Let's Go to the Movies

I love a good story. Since we have no cultural equivalent of the fireside shaman telling stories to the tribe, we must rely on movies.

I love movies. My wife, daughter, and I have quite a collection. I am not sure of their motives, but I love a really good story that excites my imagination and takes me away from it all for just a little while.

I am drawn to the dark heroes, Batman, the Punisher, Boondock Saints. I love the stories of the vigilante, taking justice into his own hands, making things right for others by punishing those that do evil. There are times when I see injustice that I'd like to be one of those guys.

Then, there are my favorites; I love the sweeping epics, great battles with heroes who give their lives for something greater than themselves, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Last of the Mohicans, and theThree Musketeers. Hollywood doesn't do enough of these.

I crave stories of redemption like the Road to Perdition, Pulp Fiction, 3:10 to Yuma, The Unforgiven, Terminator 1 & 2 and the Count De Monte Cristo. These type of stories really hit at the heart of the human condition, sinners searching for atonement.

This leads to the darker side. I really enjoy the Anti-heroes, the guys you cheer on though they are really scoundrels, such as Payback, Oceans 11, Maverick, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Sometimes it's fun when the bad guys win, especially when it is other bad guys they are beating out.

Sometimes, I need tales of harsh reality that fit my darker moods, movies like Falling Down, Lord of War, Beyond the Gates, and the City of Joy. I have to be in the mood for these. Sometimes, working in ministry, movies are just a little too real and hit close to home, so I mostly avoid things that pluck too forcefully on the heartstrings.

The new stock of Irreverent Fairy Tales – Shrek, Ella Enchanted, and Hoodwinked are more along my lines than the old Cinderella and Snow White stuff that I get to watch with my daughter.

Also, I am a guy, so there is always a place for the gratuitous destruction and non-stop action of Die Hard (the whole series), Mission Impossible (also the whole series), Conan, and Desperado. There is a line from a movie called, Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, where the alien observer notes that human women seem to like movies where one person dies really slowly and human men seem to like movies where a lot of people die really quickly.

And finally, let us not forget those movies with no redeeming value except laughter – Blazing Saddles, Dumb & Dumber, Operation Petticoat, Rocket Man and the entire Bob Hope/Bing Crosby On the Road series of movies.

With all of that said, my favorite movie of all time contains the best of all of those characteristics: The Princess Bride.

If you were expecting some deeper message in this post, there isn’t one. I just wanted to talk about movies.

Scars

8^th Grade. Art class. Nail guns and Junior High boys. Disaster waiting to happen.

Day One: Mrs. Hawkins has us doing a project for the upcoming school play. Wisely, she has a few of the more trustworthy students using the nail guns. Definitely not Mike* and Darren*. These are the two class clowns. The classic example of an 8^th grade boys who have an overbalanced testosterone to brain ratio. Mike is a bully, malicious and obnoxious. Darren is his follower, mostly stupid, really ugly, and occasionally mean.

Day Two. Mrs. Hawkins is out sick. The substitute teacher lets Mike and Darren use the nail guns. Mistake Number One. Then, she leaves the room to get more supplies. Mistake Number Two. Mike discovers that if you unplug the nail gun, it retains enough power to shoot the nail out lightly. He proceeds to shoot a nail into the skin on the back of the hand. It has just enough force to enter the skin and hang there. Mike then goes about terrorizing the girls with the nail in his skin. They scream in that high pitched scream as only Junior High girls can. Great fun!

Darren thinks this looks like a lot of fun too, so he places his hand on the table and then places the nail gun on top of his hand. He missed the part about unplugging the nail gun. He pulls the trigger on his nail gun. THWACKKKK! The nail goes through his hand into the table beneath. Now, Darren is screaming in a higher pitch than any of the teen girls. The substitute teacher comes running back into the room, takes one look at Darren’s hand and promptly goes running back out of the room looking sick.

Paramedics are called, the shop teacher pries the nail out, and Darren heads off to the hospital while Mike heads off for a discussion with Vice Principal Niday (not his first such discussion and not his last either). Darren has such a discussion waiting for him when he returns to school.

Darren proudly showed that scar for the rest of the time that I knew him. He was proud of it. He and Mike continued to be punks and bullies and, as far as I know, they probably still are today. I did find a picture of Mike on Facebook. He’s fat, wearing camoflauge, carring a gun and drinking a beer. He still looks like the kind of guy who'd probably beat you up as soon as look at you.

Darren never learned anything from that scar. Scars are supposed to be a reminder of a lesson learned. I find myself incredibly saddened by people who carry their scars around, but never learn anything from them, or worse, learn the wrong lessons from them.

I see this happen regularly. Friends, relatives, acquaintances, people at work (especially my old secular jobs) earn scars that they don’t learn from. These scars are usually emotional and mental, but occasionally physical. Divorce. Family feuds. Arguments with friends. Bad relationship choices. Poor financial decisions. Again and again, they are hurt, and again and again they miss the lesson.

Single moms bring boyfriend after boyfriend into their family lives hurting themselves and damaging their children. I feel worst for their children who never get to see healthy relationships. They will continue that cycle.

Families spend and spend and spend in fits of materialism that leaves them deeper and deeper in debt and working long hours to pay the bills. This often drives a wedge in the marriage and leaves the family broken and bruised. And yet, they keep spending what they don’t have.

Young women give themselves to guy after guy in an effort to find love and companionship. There is a breed of guy who preys on such women. These users and abusers leave emotional and physical scars on these women and the women continue to let them do it.

There are men who ignore their wives and take them for granted. Then, when the woman finally leaves him, he refers to her as the ‘The Old Bitch’ or some similar denigrating reference. He then makes it very clear to anyone and everyone that he meets that marriage is a mistake, never learning that what you put into something directly affects what you get out of it.

These are just a few examples of unlearned scars, scars that are earned, but never learned from.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Darren probably learned never to shoot himself with a nail gun, but I’m pretty sure that he didn’t learn not to blindly follow Mike. Darren and Mike needed wise counsel in their lives, someone who has been there and learned the right lesson from their scars. We all need that.

It is important to seek out someone wiser and older. This just can’t be anyone. Many people get old and full of scars that they never profited from. Look for someone who has lived well and is still doing so. Seek someone with strong values. Build a relationship and ask them to speak into your life. Learn from their scars and ask them to help you learn the right lessons from yours.

