Finding Sense In It All

Where Does the Church Live?

2008-07-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

First of all the word "Church" is horribly tainted and misunderstood. The idea of congregations or "Churches" (which is the wrong use again) have become very territorial even within the same fellowship. Where you go to Church (wrong use yet again) is a little too overblown. I don't mean questions of faith or the gospel, I mean where you park your car on Sunday.

I look at the writings of Paul and I don't see this territorial attitude. In fact, Paul was the king of traveling and visiting congregations. He kept up with people by name and longed to see them.

So why do various church leaders at various levels get heartburn when members visit other congregation or activities with other Christians. What real ownership is it right for them to feel? They don't own you, they aren't in charge of you. Am I wrong to think that the worship center (notice I didn't say Church or Church Building) is a means of convenience usually associated with where you live? The Church is the body of saved believers and thus transcends geographical boundaries and certainly is much larger than where you worship.

You're thinking that this has to be the most obvious and pathetic topic. You're thinking you already know this. I challenge you to look around a bit.

There is such a huge benefit to Christians collaborating and sharing their lives together. Worshiping together is one of the greatest bonding experiences there is though not the main purpose. To do that you have to meet up with people and worship somewhere. I think it's great for individuals to seek out other Christians, friends, activities on their own. This means they'll wind up at a congregation somewhere and worship and one of them might not be at their usual congregation. Why is that bad?

If being gone on a Sunday or Wednesday night at your home congregation so you can visit friends at another congregation or spiritual activity is wrong...then I guess my allegiance is to the brick building and my human leader. But it's not. It's 1st to Christ, then to my fellow Christian brothers and sisters (see commandments regarding God and your neighbor)...and maybe I'll choose to work with a leader in the church if it benefits my overall Christian walk. I don't follow a human, I follow Christ and no one owns me but Him.

Now don't get me wrong, human leaders in the Church (not the building) plan things, oversee certain things as they should. They have my full support...until they put a cage around the membership and get mad when they leave the nest for one night. Christians in the new testament had a global attitude and were part of something much bigger than a street address. Let's not discourage the Church from living each day as close to one another as possible. That might mean a little travel from your usual parking spot on Sunday or Wednesday.

That might mean the guy "in charge" of your age group might get a little heartburn. I pray they'll finally see themselves as a facilitator of the gospel and good works, not a dictator. We need to see the church as God sees it. As One.

Living Off The Land

2008-05-15T06:33:00.001-07:00

I'm going to continue to edit this particular blog as time goes on. So you'll have to check back on it since it will slowly get buried under more recent blogs.

I've started mentally keeping track of how you could live off of what is readily available or that you could find around town. Everything from food to toilet paper.

So here goes the list of what I have so far:

Food: Peanuts from Santa Fe Restaurant readily available just inside the front door.

The guys at the mall always give out free samples of that chicken they call "Cajun". I once ate at Chic-fil-a, was still hungry, so I went over to them and sampled all that chicken. Then I wasn't hungry anymore.

Drink: Chocolate shakes are free to kids at Boomerang if you color a picture.

Also, I saw a guy walk into a McDonals with McDonalds cup that had to be soooooo old. He walked in, refilled his drink, and walked out. Now that's stealing. But it sort of fits the topic.

Clothes: You could stalk a "Red Box" clothes drop off point or dig inside one.

More to come....

Lottery

2008-05-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that for a guy who doesn't believe in gambling, I've given this a LOT of thought. Mostly while I'm driving in the car where most of my open thinking occurs.

So here it is.

Say I win $175 million.

First rule: Do not make anyone rich, including myself. That will ruin your life.
Second rule: Get rid of it before anyone notices.

So I'll have to do the following:

1. Have an attorney pick it up anonymously. Do not appear on TV especially.
2. Pay off all of my debts.
3. Anonymously pay off family debts.
4. Create an organization to oversee and use the money to any number of ideas I have for community and religious charities. Let's face it, money is power and to not use it for the benefit of mankind would be crazy. It would be an excellent opportunity to do something amazing.

And never tell anyone.

That's the perfect scenario. Is there a human alive that could stick with such a plan? I don't know. Every time I get tempted to buy a lotto ticket I cringe at the thought of loosing everything I've worked for. A weird thought to have when most people see it as an opportunity for gain.

So I'll try not to dwell on this much anymore. But it's a cool thought. But then reality hits...it would really shake things up. I don't need that.

