Rosie to Child & Family Services: “Take my child, please.”
I think that’s child exploitation, but go ahead, post pictures of your four year old with bullets on the internet to further your politcal statement. It’s not like you aren’t losing fans like water through a leaky paper cup already anyway. :-p
In case anyone was worried…
John 15:13 (KJV) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
I heard a message preached on this verse last Sunday, and it had an impact on me. The message can be found here (Sunday 6/24 – Chris Casillas – Jesus on Love). I hadn’t thought about it all that hard, and in thinking more and more about it, it’s had more and more of an impact on me.
When a lot of people read this verse, the image it conjures is someone throwing themselves in front of a bus to save someone else from getting hit by it. Indeed, that’s the first idea that pops into my head.
But that’s not all it means.
Laying down one’s life doesn’t always mean through physical death. Laying down one’s life isn’t hinging upon a heroic deed that costs one their life, but denying yourself whatever comes between you and the ones you love, or between you and God. This is something that a lot of Christians I don’t think realize. Chris poignantly asks the question, “Who or what do you give yourself for?”
It’s easy to see what God gave himself for, for he sent Christ to lay down his life for our sins. His wasn’t in the figurative sense, either, he sacrificed his life for us on Calvary. But what do we give ourselves for?
What do we make more important than God?
The latest video game?
That awesome new CD by our favorite band?
The newest blockbuster Hollywood film?
I’m as guilty of it as anyone else reading this, as Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” I am no better than anyone else in this respect. But It’s a sad commentary on us as Christians when we’re more anxious to camp for a Nintendo Wii than we are to do something for God (and again, I am chief). Only God knows men’s hearts. I don’t know where any other man is in his walk. I just know me, and so does God. And were I to try and deceive God, the only one I deceive is myself.
Sometimes God calls us, and we try to ignore it. We try to put off that still-small voice. But it doesn’t go away. We know what God wants of us, and we try to brush it aside. He doesn’t want us to show up on Sunday, throw our money in the offering plate, and go off to continue living life how we feel entitled, instead of how God would want us to live.
We all make mistakes, no one is perfect, and if you think there’s nothing wrong with you, you’re only fooling yourself. Last time I checked there was only one who ever lived a sinless life, and that was Christ Jesus himself. But sometimes those mistakes make us feel inadequate, we think, “God isn’t calling me to do that, people might find out that I’m not perfect, and that I have sinned.” But God used Paul, who persecuted this early church relentlessly, or Peter, who denied him thrice, to spread the gospel of his life, death, and resurrection.
Maybe we don’t see ourselves as gifted enough to do what God calls us, we think “God isn’t calling me to do that, I don’t have the proper gifting to do that.” But God used Moses, who wasn’t eloquent by his own words, to go to Pharaoh, or Gideon, who God hailed as a mighty man of valor, to fight the Midianites, even when he was hiding behind the winepress.
When God calls us, we’re left with two options: Do his will, or do otherwise. Unfortunately, all too many Christians base their decisions on feelings, and not on sound biblical counsel. There may be times when we think we know God’s will for us, and it’s nowhere near what God had in mind. In Proverbs 12:15, it says “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” In Proverbs 14:12, it is written, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” And in Proverbs 21:2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.” I myself have been guilty of thinking I knew God’s plan, and I’ve been wrong several times now.
God knows our motives. God knows our hearts. Sometimes the Lord will require great sacrifice, and we must truly count the cost to take up the cross and follow him. But Christianity should not be about what we can get out of it, it should be about what we can do to serve God. We can choose to serve him, or choose to do otherwise. But God won’t make that decision for you, you have to make that decision on your own.
Joshua 24:15…choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
As most of you know, I’ve been doing work on my church’s website with the head of Sound ministry and my brother in law, who’s been previously in charge of handling all things web related. The site’s gotten to a point where it takes multiple people to keep everything in line, so the team dynamic is working rather well.
Well, last week one of the associate pastors approached me with a couple other projects he wanted to know if I’d be willing to help with, one of which is for the church he’s moving to in John Day this fall. Well, it’s an interesting proposition, because the church doesn’t even have a logo yet (He has a eltterhead, but the image on it is pretty generic). So, I’ve been given liberty to develop a logo for him (I gave him a rought draft for the logo this morning, he liked elements of it but it made him feel “depressed”, so I’m going to rework on a second draft after work tonight), on top of the website work I’m already doing. I don’t mind it, really, since we’ve got a working setup for the TBC website, I don’t think that the FBCJD website will be that hard, I can probably do some retooling with the current TBC site and make it work.
About Town by ~Lainey2k1 on deviantART
someplace I’ve been that my webmaster should know of…
I read an unusual news story this morning. It shouldn’t have surprised me, ultimately, it was bound to happen at some point, but it surprised me anyway. Why? Just read the headline.
Lesbians charged in “hate crime” against straight man.
Now, mind you, it’s a sad commentary on society when I find something like this amusing (albeit sad), but let’s face it: If it were four straight guys beating up a homosexual man, it would be labelled a hate crime, so why shouldn’t four lesbians beating up a straight man be considered the same? Should there really be “disbelief” in the courtroom if they did something that no straight person would’ve gotten away with? They stabbed the guy, for Pete’s sake. Hate crimes are hate crimes, whether you’re a “discriminated minority” or not.
Oh well, they wanted equal treatment, that should include in criminal court, too.
I really need to find some of his stuff at work…
“I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.”
So, as many of the (three) of you who read my blog know, I work on the church website. Well, as Spider-Man’s uncle said, “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”, and even I am occasionally tempted while working on it.
You see, two weeks ago our pastor was on vacation, and so the associate pastors were preaching in his place. The morning service was titled “Baffled by Bozo’s Bullseye”, and Pastor Robb preached most of the sermon with a bullseye around his neck for the sermon illustration.
Now, I was working sound this morning, and so I leaned over to the guy in charge of sound, Dave, and whispered, “I’d kill for a laser pointer right now.” He perked up, went back, and began shuffling through the sound box. As it turns out, we had one for the projector, only it had no batteries. We riffled through everything we had as quietly as possible, and came up with only one AA battery (the pointer required 2). Defeated, we resigned ourselves to not pegging Pastor Robb in the chest with a little red dot for giggles (Sound men, after all, while tech heads, have to maintain an air of immaturity at times to stay sane.)
So, as I’m updating the website with the sermons, I’m tempted to put a clickable asterix up at the end of the sermon title “Baffled by Bozo’s Bullseye”, that links to a popup that says “Also known as ‘Why the Sound Men should ALWAYS carry AA batteries’”.
Man… I hate being responsible sometimes… :-p
I was thinking back on something one of my employees said not too long ago, in which we were discussing things we’d like to ask God when we got to heaven, and he said he’d like to ask why we have war.
Well, in the weeks since then, I’ve pondered that greatly myself, and have come to a conclusion about it. I think part of war is that it brings out the best and the worst of human nature, for while it exposes us to humans at their truest sinful nature, some vile and sadistic killers with no conscience about taking innocent lives, it’s also through war that we witness great acts of courage and selflessness. I think that without war, we might never know what bravery, in its basest sense, is.
Hack Addict’s Jenny made a post regarding the ability to stream iTunes through your Wii. This is exciting news for me, as the other day I was having a bit of a war of words with an X-Box owner who said it was so cool he could stream his music to his X-Box (albeit griping about having to upgrade to Windows Media Player 11 to do it). Now I can do it, AND I don’t have to upgrade! Huzzah!
Wii 1, Others 0.