Socrates was credited with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Examine your life. Earn your scars so that you can proudly wear them, so you can point to your scars and say, “This is the lesson I learned from this.” Then someday, you will be able to pass on the same lessons to others.

And, for the record…Don’t shoot a nail gun at your hand.

* names have been changed to protect the stupid

The Problem With Religion

I would argue that religion is addictive by its very nature, leaving the victim with a closed mind, unable to cope with real life. It demeans and belittles people (of other belief systems) often leading to violence and war

Organized religion has brought nothing but death and destruction to humanity since it's inception. ALL religious writings including the Bible, the Koran and the Torah are nothing more than manifestos of intolerance. I am FAR more worried about devout religious people

RELIGION is the true problem. nothing but flocks of brainwashed minions, controlled by old men through fear. cant people see above this nonsense today? think for yourself, people! stop using what was and IS nothing more than a means to control people as a crutch to judge others. Its sickening

News articles on the internet often give the reader a chance to comment and discuss the issues in the article. It seems that each time that I go out on the internet to read an article with any mention of religion, there are broadbrushed, vitriolic attacks against religion that are posted by other readers. Sometimes they are amusing, sometimes they are annoying, and most of the time they are based in ignorance.

The three comments above are not my beliefs or statements. They are real examples of the type of comment that I have seen. The first one is amusing because the author accuses religious people of having closed minds and religion of demeaning and belittling people of other beliefs. The irony is that he is doing that very thing. His post shows him to be closed minded and he is demeaning and belittling people of other belief systems.

The second comment and third comments are funny for the same reason. Number two mentions intolerance as a characteristic of religious writings, but the author’s writing is a perfect example of his or her intolerance of a belief system that doesn’t fit with theirs. And, the last one talks about ‘thinking for yourself’ and ‘control’ but in its very message is trying to get the reader to think his or her way and to control them away from something that he or she doesn’t believe in.

Have there been wars caused by people proclaiming religious reasons? Of course. But, any serious thinker and historic observer would have to take issue with a statement that says, Organized religion has brought nothing but death and destruction to humanity since it’s inception” sic. The truth is quite the opposite in most cases. I wonder if the author of that comment ever stopped to think about why so many hospitals are called Saint Something or Other, or if they have wondered at why so many social relief agencies have a religious affiliation. There are significantly more charities, social relief agencies, family support groups, medical aid groups, and similar helping organizations that are based in religious (especially Judeo-Christian) systems. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of 2000, religious people of all types were 91% likely to give money to charity or volunteer where secular people were 67% (non-religious conservatives) and 52% (non-religious liberals). The survey results put this in perspective by noting that people who classify themselves as ‘religious’ make up 33% of the population but are responsible for 52% of donations and 45% of volunteering where those that classify themselves as ‘secular’ make up 26% of the population and are only responsible for 13 percent of charitable donations and 17% of volunteerism. Survey Info

Yes, there are frauds, jerks, charlatans, manipulators, abusers, idiots, fools, degenerates, fiends, and criminals in the church. This is true of any group of people. That’s humanity. That does not mean that all people in that group are that way and it doesn't even mean that most of them are. You won’t catch me saying that all atheists are ignorant, arrogant blowhards that are responsible for the evils of Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler. There are plenty of atheists that fall into that category, but that doesn’t mean all of them. I would venture to say most of them are people who just want to live their life as well as they can, but there is the temptation to color the entire group based on the actions of a few.

When you scratch the surface of most of the atheists that I have personally encountered and had discussions with, almost always you will find a person who has been hurt by a dysfunctional church or by an abusive religious person. In my experience, there is rarely much deeper thought than that. Their reaction is based in feeling and not rational thought (the very thing they accuse religious people of).

I grew up without religion. I was never atheist as I found them to be the same as the religious people that I met, universally proclaiming a truth that could not be proved. I was always agnostic as that was a logically defensible position (to this day, I have much respect for agnostics who actively question). I ultimately found God through careful logic and thoughtful deliberation and by meeting reasoned, intellectual Christians who challenged me to open my own mind.

This logic and thought are the reasons for which I take offence at the type of blanket statements made by these authors and so many like them. Their intolerant statements are no different than saying that all black people are criminals, all gay men are pedophiles, all corporate CEO’s are greedy, all southerners are hicks, all women are weak, all Jews are stingy, all lesbians are ugly women, or any other similar statement denigrating an entire group of people based on stereotypes.

Instead of across-the-board condemnation of an entire group of people and belief system, why don’t you get to know some of them (and not just the ones that offended or hurt you). I’d love to sit down with you and have a cup of coffee while we discuss ideas, heck, I’ll even buy your cup for you. I’d be honored to go serve lunches to the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul with you. Let’s fundraise together and raise money for Rapha House. Come see real, intellectually sound, faith in action. It’s hard to be hateful and antagonistic towards people that you’ve actually gotten to know and have worked alongside. But, I warn you…it might actually make you think. It might even change your mind.

That is, unless you are an intolerant, brainwashed, close-minded, victim unable to cope with real life who demeans and belittles people for their beliefs.

P.S. – my offer in the second to last paragraph above is very real. If you take issue with my religion then I invite you (heck, I dare you) to sit down with me, to serve others with me, or to attend a church service with me and then have lunch afterwards to discuss it. I’ll buy the coffee or pay for the lunch. I’m open-minded, are you?

Wisdom of the Ages

You accumulate a large amount of wisdom in life, if you just pay attention. Some of this is very deep, but much of it is mundane. For example, it doesn’t take long to learn that it hurts to touch a hot stove burner or that throwing yourself backwards while having a temper tantrum just hurts you and makes you even more mad. Both of these are learned at a very young age. The longer you live, the deeper and harder the lessons are.

I have been reading Proverbs in the Bible. This is a book of wisdom passed from father to son and from king to successor. There is some great stuff in there and some funny stuff that you just know there is a story behind. I realized that it is important to pass on life wisdom. So, I’ve decided to put down the life wisdom that I learned. None of this is the deep stuff and none of it is the mundane. The following life lessons fall in between somewhere, but I promise you that all involve a painful lesson.

Life lessons that I would like to pass on:

When you are powdering an infant’s bottom, be sure that there isn’t a fan on in the room. This is especially important if the fan is aimed at you.