What's In A Name?

2008-04-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

In the bible we read that the pharisees were criticized for paying attention to traditions and were more interested in being critical than understanding the real nature of the scriptures or the nature of God. This attitude concerns me as a Christian because I find myself surrounded by talk of technicalities and criticism of the denominational world. There is no doubt that when GOD specifies what HE wants that us mere mortals who are ants in his sight must make sure we "get it right". So the question is: How do we experience the love of Christ while maintaining a healthy dose of Godly fear so that we don't stray into post modernism or denominationalism?

Understanding that I feel this struggle you may now appreciate the first question on my quest to bring about clarity on many issues while examining my motives carefully to make sure they aren't based in pharasee-ism. The first of these missions we'll call the church naming reformation movement.

How trivial right? A name? Come on. Talk about modern day pharisees! Maybe not.

Names were very important in the bible. Each one had meaning and more often than not the bible let's us know the meaning. God even changed peoples names to better fit his plan for them or reflect some overall purpose. In the case of the church, Jesus purchased the church with his own blood. It's His. He is the head.

We are so concerned with identity theft today and I think Jesus might be feeling the same pain. What analogy could be more applicable? The overall church is the church of Christ...like as in logically it is his...and those within it are Christians. But good luck finding churches that even come close to claiming to be the possession of Jesus. Some have another man's name on them like "Mormon" or "Luther". Many are moving towards catchy up beat names like "Victory" or "The Rock". We have robbed Jesus of his own church by stealing it's identity.

You don't appreciate it when your bank account suffers loss due to identity theft. Your hard earned money is stolen. Just imagine how Jesus feels about his purchase being stolen and the identity changed. His purchase required days of torture and death. You'd think the least we could do is leave his name on what he bought.

In some ways the idea of church identity theft is rather handy. If his name isn't on it, it really has been stolen. There's a new guy in control. If you are attending a church that has the nerve to remove Jesus from the name of the church he bought, they'll have the nerve to do anything.

Call me a pharisee, but at least Jesus will recognize the name on the sign as his. There's a lot more to being a Christian than the sign out front, but can we start with getting that part right?

Jett Quotes

2008-04-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

Days of the Week
We asked Jett to name the days of the week. It started off right. "Sunday.....Monday.....tomorrow....last week."

Halo Trash Talk
One of the funniest things that may wind up biting me is that Jett picks up on trash talk on XBox Live. We were playing last night and Jett saw an opponent coming up to me and he exclaimed, "Smoke'm dad". I guess that's not too bad.

Men's Room

2008-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

A trip to the mall is where we begin our story. Jett and I visit the men's room and find that it's fairly full...but we find a spot. I have to go into a stall which leaves Jett right outside my door facing the wall so he can do his thing too. Jett has always been incapable of being quiet in the men's room which for those of you who don't know, men don't really talk to each other in the men's room. Some of his usual very loud questions are, "Are you done yet? Where's mama?" and the best "what are you doing?". So anyway it's very quiet even though there are 6 guys in there. Some time passes and I'm not done yet which means he's patiently waiting right outside the stall door. I'm amazed he hasn't said anything yet. Then in the midst of pure silence he says with a bathroom echo, "I love you dad". And from stall #3 with the closed door and sitting virtually side by side with 4 other men with only a thin wall between us I said, "I love you too, buddy".

Happiness Greed

2008-02-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

So where does happiness come from? Unfortunately it comes from the realization that a situation has improved or changed. It rarely comes from noticing that everything is going well, hasn't changed and won't change soon. Why doesn't that cause happiness? Why don't we wake up each day so happy that tragedy hasn't struck? Why do we wait for good news, a new toy...new new new. To have new you must have old. And apparently old is bad.

I look at my kids and think that someday I would pay thousands to see them like they are today. Just to converse with them for 30 minutes and see their young faces, high voices and funny things that they come up with. I would stare at them endlessly in awe of how beautiful they are. But that's only because it would be so different than the adult version of them I'd be used to. That's so wrong. I want to appreciate them that way now. The closest I've come to triggering that feeling is when I've come back from a business trip after a week. The kids looked brand new. They flat out looked different. It was amazing. They might as well have been glowing. It was so great. I wouldn't change that feeling for the world.

