The Six Gifts Of Womanhood

Okay, this was just too funny, so I had to include it. At the end of Proverbs there is a list of things that men would be good to look for in a woman. Well, the ancient Celts had their own list of six desirable traits in a woman, finding one with all six was a blessing. Ladies, how do you measure up?

~the gift of beauty
~the gift of sweet speech
~the gift of singing
~the gift of needlework
~the gift of wisdom
~the gift of loving only her husband

You gotta admit though, it's not a bad list. How's your needlework coming?

T

Family Fun Night At FUMC

A lot of you missed it, too bad. I just think it was funny that I was in charge of the movie and making popcorn, and that Liz and I had to work together on it. But it was fun. hence the name...

T

Your Sins Will Find You Out

It's an old expression, but believe it or not it actually started in the Bible *gasp*

Numbers 32:23b ~ You may be sure that your sin will find you out.

This was just too funny...

"On Thanksgiving day 2001, police were called to the Ohio home of Nandor Santho, 46. While searching the premises they found 150 marijuana plants growing in the basement. Who called the cops? Santho's dog Willie - the pointer apparently stepped on his master's cell phone in such a way that it auto-dialled 911 - twice. Dispatchers mistook Willie's whimpering for a female in distress, which is why they sent the police to the home."

Gotta love it.

T

"Religion Of The Cross"

I've started a new book this week that will keep me busy for eons to come. It's almost as thick as my copy of "War & Peace" to give you some idea. Anyway, it's a collection of Celtic myths and legends. I'll be honest, I've found the introduction incredibly interesting as it tells how the Celtic language is one of the oldest languages on earth and is a cousin of Sanskrit spoken in India. But I digress...

So I finished today the story of "The Ever-Living Ones", their story of creation and the war between the children of Danu (good guys) and the children of Domnu (bad guys). Really interesting, good guys win after all sorts of stuff happening but Domnu after the defeat of her children has a curse put on the survivors that good will fade to evil, judges will make unjust laws, trees will be without fruit, etc., etc. Then it mentions how these things took place and the religion of Mil was forgotten.

But then it says this one little line in passing that caught me, how "...the religion of the Cross replaced that of the Circle..." and it just struck me. We say all sorts of things that Christians are supposed to be and believe and act and what not. But it all boils down to the cross. All we do, all we say, all we live for should come back to the Cross of Christ and we should be recognized as that. Children of the Cross.

So as you do what you do tomorrow or the day after that or whatever, look and ask are you a part of the religion of the Cross, does what you say and do and believe point back to the Cross of Christ.

Gal. 6:14 ~ As for me, however, I will boast only about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; for by means of his cross the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world. (italics added)

T

Happy Earth Day

It's almost over, but have a good one. What are you doing to make the world a better place? It kind of hit me while playing a computer game yesterday and having a fire here (not our apartment, one nearby) that we really pollute a lot. If everyone did just a little bit it would be so much better.

To bad most people do nothing and depend on a few to do everything...

T

Keep Your Cool

Okay, I love hockey. Those that don't, I'm sorry for whatever problem you have that makes you not like it. Anyway, today the Flames played the Red Wings. Game 5, tied 2-2, need 4 to win. Every team has won at home, and today it's in Detroit. But I like Calgary, I guess part of having been to Calgary and knowing one of their former players.

But today was not Calgary's day. They were losing 5-1 with a few minutes left and it happened. What can often happen in a physical emotional sport like hockey. Someone lost their cool. To be more precise, the backup goalie who replaced Kiprisoff. He totally swung his big honking goalie stick right into the gut of an innocent Red Wing, and yes, he did nothing to deserve the hit. The player simply lost his cool. Then the Flames leading scorer went back on the ice with 2 minutes left. Why bother, they had already lost. Nope, he had to start a fight. Got ejected (as did the goalie). A minute later, same thing, another ejection. Calgary simply lost its cool.

Why bother? Why retaliate? Why get so mad that you have to actually cause someone physical harm? The stupid part was, did it hurt the Red Wings? Nope. A little physical pain, but they still won, and after the game, all the support they had from the broadcasters at the start of the game, gone. Respect from other players, shot. They lost their cool.