When carrying several gallons of paint through the church office, be sure that the handles are not loose. An additional lesson here is that latex paint cleans up well and even comes out of carpet if you jump into action immediately. And, the pastor won't find out about it until years later when you tell him.

When your mom says, “don’t play swords with sticks, you can put your eye out”…She is right. And, pulling large wooden splinters out of your eye hurts a lot. Eye patches are cool for awhile, though.

When seasoning a cast-iron pan, do not try to speed things up by spraying PAM on it while it is still extremely hot. Also, when you put out the kitchen fire, be sure to get out of the room for awhile so you don’t breathe too much smoke.

If you are going to ask a girl to go steady with you, be sure that you aren’t wearing roller skates at the time. Also, falling on your rear when she says ‘yes’ is no way to look cool.

Playing tug-of-war with a group of college age guys is fun, but broken tailbones take months to heal and are excruciatingly painful.

When your dad says you can light the grill for the first time by yourself and runs inside to get matches…don’t dump the rest of the bottle of lighter fluid on the coals because you don’t think he put enough on. It is important to note that eyebrows and the front part of your hair take a little while to grow back.

If you are riding your bicycle up a steep hill and think it might be cool to ride up the ramp into the back of a trailer, try to remember that a 50 degree angle + a 30 degree angle = a 80 degree angle which is a bit much to expect to be able to pedal up at a slow pace. By the way, landing on your back in a bike crash knocks the wind out of you.

When running to catch a bus at dusk, don’t take a shortcut behind a grocery store, jumping over a short 2 foot high retaining wall. The other side of the wall is the low end of the loading dock and is six feet lower. A further lesson here is that you can’t run to catch the bus anymore when you have twisted your ankles.

If the woman in the upstairs apartment says she is moving out of state and is selling every piece of furniture in the apartment, don’t buy anything. When the sheriff comes with the rent-to-own store employee a week later after she calls them to tell them where to pick up the stuff, they’ll just take the stuff away from you and you can’t do anything about it.

If you’ve had a little too much to drink last night, don’t let your friend mix macaroni, tuna casserole, and cream of mushroom soup and microwave it for breakfast. Urrrp.

If you are the chubby, nerdy kid in ninth grade and a star player on the football team asks you to tutor him, take advantage of the opportunity. Who knows, maybe there will come a time when a bully has threatened to beat you up after school and a certain star player on the football team beats him up and throws him into a barb wire fence for you.

The newspaper should not publish warnings about the dangers of mixing certain household chemicals when there is a chance that a teenage boy can read those warnings. Also, mixing pool chlorine and a certain automotive fluid does cause instant and intense fire which will burn your friend’s hand. Please note that I did not list which automotive fluid.

Encouraging a friend to put a bunch of salt in his older brother’s brand new coffee pot will get him in trouble. Salt does not come out of a brand new coffee pot once it has gotten inside the works.

Ford Aspires do not take turns well on sandy roads in the middle of nowhere. Yes, time does seem to slow down when in an accident and you can watch an airbag slowly unfold in front of you (even though it is going several hundred miles per hour). Yes, it hurts a lot to have the skin rubbed off of your face and your nose broken by the airbag. A lot.

When you are locked out on a balcony at a hotel and you think that it isn’t that far to drop down to the pool deck; you are wrong. It is much, much farther than you thought and, as I said before, getting the wind knocked out of you is no fun at all. Also, the pool deck entrance door is locked from the inside because the pool is closed for cleaning, so you are still trapped, but now you are in pain too.

When public speaking, always check if your fly is zipped, your tie is clean, and your suit-jacket is not buttoned in the wrong holes.

On your first day at a job, do not have lunch anywhere that you might possibly get food poisoning. Explosively vomiting on yourself, the carpet, and the restroom door is not the way to impress your new boss. However, a good dry cleaner can get puke out of a suit.

If you feel it necessary to comment on a person parking in a handicap space who is not handicapped, be sure to check first to see if the person is built like a linebacker and ready to beat the hell out of the person commenting on them parking in that space.

When you are playing on a frozen creek with your friend, do not push him out onto the deep part where there is still water flowing; it just isn’t as funny as you thought it’d be as you are trying to pull him out of the icy water. Also, it takes an eternity to run back to the house through the snow, while you are soaking wet.

If you are in the back of the band room leaning on the backs of chair during band practice and your best friend kicks the chair legs out from under one of the other guys, making him fall to the floor... Don't laugh. Trust me on this one. The band director will look back and see your best friend (who caused all the ruckus) helping the fallen guy up and he will see you laughing. Who will he think did it? That's right - one free ticket to the office for you.

If you are an agnostic or atheist arguing about the Bible, be sure that you don’t argue with a pastor who knows what he is talking about and is highly educated or he might just make you look like a complete fool as he uses logic and facts to disassemble every argument you’ve ever used.. Then again, that’s why I am now a pastor, so go ahead and do it.

These are just a few of the many life lessons that I have learned. I invite you to comment and share any life lessons that you have learned.

BOO!!!

What is it about Halloween that gets Christians all weird?

Each year, as this one little holiday comes up, some American Christians feel it necessary to drag out their baggage and fuss. This doesn’t apply to all Christians, just some that feel it necessary to bounce up and down and burn some steam. These people fall into two groups.

Group Number One includes all those that insist that this holiday Satanic and it has no redeeming value. They get all worked up about not letting their kids trick-or-treat and make sure to let everyone else know about it. They get angry when a church wants to hold an outreach event like a fall festival. I don’t want to post another history explaining all about the roots of Halloween, but suffice it to say there are certainly some questionable roots. I agree. But there are also Christian roots including All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day. The problem with looking at all the historical roots from Ireland, Ancient Europe, Mexico, etc., is that no one in the U.S.A. really cares or even knows about that. When the average American mom buys her kid a Buzz Lightyear costume, she is not thinking about scaring off spirits, celebrating the dead, or worshiping some obscure Celtic god. This holiday no longer has any connection to those times and is just another secular holiday on the calendar. What these people forget is that God was in control on October 30^th and will be again on November 1^st. Why don’t they believe that He is in control on October 31? Why not use it as a teachable moment for their kids and let them have the joy of dressing up and eating too much candy? Relax. Set some ground rules if you want, but ultimately, the American holiday of Halloween is no more or less in Satan’s control than the American holiday of Christmas.

