive and keep going. I was amazed looking at the children and my heart is crying out to them, I can't imagine how the children are feeling, thinking or hurting.

In Corinthians Paul ended his eulogy with Our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort (v. 7). I believe suffering is not incidental or even accidental in life. Paul did not say the Corinthians MAY share in his sufferings, they WILL share in them. This, however, results not in despair but rather in hope, a hope not in the Corinthians' ability to weather hardship, BUT in God's ability to sustain and strengthen us. This is why Paul can call this hope firm, which is written as God's Word is a guarantee. One thing to see is His warning to not place confidence in our own own spirituality. Cause as he says, it is the ones who consider themselves spiritual who are most prone to fall when faced with hardship. But for those of us who trust in God, Paul says, to be certain that those of you who share Christ's sufferings will also share God's comfort.

So as we see this tragedy realize that we as God's Children are essentially characterized by hardship and affliction. Yet, there is in this the promise of God's comfort. Pray God's comfort for the refugees and families suffering!