When things appear to be going wrong or we get disappointed in our dreams we are often forgetting the dreams that have come true and that we are living right now. We've come to the end of so many journeys and received the prize at the end of the rainbow but we immediately look to the future as if it holds something greater. It's like happiness greed. Never satisfied.

I guess it's the American way and what we are taught from the beginning. I feel that Christianity tries to give us a clue in this area by encouraging us not to lay up treasures here on earth where thieves break in and steal and moths destroy.

I guess we need to realize that happiness is waiting for us to rediscover what we've already accomplished. It's a lot smarter to remember what you have than to go invent something new.

Blood Ties

2008-02-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

I am recently amused at the age old human problem of choosing family ties over good decision making. And the most amusing part is that everyone around you can tell you it's a bad idea but you will do it anyway. Like a bad girlfriend. Your friends know it's a bad deal but you are gonna give a try anyway and might even think it's a great idea.

So there you are fighting an uphill battle to prove you are right. But...you're just prolonging the disgrace.

So here me and my fellow family and friends sit. Awaiting the disgrace to fall on one of our friends. I'm not mad at him. Not surprised either. Just amused at the human condition and how we never learn.

Lice

2008-02-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

So...I have now had the pleasure of seeing what Lice is all about. You know, the thing they checked for in school when you were young and you never really knew what it was. Well, I do. It's so disgusting, so amazing and so expensive all at once. It brings a visual to the word infestation like nothing else ever could. It's just hard to believe a human being, king of all species, ruler of the animal world could be so helpless against such a small but apparently highly REPRODUCTIVE species. Why couldn't we have kept the DoDo bird and killed off Lice instead?

Anyway, if you hear that any of your kids friends have lice, tell your son or daughter that their friend might as well be demon possessed and poison to the touch. Whatever keeps them away from that kid. Besides, the school will treat your kid no less than demonic anyway.

I hope one day to erase the visual of it all.

Jett: Quotes 2

2008-02-13T21:13:00.001-08:00

I've had several proud moments with my son. Today we played Halo on campaign for 3 hours. He's been sitting in front of Halo since he was very very young watching me play. He picks up on the trash talking which is sometimes funny and sometimes a little too adult.

The most recent proud moment has been tossing him a football. He can catch about 1 out of 4. Just for fun I told him to run across the room and I'd try to hit him on the run. He caught it. I think I must have just paused there for a minute thinking "I just witnessed my son's first real catch." He thought it was pretty cool too. Now he demands at least 30 minutes each day of nothing but running across the room full speed and me throwing him the ball. He loves it and so do I. Yeah for sons.

Work

2008-02-13T21:04:00.001-08:00

For the sake of historical accuracy I thought I would list out all the jobs I've had. I always seems to remember one here and there that I had totally forgot about.

EJ's Produce (Grandpa's corner produce stands)
Braums
WalMart
Wesnidge Furniture
Dura-Kold Products
Zio's Italian Kitchen
White Water
American Eagle
Paper Boy for the Oklahoman
Resonet Media (My Freelance Co)
OC Student Center Help Desk
Kodiak Restaraunt
NewsOK.com
Visual Inventor
Myriad Systems
ABS
Oklahoma Christian Teacher
AProAtHome.com
ITT Technical Institute
Balance Fitness

That's all I can remember.

Red Tape

2008-02-11T08:52:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm just destined to comment on religion in my blogs. Who knew?

Anyway, the most amazing experience happened yesterday. Let me set this up first before I go any farther.

When attempting to look objectively at the word of God the biggest bit of red tape to get over is ignoring what your family has taught you all these years. It taints everything. I causes us to make excuses for parts of the bible we either don't believe, don't understand or don't want to deal with right now. These ignored sections of the bible may hold the key to our salvation. Even so, it's so hard to admit Grandma might have been wrong about salvation and Dad may not make it to heaven.

Unless of course you have a car accident and lose your memory and have to find religion again from scratch....which is what this guy did! It was so amazing to talk to this guy. He is literally in search of the truth and actually has a good chance of finding it since his 'red tape' just got blown away. He comes from a certain denominational background and is finding out through studying the bible that everything his family believes is way way way far off from what the bible teaches. He is able to reach this conclusion through a more objective approach then maybe any of us could ever hope to have.

To me it affirms my faith in what I have read in the bible and what I practice. If car wreck, no memory man is finding my same faith through studying the bible only, then maybe I'm close to the truth as well.