Group Number Two includes the really weird ones. Each year, some church holds a ‘Hell House’, an alternative haunted house that purportedly shows all the bad stuff in the world. A church in Chandler just did one this year called Final Destination http://www.hell101.com/. There, they show an abortion, teen girls raped, drug dealers murdered, and the sancho of a cheating wife have his head sawn off as punishment. The idea behind this is to ‘Scare the Hell’ out of non-believers by showing them all the most gruesome results of their bad choices in life. It never seems to occur to them that people make bad decisions daily even though they see this stuff on the news, in movies, and on T.V. In theory, this has an outreach purpose in order to save people’s souls. I’m not entirely sure how effective this is, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not. This type of in-your-face evangelism is a far cry from the way Jesus treated non-believers. A quick read through any of the gospels shows that he was firm but gentle with those who were hurting, sinners, and those who needed God. He only got in-your-face with loudmouth religious types who were using religiosity to beat people down. My biggest issue with these types of things is the incredible money spent on fancy special effects, sound equipment and decorations. Surely this money could be used more effectively to feed the needy, clothe the naked, treat the AIDs patient, care for the orphan, house the widow, etc., etc., etc. You know… Those things that Jesus called us to do.

My message to both groups is to get back to your Bible. Spend some time there. When you are done, spend some more time. Then, when you are ready, step out into the real world and share the message of hope, the Gospel of our Lord. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Remember the power of grace. Understand that the only offense you should give is that all sinners are welcome at the foot of the cross. Relax.

As for me, I’m going to go take my costume off and raid my daughter’s candy bag. I think I saw some Bottlecaps and Reeses Cups in there. Now THAT'S what Halloween is all about.

Bad Boys

“Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” These are the theme song lyrics to the TV Show Cops. Each week, this Reality Series show has camera men ride along with local police and law enforcement departments around the nation. The cameraman follows along as officers pull over suspects, raid houses, and pull sting operations. There’s no commentator, no follow-up, and no explanation, only the here and now.

A typical scene goes something like this: We meet Officer Johnson and he explains to us how long he has been a cop and why he became one. Then, he receives a garbled radio call in his squad car. The camera, seated next to him records everything. Officer Johnson tells us that this area of town is known for its drug problems and that there currently is a suspect outside fighting with someone else. The camera looks forward as we race through the streets with lights and sirens blaring. We roll up to the scene and several questionable looking people race up to the car and tell the officer, (in the most ignorant sounding accent you can imagine) “Them there boys is a fightin.” Officer Johnson gets out and both suspects run. The camera shakes all over the place as the cameraman tries to keep up with Officer Johnson and the running suspect, crossing through people’s back yards and over streets. When the camera finally catches up, all of the action is done. Officer Johnson has his knee on the suspects head and is handcuffing the man. He announces out of breath, “The other one got away, but this guy dropped his drugs.” The suspect is then taken off to the car and we get out-of-breath analysis from three or four other cops involved in the chase. The camera then cuts to the next scene.

I don’t watch television at home, but when I get a chance, I love to catch a glimpse of this show. I know it’s probably a terrible show and not worth watching, but for some reason, I cannot turn it off. I have tried to figure out why this is. Perhaps there is a secret satisfaction of seeing someone else get their come-uppance. Or, maybe it’s the carnal side of me that likes to see a little blood and action. It could possibly be human nature to laugh at other people’s folly. Despite some rude references about West Virginia by friends of mine, I don’t think it is because I’ll see my hillbilly relatives on there.

I truly respect police officers and the job that they do, putting their very lives on the line so that my family can sleep safely at night. But, I can’t help but think that my interest in this show has nothing to do with these heroic men and women; I think it has more to do with a perverted sense of justice in my own heart.

There, but for the grace of God, go I. I have done things in my life that would have meant that a fine gentleman in blue would have taken me before a guy in long black robes with a hammer to have a discussion about immediate future as a guest of the state. I did not get caught at the time and grew out of such behavior – yet, I realize that I could very well have been in front of that camera on cops.

I also realize, in my journey towards God that there is much that I have to atone for. I know the blackness of my own heart, my selfishness, greed, lust, pride, envy, hate, and much more. I know that I deserve punishment, but am very thankful that Jesus provides me with grace and mercy.

Yet… There is still that carnal side of me that gleefully watches someone else get busted.

I know who the real bad boy is.

I’m very glad that God doesn’t have a TV show like Cops where he busts sinners.

On that thought... Just promise me that if you do ever see God’s Cops show some day and there is a chubby bearded guy running from the camera, turn the television off. It’s a terrible show and not worth watching.

Para Cruzar la Frontera

Dispenseme por favor cualquier error en el texto español abajo. Todavía soy aprendiendo el idioma.

Ahora, estudio para mi Grado de Maestro en Seminario. Tengo que aprender griego y hebreo como parte de mis estudios. Tengo entusiasmo de esto, pero también tengo miedo. Yo ya he pasado años para tener fluidez en español y yo sé cuán dificil que puede ser.

Ha sido el cruce de muy difícil la frontera al dominio de otro idioma. De hecho, no ha sido tanto un cruce de la frontera. Ha sido más como chocar por la frontera. Ha habido mucho dolor.

Empecé aprender español en grado 4^th y siguió aprendiendo por el colegio. He estudiado el idioma para más de doce o quince años. En la escuela, yo aprendí muchas palabras, pero nunca aprendí a comunicar. No fue hasta que empezara que asisten servicios de una iglesia en español que atravesé la frontera de fluidez.

Principio, empecé asistir cada semana y entonces luego sólo podría asistir cada pocos meses. Pasaría tres o más horas con un grupo de personas que sólo podría hablar español. Fue muy difícil. Muchos veces, yo regresé a casa con un dolor de cabeza de la concentración que fue requerida.

Asisto ocasionalmente los servicios ahora porque estoy muy ocupado, pero cada semana, hablo con el Pastor español, Alfredo. Yo lo ayudo con su inglés y él me ayuda con español. Ahora, tengo el vocabulario y capacidad para hablar como un niño de diez años de edad. Puedo hablar bien en temas normales, pero información técnica es todavía difícil.