There were all sorts of verses in Proverbs about controlling your temper, but I like this one from Ecclesiastes better. "Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool." (7:9) And it's true, no one's praising that goalie for his brains in all the sports reports I've heard so far...

T

30 Hour Famine

I know, it's been a while, get over it.

So I finally got to mail off the 30 Hour Famine stuff today, and in doing the numbers I found out that people gave money in the offering Sunday morning and never told me. So, our new total for what we raised is $3103.40!! Good job everyone!

T

Finally...

I know it's been a while, but through the month of March, I figured out I preached/spoke 8 times between NewSong, Drink Deep and Real World. On top of that we rebuilt the stage in the gym, so it's been kind of a busy month. So today I am doing nothing... well, until tonight when I have to do a little bit of homework (you students aren't the only ones).

O Bla Di O Bla Da :)

T

Real World

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. This is a busy month for me. The biggest thing, Real World!

For those that don't know, basically it's like the MTV show. All those that signed up live together in a house for 4 days. This year, 24 people, so yeah, fun.

I'll post updates if I survive ;)

T

The Jesus Prayer

It was something I was reading about today. I won't go into the long story of where it came from (at least to the Western Culture), but basically there was a man wondering if it were truly possible to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17).

He came upon a holy man who said it was and would explain how. He was given a prayer, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner," and was told to recite it 3000 times a day for a week. The man did so. The next week the holy man told him to pray the prayer 6000 times a day for another week. The man did so. The next week the holy man said he was not done and had to spend the next week praying the prayer 12000 times a day (about 11 hours worth!). The man did so.

And that was it. The questioning man wrote later on that after he had done this prayer so many times it was embedded in his spirit. When he ate, it would be going through his head. When he read, he would be reciting it. He said he even recited the prayer in his sleep.

So here's my challenge (and I'm doing it to). I can't give up 11 hours a day, I wish I could, but as often as possible I am reciting the prayer in my head. Give it a try and see what happens :)

T

When Everything Goes Wrong...

I know people have said before that "everything" goes wrong in some big sweeping generality when in reality they only had one or two things go wrong, but here's my list for our student ministry tonight...

~got there late
~a booking mistake caused us to have no chairs
~Jon's guitar didn't work
~Stephen's guitar didn't work
~James' bass almost didn't work, but took time to figure out the problem
~sound problems
~Liz borrowed my keys, they were gone when I needed in my office
~the DVD we watched during hang out time didn't work (cut out after 15 min, supposed to be 30)
~the opening cover song I couldn't see my music and read the wrong line
~I forgot to take our offering for our Compassion Children
~the game caused blood
~the game also had a lack of listening to adults
~during worship someone well intentioned decided to help "fix" the sound and made things worse
~the computer stopped working, but fixed itself (thankfully)
~I was the speaker at youth (that's not good any day)
~for our small group discussion time, there was no female leader, so I got to talk about sex... with the girls
~we went long
~I forgot an announcement
~we knocked out a light during After Hours playing soccer

And you know what's amazing? We lived through it. It all went okay. No one died. People learned something. We had 18 people sign up for the summer mission trips. People learned and talked about sexual purity. It was a great night. Except for one more thing...

~no one said "hi" to a visiting student

I'll be honest, having nothing work was absolutely horrible. It sucked. I wish it would never happen again. But, I would be willing to have it happen every single week as long as that last one were solved, permanently.

T

Why Can't We Tell The Truth?

Last night we didn't have Drink Deep (our student ministry program) because of the holidays, so for the first time in a long time I was at home watching TV last night with Lorie. We watched "Without A Trace", a missing persons show I really like but rarely ever get to see.

But here's something that I've started to know about the show. Something that really irritates me. Every show needs some sort of plot twist, we all know this. But with them, it always involves someone they're interviewing lying. Almost every single time. Someone has to lie, then the lie is discovered, they save the person, on to next week.