Lo mejor cosa sobre communicando con Alfredo es que compartimos una fe y el conocimiento de la Biblia. Cuándo estamos atascados para una palabra en ingles o español, la persona que lucha citará un verso de Biblia con la palabra o el concepto en ello y el otro puede comprender. Por ejemplo, él hablaba de una mancha en la ventana y no comprendí la palabra que él utilizaba. El citó de Efesios 25-27. Entonces comprendí la definición de mancha. Otro tiempo, hablaba con él sobre los Palos Verdes árboles en la propiedad y no podría recordar la palabra para espinas. Pude utilizar el 2 Corintio 12:7 y entonces, él me enseñó el espina de palabra. Estos son justo dos ejemplos del muchos veces que hemos utilizado este método para comunicar.

Te recomiendo a aprender una segunda lengua. Lo ayudará a expandir su mente, pero también expandir su vista del mundo. Para crucer las fronteras culturales son muy útiles en rompiendo libre del egoísmo y una mente-cerrado. También lo ayuda a aprender empatía, la paciencia, la bondad, y la generosidad. Te fuerza a ver el mundo de un vista diferente.

Regresaré a mis estudios ahora. Espero que usted haga también.

Pero el fruto del Espiritu es amor, gozo, paz, paciencia, benignidad, bondad, fe, mansedumbre, templanza: contra tales cosas no hay ley. Galatas 5:22-23

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

I am now studying for my Masters Degree at Seminary. I have to learn Greek and Hebrew as part of my studies. I am excited about this, but also scared. I have already spent years to become fluent in spanish and I know how hard that can be.

It has been very difficult crossing the border to fluency in another language. In fact, it hasn’t been so much a crossing of the border. It has been more like crashing through the border. There has been much pain.

I began learning Spanish in fourth grade and continued learning through college. I have studied the language for more than twelve to fifteen years. In school, I learned many words, but I never learned to communicate. It wasn’t until I began attending church services in Spanish that I broke through the border of fluency.

I began attending weekly at first and then later I could only go every few months. I would spend three or more hours with a group of people where I could only speak Spanish. It was very difficult. Many times, I went home with a headache from the concentration that was required.

I rarely attend the church service now because I am very busy, but each week, I spend some time speaking with the Spanish Pastor, Alfredo. I help him with his English and he helps me with Spanish. At this point, I have the vocabulary and speaking ability of a ten year old child. I can speak well on normal topics, but technical information is still difficult.

The best part about communicating with Alfredo is that we share a faith and knowledge of the Bible. When we get stuck for a word in either language, the person who is struggling will often quote a Bible verse with the word or concept in it and the other one is able to understand. For example, he was talking about a smudge on the window and I didn’t understand the word he was using. He quoted from Ephesians 25-27. I then understood the definition of mancha. Another time, I was speaking to him about some Palo Verde trees on the property and could not remember the word for thorns. I was able to use the 2 Corinthians 12:7 and he then taught me the word espina. These are just two examples of the many times that we have used this method of communication.

I encourage you to learn a second language. It will help you to expand your mind, but it will also expand your view of the world. Crossing cultural frontiers is very helpful in breaking free of selfishness and a closed-mind. It also helps you learn empathy, patience, kindness, and generosity. It forces you to see the world from a different point of view.

I will return to my studies now. I hope you will too.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

How Sweet it Is

Life is too short for broken relationships.

Rifts between loved ones, cold distance between former friends, and estrangement through busyness are all perfectly terrible ways to waste precious time and precious people. There will come a time when you lay on your deathbed awaiting your end. Will any hurt be worth taking to your grave? Will your pride be so much that you push people away even then? Will all of your time spent in pointless activity be worth the loss of time you might have spent with someone you cared about?

In the last few weeks, I have gotten a chance to experience reconciliation in some relationships in my life. One, a family member, has finally opened up, allowing me and my family back into his life. The other is a friend that I used to work with who crashed his life through drugs, disappearing from my life for several years.

In both cases, it was not my desire to break the relationship, but it happened anyway. The hardest part was facing the fact that, no matter how I felt, no matter what I did, it was up to the other person to come back.

With that said, it is so sweet to be able to reforge broken bonds, to be able to connect again to those you have lost. It is amazingly easy to get past the pain and hurt if you just decide that the person is more important than the past.

I learned much about broken relationships and reconciliation as a child. My father and his father were at odds through a large part of my childhood. During that time, I had no grandparents. They were there, but I wasn’t able to see them because of stubborn hard-heartedness on the part of both my father and grandfather. As a child, I could never understand why my grandpa didn’t love me. I now know it had little to do with me, but the damage was still done to a little boy. It wasn’t until my early teen years that they reconciled.

I am no saint. Though I observed the lesson, I didn’t learn it till later in my adulthood. During my late teens and early twenties, I treated the relationships in my life flippantly. I threw away people as though trash. It tears my heart as I think back on hurt that I have caused others.

I greatly regret the 2-3 years that I was apart from some very close friends because I was so self-focused. I also regret some terrible things that I did and said to people during that time. Nothing can ruin a relationship faster than self-centeredness. There is still a girl to this day who I owe a deep apology too for how I treated her. We once were friends and now, no longer are. I hope one day to reconcile that relationship.

I am taking steps now to reach out to people who I have pushed away in the past and those who I have just been too busy to make time for. There are no acceptable excuses.

This is important to God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24 that reconciliation is even more important than going to church today or offering to God. He says to leave the gift in front of the altar and go be reconciled, then come back and offer at the altar.

As I said before, Life is too short for broken relationships.

That’s my challenge to you, this very day. Will you toss away friends and family as though they were garbage? Will you let those past hurts be more important than the person that you valued? Or...Will you reach out. Will you begin to bridge the gap?

This is the day. Don’t let another day pass without reaching out to bridge the gap. It doesn’t matter if they’ve hurt you or you’ve hurt them. It doesn’t matter if you were too busy yesterday, only that you aren’t too busy today.

Someday, some random Thursday afternoon, you are going to get that call. You know the call I am speaking of, the call that says there will never again be a chance to reconcile with them because they are gone. If you don’t do something today, then that someday will come all too soon.

I urge you, stop reading this blog, turn off the computer, and make that call. Be humble. Be forgiving. Ask for forgiveness. Reconcile. Today. Now. Don't wait till it is too late.

How sweet it is to be welcomed back.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Romans 12:17-18

First Friday

My wife, daughters, and I took a walk through the First Fridays Artwalk in Phoenix last week. What an incredible experience! Not only is it good exercise (we eschewed the shuttle and walked from the Phoenix Art Museum), but it is an incredible experience in humanity.

First Fridays take place, coincidentally, on the first Friday of each month from 6:00pm – 10:00pm in downtown Phoenix. Local art galleries, museums, churches, and small businesses along Central and Roosevelt streets open up in the evenings and the world comes to their door. Add to this, street performers, costumed folks, vendors and the fact that it costs nothing to visit, and you have an event worth checking out.

The best part about First Fridays is the people. Two rich older Scottsdale socialites stood in the a gallery, rubbing elbows with a couple of tough looking lesbian chicks viewing paintings that were obviously the work of the fluttering Spanish artist standing out front. A skinny dude dressed like a dime-store cowboy complete with a bushy handlebar mustache walks by a young girl sporting a purple mohawk, chains, and more piercings than I can count. Two Sedona type ladies wearing hemp skirts and too much turquoise jewelry pass by an asian girl dressed like a cupie doll. A black man with dreadlocks piled high enough to be seen from outer space hands wearing suit hands fliers to a group of young Hispanic kids walking by. A middle-eastern man sells gelato from the storefront of a gallery where he lives with a native-american artist who makes silver jewelry. A lone girl dances by herself, swaying to music that only she can here from the iPod plugged into her ears. A group of several dozen people amble along made up to look like zombies, carrying signs proclaiming “Lose Weight on the Undead Plan” or “Zombies are People Too.” They are preceded by a group of guys and girls dressed up like the Ghostbusters, complete with Proton Backpacks. People of every color, shape, age, and economic group intermingle peacefully.

First Fridays are also about the music. As you walk the east route down Roosevelt, you wade through pools of music. Our first steps took as past an urban church with young street rappers alternate laying down the best rhymes while sharing their testimonies about Christ releasing them from the bondage of drugs and gangs. Next was man playing the pan pipes, selling his CD’s. A little farther down, in front of a small record store that still sells vinyl was a female heavy metal group complete with a generator and screaming electric guitars. Just across the street was a group of men in kilts playing the bagpipes and on up a ways, a white teen played a snare drum and high hat while a black teen played acoustic guitar and sang love ballads. There was a man sitting at an organ playing big band music and from a local cathedral, the sounds of an a cappella chorus rang out like a chorus of angels. The dreadlocked man in a suit had a large boom box playing reggae and many of the galleries had some sort of peaceful music playing with the exception of the Victorian house with the flashing disco lights that had throbbing techno music coming from inside. A homeless guy sat in the median tapping on an old bongs in a desultory way with a tin can placed in front for donations. A little further up, another guy played blues on a saxophone with a hat in front of him (he received a lot more donations).

Vendors sold everything from homemade jewelry to hemp clothing to tamales, to protest t-shirts while street performers did all kinds of crazy things from magic to the guy who jumped barefoot into a pile of glass.

What a crazy and awesome experience. And, here is where the lesson comes in –

This is what I picture eternal life to be like. As I read the Book of Revelation in the Bible, I don’t see that we will spend an eternity wearing white robes and sitting on clouds playing harps. Where that silly idea came from, I don’t know, but it just won’t seem to die. No, I see eternal life here on earth in a great city with all of the different types of people and cultures in the world, living, loving, and serving together in a truly diverse society. (Revelation 5:9 and Revelation 21:1-27)

As I looked out on the crowds at First Friday, I could see God everywhere. He was in the art and the music. God Himself is an amazing artist and musician. He lavished color, texture, and sound on His creation. I believe that our varied artistic abilities are just one example of the ways in which we are made in His image. He was also in the people. It is much easier for me to see Jesus hanging out in these crowds than to see him in many of the churches I have been to. God loves these people where they are, he wishes only that they come to him. He doesn’t expect them to put on a suit and sit rigidly in pews on Sunday morning, he wants them to put on His love and go into the world around them.

I invite each of you to visit First Friday. Immerse yourself in the crowd. Get a little crazy. Dress differently than you normally would. Get out of your comfort zone. Buy something from a vendor and drop some money in the hat in front of a street performer. Talk to the weirdest looking person that you can find. Your probably the weirdest person they can find too. Experience the wonders of diversity and pray for those around you. Be sure to get that gelato – trust me, it’s worth it.

First Fridays link for info: http://www.artlinkphoenix.com/ or http://phoenix.about.com/cs/enter/a/firstfriday.htm

The next First Friday event is November 6, 2009. Maybe I'll see you there. I'll probably be wearing my kilt.

Man of Steel?

I have long had a working theory of life that says, ‘women are much stronger than men.’ I have seen this born out again and again in other people. It flies in the face of Victorian thinking of women as ‘the fairer sex.’ This last week, it was brought to life in a very real way for me.

I observed this from an early age. Whenever someone died in our community, there was a machine that began moving. Women came around each other, cooking meals, comforting each other, dropping kids off at school, and cleaning house for the hurting family. The men always seemed to hang out in another room laughing and joking, however, even from an early age, I saw the tightness around their eyes and the speed to anger during these times. They never faced the pain and never dealt with the loss.

When I was first out of high school, I worked for a time as an apprentice to a blacksmith. One thing I learned about steel is that if you expose it over time to heat in a process called annealling, the steel is stronger because it is flexible. But, if you take steel and suddenly heat it and suddenly cool it, it becomes brittle and will break or shatter.

As I have grown, especially since working in ministry, I have observed this more and more in people. Women are like willows along a river bank, bending in the wind, supporting each other through intertwined branches. Men try to stand alone against troubles and end up breaking when it becomes too much. Obviously, there is some generalization to this, but I can say that experience has shown me that this is more true than not.

There is a reason that you see many more single moms than single dads. This could be the reason that many widowers follow their wives into the grave within a few months, but many widows continue on for years. It likely has some bearing on the difference in life expectancy for men versus women.

As a husband and dad, the hardest thing for me is to see my wife or daughters hurting. I want to take the pain away, to protect them, no matter what it takes. I would walk through broken glass, run through fire, or stand in the way of a bullet to save any one of them. I have long been a man who could handle emergencies, keeping a cool head when others lose theirs, seeing the route out of trouble and directing others when the going gets rough.

But, what do I do when the chips are on the table and there is nothing I can do to affect the outcome? How do I deal with that place where physical strength and mental knowledge are useless to make a difference. What happens when it is my wife or child on the line and there isn’t anything I can do about it? That’s where I find my breaking point.