So here's what's been eating at me. Why do people have to lie? I mean really, how much simpler would it be if people simply told the truth? I like watching court shows too and I notice how many people get caught in lies there. And I'm not talking about differing points of view or different takes of the same event. I mean out and out flat lying. Why do we need to do it? Why can't we just own up to our mistakes? Why do we always blame something else? Why do we lie causing others pain just to cover our own butts?

So take a second and do two things. One, think of how many lies you told today. I mean every little one ("I'm fine" when you're not, all of them). It can be quite the list. Then two, think of what the world would be like if absolutely no one lied. Everyone told the truth. We wouldn't need lawyers...

"No more lying, then! Each of you must tell the truth to one another, because we are all members together in the body of Christ." ~Eph. 4:25

T

Why I Love Sports...

The biggest reason, I cannot predict them. I'm the kind of guy who has an iPod that is always on random. I like surprise twists. I watch shows like 24 because they actually would kill a repeat character (I hate knowing that people will survive because they have a two season contract). I love to play them, but when watching, it's the spectacular finishes I focus on.

It was pretty bad today. Lorie was sitting with me on the couch, kind of "eh" at first, then changing channels to see what was going on before I could!

Starters, Penguins Capitals hockey game. There is one major reason I love soccer and hockey over football, baseball, basketball, etc. Those other sports, the last 5 minutes are fouls, timeouts, ball spikes, pitching changes, anything to go slower. Hockey and soccer, the last five minutes people work harder and play gets more exciting. Today, Pittsburgh up 3-1, Caps pull the goalie with 2 minutes left, score a squeaker with a minute to go. They came just short of tieing the game (they got a shot of with a second left!).

With that over, we flipped to Nascar. Now, I can't watch cars go in a circle for four hours, but when I saw a yellow flag with 2 laps to go, I knew there was going to be a huge heap of cars together for the last lap, something close, and of course, a crazy major accident! I wasn't disappointed. Wrecks, guys driving in the grass, one car upside down and on fire (nice!) and of course, the photo finish where Havrick literally beats Martin (who was leading the whole time) by inches. By this point, Lorie's yelling at the TV not believing the poor guy in first this whole time lost... again...

But, that was cut short by golf. Yes, golf. How exciting can it get? Not very, but when you have Mickelson miss up close to allow Howell to force a playoff, it gets a little more interesting. Then, have them tie three times, in the middle, Howell hit a shot so bad it actually came to rest on the sidewalk (I've hit the sidewalk, never had it stop there), looking like he's going to lose, just so Mickelson can miss again and eventually lose to a guy who hasn't won a PGA tour in 5 years.

I mean really, you can't write that stuff and make it seem believable. Only in sports...

T

Who's To Blame?

So I'm reading an old paperback novel about airplanes, good story, and in the middle something happens that gets me thinking. There's an airplane with engine failure, smoke comes out, people scared, etc. Of course, everyone blames the manufacturer of the airplane. And the people who make the plane are furious. Why?

It's not their fault.

Of course, that sounds like a cop out. Plane one fire, must be the people who made the plane. Blame Boeing. But they made an interesting point. Most people don't know this, but industrial engines are very rarely made by the company that makes the machine. To give you an idea, for the plane, Boeing would make the plane, but not the engines. They would buy some other company's engine (like Rolls Royce) and have them installed on the plane. So really, the plane manufacturers are right. It's not their fault, but they'll take the heat for it.

To make it a little easier to understand, imagine you're driving your car. In my case a nice little Geo. I've been driving it for a year. Suddenly a tire bursts. Does Geo make the tires? No, of course not. You'd have Firestone or Goodyear on it. The tire could burst for any number of reasons. Bad road, old tires (they don't last forever), even on the off chance faulty tires. So should I yell at Geo for making a bad car? No. It wasn't their fault.

And this is what happens in the airplane business. They get blamed for parts that break that are not their fault. They take the brunt of all the accusations, stocks fall, people don't fly as much (for a bit) all based on the a part failing that was not the airline maker's fault. Heck, the airline maker doesn't even get to choose what engines are put in. They buyer of the aircraft does that. So really, they have no blame whatsoever.

Yet they pay for it.

But this is what got me thinking. Do we do that to God? Traffic's really bad and we slept in already, late for work. "God, why are You punishing me?" Someone steals your wallet. "How could You do this to me God?" We eat cheese puffs all day and get sick. "God, I don't deserve this. Why are You letting this happen to me?" Is it really His fault?

But then again, when we actually do something right, when we get the new job, when a new life is born, when miracles happen, who do we generally give the credit to...?

T

National Youth Workers Convention

So I was busy this last weekend helping with Group Magazine and Doug Field's NYWC Conference. Of course, I was there to learn stuff, so here's some I got, either by design of the conference or by accident by being me.

~People can generally be really, really nice.
~You never know the whole story (I may give more on this later...).
~Churches of 16 000 have the same problems as ours.
~Cold affects different people different ways.
~Best line of the conference, "No Ringy, No Thingy" (you can figure out what that's for).
~Wal-Mart is never near downtown.
~It costs less to give it away than to ship it home, we got so much free stuff (thank you everyone!!!).
~A little spark of excitement can lead to a huge fire.
~People appreciate the little things.
~Busy-ness is not something to be proud of.
~Teenagers are incredibly fun, and are the people who work with them.
~People who seem to have every right to be exclusive can and are very humble and quite friendly.

I'm sure there's more, I may edit and add some, but there's some food for thought. Thanks to everyone who made it a great weekend!

T

Quick Thought Before Bed

I was about to go to sleep and was reading something that I thought I should say really quick (it'll be short).

I was reading about Harry Houdini, the infamous escape artist. You know, he would tie himself up, put himself in a safe, then toss it into water and somehow he'd get out. Amazing. Well, I was actually reading a list of famous people and their fears (phobias really). Houdini was on the list.

He was scared of tight spaces.

Harry Houdini, the guy who got locked in a trunk on a regular basis voluntarily so he could perform was scared of tight spaces. And yet, every night, he did because he found out he had a gift and he couldn't keep it quiet.

What would have happened if he had given up the first time he tried because of his fear?

Are there things you don't do because you're afraid? Spreading God's Word, speaking in front of people, maybe even helping with teenagers (gasp!). Maybe you don't know it yet, but you're good at it. Really good. As in Houdini good.

Are you going to let a little phobia stop you from being as good at whatever it is God wants you to do as Harry Houdini was at escaping?

Stephen read it Friday at McPrayer (at least I think this was it, I'm kinda tired). "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." - Isaiah 41:13.

T

The Colts Did It

It's finally happened. The Colts are the Super Bowl Champions. They are it. The winners.

And Coach Dungy finally has his Super Bowl winning team. You gotta hand it to the guy, he's been waiting a long time for this. And yet, in the midst of his win, in the height of his glory, what did he say? All the news stories are running how an African-American coach won the game, but he added more...

"I'm proud to be the first African-American coach to win this," Dungy said during the trophy ceremony. "But again, more than anything, Lovie Smith and I are not only African-American but also Christian coaches, showing you can do it the Lord's way. We're more proud of that."

Wait a minute, what was that? But that's not all he said...

"The Lord doesn't always take you in a straight line," Dungy said. "He tests you sometimes."

In a sport that seems to focus so much on "me", all the big hype, the end zone dances, the"look at how great I am" attitude, the announcers are looking to the sidelines and mentioning how Dungy never raises his voice and has never cursed or swore on the football field because of his faith.

That's a man I'm proud to see hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

T

(both quutes from AOL Sports)

Keeping Your Word

Most people know what a treaty is. An agreement between two countries to stop fighting. At least, most times that's what it means. And usually it will be forgotten and people still fight when angry.

But who has heard of the Treaty of Windsor? It was signed way back in 1386 by two countries who were not at war. England and Portugal created it saying they would never go to war with each other.

And 621 years later they have still never been at war.

Imagine if we all lived like that. If we all kept our word. If we simply stopped fighting (or never started) because we simply said we wouldn't and did our best to find another way to solve our problems. There are many treaties that are worth nothing because they simply aren't followed. This one has six centuries of worth.