This last week, I watched my wife show a strength beyond what I ever realized that she had. She had practiced pregnancy exercises, relaxation techniques, pushing past pain. Together we educated ourselves on the issues of birth and pregnancy and made choices on the care and medical intervention that we wanted. When it came time for labor and delivery, she heroically faced 26 hours of intensifying contractions without medications that might harm the baby. She handled it well.

We had two ladies with us who handled it all well too. Zabrina, our doula stayed through the whole experience, supporting, encouraging, and educating us. Our dear friend Kris was also there, helping out, timing contractions, and encouraging Becky.

I handled it well too. I was there for the education and practice (not to mention the conception). I exhorted her, encouraged her, and took care of her. I prayed with her, rubbed her back, talked her through the pain, told her how beautiful she was, held her hand, and brushed her hair. I stayed strong, buoyed by her example. If she could handle the pain well, then I could walk by her side and help her through it.

That was all well and good until the circumstances were taken out of our hands. After 19 hours, she was dilated 9 cm and almost there, but six hours later, there was still no change and the contractions were not strengthening to push the baby out. Her blood pressure was getting dangerously high and she was weakening. Two doctors were in conflict as to what to do. One suggested Pitocyn to increase the contractions. Our doctor was called and he said that could be very dangerous, possibly hurting the baby or my wife because he believed the baby was stuck (shoulder dystocia). As they began to discuss the risks and dangers to both mom and baby...

I broke.

I have known two men who went home from the hospital as single fathers of a brand new born baby with no wife due to death during or after delivery. It still happens.

The combination of being awake for 40 hours and physically and emotionally charged for 26 of those hours had stripped away any defenses that I had.

I broke.

I laid down with my wife and held her, wanting to protect her to take the damage on myself.

I broke.

The nurses and doctors came and went, but I wasn’t much use.

I broke.

Fortunately, my wife stayed strong and helped make the decisions. Fortunately, Zabrina and Kris stayed strong and helped through those important moments. Fortunately the doctor and the nurses did their duty well. My beautiful wife and my lovely new daughter are safe and healthy.

I recognize the truth of male weakness in this area. I’m not sure what lesson to take away from it all, I can only share my observations at this point.

From now on, I hope that all I have to face involves easy stuff like bullets, flames, and broken glass. These I can handle. Just like Lois Lane to Superman and Mary Jane to Spiderman, the women in my life are my greatest strength and greatest weakness. I'm just glad that I have such a tough wife who is able to leap tall buildings and stop trains with her bare hands.

Thank you Becky, Thank you Zabrina, Thank you Kris, Thank you Dr. Holeman and most importantly, Thank you dear Lord.

The Lesson of the Sextant

Do you feel lost in life, adrift in seas of trouble?

Sailors have long depended on a tool called the sextant to help them know where they are and where they need to go.

Don't know what a sextant is? In this day of GPS systems, navigational computers in cars, accurate maps available on the internet, and air travel; most people never learn what one is.

Hundreds of years ago, sailors who wanted to go from one place to another had to have a way to find their way back home. Maps weren’t especially dependable, and there weren’t any of the other tools that we depend on today. So, they depended on an instrument called a sextant. The sextant is an instrument that lets you take a measurement of a star such as Polaris or of the sun in relation to the horizon. By knowing where these heavenly bodies are in relation to the horizon near your home port lets you know how far north or south of this point you are. Thus, you can know your latitude. As you travel further away from home, you can always look to the heavens and take a measurement. Then, you merely sail back towards your own latitude and then make a turn right or left to get back home.

In life, you will stray far from where you started. Yet no matter how far you go, you can always find your way if you but focus on heaven for guidance. When you have drifted far on the seas of life, buffeted by the storms of trouble; when you feel that you are most lost with no land in site, no rock to stand on; stop and take a bearing from the one constant – God. In Him, you will find the direction that you need to go. To find your way on earth, look to heaven.

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

Psalm 61:1-3

"Men know that the sea is dangerous and the storms are terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient enough reason for remaining ashore"

I wrote this devotional in 2003 as an encouragement for a friend as she was off to school at the Merchant Marine Academy. She traveled some troubled seas herself and is now back in landlocked Phoenix, but will likely travel again. I just stumbled upon my original and thought I'd post it. Dedicated to Liana W.

The Keys to the Church

Why do you go to church?

There are probably lots of reasons: worshipping God, seeing friends, learning about the Bible, tradition, getting a break from the kids, comfort, hope, or just a chance to eat some of Carol’s delicious ginger snaps at the hospitality table. All of these are excellent reasons, but I have two more for you to consider that are absolutely key to your walk with Christ.

Ask yourself a question, “What do I remember from last Sunday’s sermon?” Can you remember the scripture that the pastor preached? Can you remember any of his points? Was it inspiring, did it affect your life? Did the communion meditation touch you? If you have kids, did they learn anything in Sunday school?

Transformation is the goal of each of these examples of teaching God’s word, not information. When you study God’s word, it must lead to transformation, to growth within your life. Maybe not every time, but most times, there should be some sort of resulting growth from your encounter with God. This is the proverbial ‘AHA Moment’. The time when God’s Word and His Holy Spirit come together, making you realize that you need to change or grow.

Application is the next step. When you hear God’s Word, you are called to be obedient and do something about it. Scripture is full of action verbs: “make disciples”, “do as I have commanded”, “love one another”, “give generously”, “serve one another”, “use your gifts”. Christian life is not passive pew-sitting on Sundays, but an active way of life throughout your week. What we learn on Sunday transforms us in growth and we apply it throughout the rest of the week.
Transformation and Application go hand in hand. If you don’t come to some sort of transformation then you don’t realize how to apply what you have learned. Even better, as you apply what you have learned, it often leads to more transformation in your life.

Let me strongly encourage you to consider these two keys, Tranformation and Application at your next Bible study or when you come to Church next Sunday. Look at yourself and ask, “Am I growing and am I doing?” Then, make it a point to focus on what you are studying or what the sermon is about. Take notes. Go to lunch afterwards with a friend from the church and discuss the lesson and how to apply it in your lives. Decide together how each of you will apply the lesson this week and then talk about it next week to find out how you did. You will be amazed at how your life changes and at the excitement you will have in your Christian walk.

God loves you for who you are, but He wants you to grow and He wants you to do what His Word says. Take His calling to Transformation and Application seriously and you will have the keys to the church.

Originally written for 'The Mountain View' MVCC Newsletter 09/20/09
Copyright © 2009 Rodger S. Loar (rloar@mvccaz.com) All rights reserved.

Eavesdropping - Part II

7:00 am. Again, sitting in an almost empty classroom waiting for Biology class to start. Surfing the net on my laptop.

Girl 1 and Girl 2 are again sitting somewhere behind me having a conversation. The same two girls from the last Eavesdropping blog. (http://rodg3r.blogspot.com/2009/08/eavesdropping.html)

Girl 1, “You know, Jews don’t proselytize. They don’t push their religion off on other people. I really respect that.”

Girl 2, “ Yeah, me too.”

I have no idea who these girls are, but again, I wonder if they have ever really thought through their beliefs and ideas.

I want to ask the question, “If you believed in something that separated you from others, that changed your life, and ultimately gave you meaning and answers, as well as a promise of salvation from death…wouldn’t you want to share it with others? “

Penn Gillette, an outspoken atheist addressed this same question, asking, “How much would you have to hate someone not to proselytize them?

I see plenty of bumper-sticker Christianity out there, pithy sayings on cars, silly prayers before ball games, and contrived conversations to ‘lead people to Christ.’ I also see guys standing on street corners with megaphones and signs or sitting at basketball games with signs that say John 3:16.

I don’t want to be those people. I know my life, I know the person I was before I began following Jesus, and I know how far I’ve come. I want to share this.

I never did speak with those girls. I hope they learn to think through their beliefs and ideas.

I pray that someone who knows them and cares will share God’s love with them.

Ten Things I Wish for the Church

Ten Things I Wish For the Church

I did not grow up as a Christian. I just didn’t know anything about God. When I began to follow Jesus in my early 20s, I did not take his call passively. I got involved, I got moving, I got to work. Often, when I look at the church, I see people who sit in pews for an hour and then rush off back to their lives that are basically non-christian.

It makes me sad to see the waste of it all. If God’s people really took His call seriously on their lives, some amazing things could happen in our churches, neighborhoods, our nation and our world.

I wish…

Number 10: I Wish that Christians would give their time to God. Our society is so driven by busy-ness, rushing around to the next meeting, working two jobs, and getting our kids involved in every extracurricular activity possible, investing countless hours driving them everywhere and never mind their spiritual growth, their moral values, their peace of mind (or yours). Stop. Slow Down. Say no. Take time. Turn off the Television. Quit doing every hobby on earth. Tithe your time, that is give up enough of your busy-ness that you can use 10% (at least) of your time to do God’s work, to discuss values with your kids, to just spend time making a difference. AND, don’t forget to take some additional time in peace, rest, retreat, prayer, and relaxation.

Number 9: I Wish that Christians would break their love of money. This is another area where we have followed our society. We spend and spend and spend and then borrow more so that we can keep spending. We have to have Televisions in every room, the latest cars – two of them (along with the latest car loan), the biggest house (along with that gigantic mortgage), the coolest gadgets, iPods, Rock Band, vacations, maxed-out credit cards, travel, etc. etc. etc. Quit spending every dime you have and begin giving 10% (at least) to God’s work. Give to your local church, give to missions, give to homeless shelters, give to charity, etc. Heck, buy some groceries for the single mom next door. Then, save another 10% over and above any retirement account that you have. Then, live within the rest without borrowing.

Number 8: I Wish that Christians would remember why they came to God in the first place and then share that good news with their friends and neighbors. This doesn’t mean grabbing a bullhorn and heading for the street corner. It means engaging people you care about in honest, heartfelt discussions about spiritual things.

Number 7: I Wish that Christians would understand that following Jesus has little or nothing to do with politics. You may be guided by your faith as you vote, but I don’t remember Jesus saying anything about legislating the Kingdom of Heaven.

Number 6: I Wish that Christians would disciple. Jesus called us to do this in Matthew 28:19. Spiritual and personal growth is supposed to be a part of our Christian walk. That means personal, small group, or one-on-one exhortation outside of the Sunday sermon. Do you have a more mature Christian speaking into your life? Are you working with someone else?

Number 5: I Wish that Christians would teach the Word to their children. I have worked with youth and children for more than a decade and I see a consistent truth: Kids whose parents study the Bible outside of church and talk about spiritual things with their kids have better, well adjusted, and active Christian kids. Those who expect the youth group to teach their kids are the ones whose kids leave the faith as young adults. Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Parents, takes some time each week (if not daily) to read the Bible together and talk about it. This takes us back to Number 10 above, you have to make time for this. The added benefit, is that it will help you, help your marriage, and bring your family together.

Number 4: I Wish that Christians would remember Christ’s gentle message of grace to the hurting, the lost, and the sinners. He reserved his anger and rebuke to those that were using religion to press down on those same hurting, lost, and sinners. This is an important message for the abortion debate, the homosexual marriage debate, and any other place where we come into conflict.

Number 3: I Wish that Christians would remember that faith calls for action. Read and follow the words of James 1:27, Mark 12:31, Malachai 6:8, James 2:14-18, Matthew 25:35-26, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 6:2-4. Serve, volunteer, give, love, help. Don’t just sit in the pew on an occasional Sunday and believe that you have done your Christian duty for the week. Read Matthew 25:41-46 and take the warning to heart, God takes this very seriously.

Number 2: I Wish that Christians would remember that we are all human. Christian sometimes try to act like everything is OK, keeping their mask on even though they are hurting inside. This pushes new people away because they look at their own lives and realize they can’t be perfect. This is also an issue with leaders. People put pastors on a pedestal and then are hurt when the pastor falls. We are all sinners, saved by grace.

Number 1: I Wish that Christians would return to the strong community of the early church where we lived together, ate together, and served together weekly if not daily. Maybe it is a big-city thing, but it seems that everyone lives separate lives except for Sunday from 10:00 – 11:15.

This is the last installment in my Top 10 in 10 Days. I hope that you have enjoyed it. I have appreciated the response. My goal was to get my Christian and non-Christian friends all thinking about God, religion, the Bible, and spiritual things in their lives. This is an important area of life that many people neglect.

My next post will be next Monday in the A.M.