What's your word worth?

Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no... ~ James 5:12

T

Almost Made Me Sick

So last night I was up late with the TV on (I was at a hotel and couldn't sleep, more on that later) when an infomercial came on for the Season 1 DVD of "Gifted".

Now, for those of you who don't know what "Gifted" is, it's basically a Christian American Idol. You can see the website at www.giftedshow.com. I have no problem with people showing the gift God gave them, but there was something a bit too much for me.

Backtrack. Back when I was in high school (oh so long ago) the modern worship movement was just starting. It seemed good. Lots of new songs, lots of books and CD's so people could play the songs in church. Good.

Then it got bigger. Christian/worship CD sales were the second highest growing genre in the last few years. Worship was on the radio. Worship leaders were now giving concerts. I had mixed feelings. I'm glad people have the opportunity to hear these songs. People may even be worshipping in their cars while the radio's on, but is it focused worship? Are people really thinking about how God is holy or merely humming along to "Holy Is The Lord" while it's on in the background? Are we praising God or the laser light show? So many questions...

But this one made me sick. I mean sick. Like I said, if God gave you a talent and you want to use it, maybe even let people know God gave it to you, fine. But then, during this infomercial for the DVD set, I heard "How Great Is Our God", a wonderful worship song that is pretty much summed up in the title. And it was being sung by someone promoting themselves to win a recording contract. Singing "How Great Is Our God" to promote to judges "How Great Am I".

And I couldn't take it anymore.

I don't know where the line is. I don't know everything there is to know about worship. I honestly think our view of worship is quite small and think God would like it to be bigger. But is this really it? Singing songs written for God possibly even inspired by God to worship Him, use all this so I can show how good I am? I believe in doing a good job for God, giving Him our best, but is this really right? Am I off base here or is taking a song of worship and completely shifting the focus off of God onto ourselves okay? Can these singers actually say they were worshipping God while trying to show how good they were and earn a recording contract? It's possible, but probable? Even right?

One more thing that got me. The grand finale was all the contestants together singing the "hit radio single Amazing Love". Not "song of worship to God", not "wonderful song of praise", but "hit radio single". Honestly...

"What I do is done for My own sake—
I will not let My Name be dishonoured
or let anyone else share the glory
that should be Mine and Mine alone." ~ Is. 48:11

T

(we have no right to His glory, He has no need to share it, the only glory we get we don't deserve but is shared with us for being His children, see Ro. 8:17, Heb. 2:10, Col. 3:4. God is not being vain or proud in this verse, HE IS GOD. He is the only Being in all of time who can honestly say He deserves all glory because He does... because He is God).

I'll stop. I could go on forever on this...

Undue Stress

I've heard someone say that a majority of our stress is based on things in our head that have never happened, or based on something in the past that you cannot change anyway.

So today, Lorie and I had a wonderful meeting at Immigration. We've known about it for over a month. We've prepared. We brought 8 binders of information (yes, 8). We sat in the waiting room while people were separated from their families, lawyers told people what to say or not to say, and even while one guy found out his father was taken into custody and detained.

You can guess where our stress level was at (more Lorie's, I just made bad jokes that made her stress worse). So we finally get called in almost 90 minutes after our appointment was supposed to start.

We were there 10 minutes.

I kid you not, we had a great time, the officer who talked with us was really nice and totally understood what we were going through, in fact, the part that took us the longest was having our officer photocopy some forms. We left smiling. No problems whatsoever. So where did the stress come from?

We made it.

And it's a sign of our society in my mind. I noticed yesterday the A.E.D. at the high school (the portable paddles to start your heart, "Clear!") and started wondering when we got those things. Then I started wondering when did we need those things? Have we put so much stress on ourselves that our hearts might give out at any time? And is it proper stress or completely undue? We have to have machines at any public place in case our hearts give out. I don't think we were built that weak, so what can the reason be? Are our lives too stressful? If so, what's the answer?

"I leave you peace; my peace I give you." ~ Jesus (John 14:27)

T