Marketing God

2008-02-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

I struggle with the concept of church image and the attention given to it. Logos, advertising, tag lines etc. Having a marketing background I appreciate and believe in image and the role it plays in humans overall perception of things. Obviously some churchs go nuts on image etc. And some churches do nothing as if it's blasphemy to market God. No website, no sign out front that really says anything catchy.

My friend Amy is actually doing a study on how everything from colors to temperature in the building affects church people and their moods. Churches are OK with concentrating on that, but other marketing is seen as too showy, or fake, or bad in general.

Does anyone else battle with wondering when we go to far or why we don't go far enough?

Jett: Prayer 1

2008-02-08T08:45:00.001-08:00

Here is Jett's current prayer at the table.

Dear God (used to be Dog)
Thank you for Mema
Thank you for Great
Thank you for my cough
Thank you for mommy being sick
Thank you for Jesus dying for the dead
Thank you for Jesus dying on the cross
In Jesus name Amen
And thank you for the food

Madi: Quotes From Years Past

2008-02-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

This post will be edited as I remember them. New quotes will be on a separate blog.

I wish I had 2 hands (as she held them both up).
This is the best day of my life (as we almost hit the annoying neighbor dog with our car).

Jett: Quotes 1

2008-02-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hoping to impress us with his OU / OSU jokes Jett attempted to recount the following joke he heard his 8 year old sister say. The real joke is this:

What does OSU stand for? Give Up? Old Stinky Underwear.

Now here is Jett's version:

What does OSU stand for? Give Up? Dirty bottom.

And then the joke got longer...

Know what OU stands for? Give Up? Clean bottom.

That's even better than the original joke.

Madi's Words of Wisdom

2008-02-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, my 5 year old daughter Madi has some serious insight into this universe. Below are some words of wisdom. This was recorded from interviewing her at the dinner table and writing down her answers. I wish you could have been there.
The first part is the usual phrase and the last is how she finishes it. Some of them are thought provoking, some amazing and some just random.

Don't change horses…to a girl.
Strike while the…lightning strikes.
It's always darkest before…night time.
Never underestimate the power of…God.
You can lead a horse to water but…you can't take it the wrong way.
Don't bite the hand that…you're eating with.
No news is…news.
A miss is as good as a …happy valentines day.
You can't teach an old dog new…tricks if he hasn't learned them.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll…get messy.
Love all, trust…family.
The pen is mightier than the … chicken.
An idle mind is…(no reply)...(...that in itselft says a lot :-).
Where there's smoke there's…cigarettes.
Happy the bride who…marries the groom.
A penny saved is…money.
two's company, three's…dollars.
don't put off till tomorrow what…(no reply).
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and…you'll be sad.
There are none so blind as … blind people.
Children should be seen and not … be by strangers.
If at first you don't succeed … keep trying.
You get out of something only what you … if you've been good.
When the blind lead the blind … you'll have to have somebody carry you.

Justification For Church Stupidity

2008-02-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

First of all I mean this in the most loving Christian way possible...believe it or not.

One of my biggest revalations of my adult life is that people are stupid. I being a 'people' am not immune to it either but I find that regarding church that people are stupid. They go brain dead on biblical subjects. Similar things in the world are easy to figure out but take that same subject or example regarding the church and peoples brains just melt into orange goo. I'm getting sick of hearing that churches want to change all the time. They'll offend 100 members so they can reach a goal of 100 new members...because that makes sense. 20 of those offended people will never go back to church and will burn in hell due to the brillance of 'forward thinking...culturally changing elders and deacons' in the church. The announcements on 'let's change the church today' should read like this:

Church, welcome. What a beautiful Sunday it is to worship God. We have a few announcements. Over the past year the elders and preacher...mostly the preacher have decided that we need to change our worship services. We know this will come as a shock to some of you but we've discussed it and decided that it's OK if you leave and never come back. It's a shame that you grew up at this church just to find out in your teens or later years that you'd have to leave. I know some of you will be so discouraged by this change from the eldership you've come to trust and love that you will never return to church or trust anyone ever again and will ultimately burn in hell for eternity. We've rationalized this and decided that on judgement day God will not bring this up and make us accountable for your souls or the church we just split. After all, clapping hands and instruments and other new additions are way more biblical than keeping the church pure and it's members active and faithful and a few souls lost won't matter. In case you are wondering if all the elders agree on this change then let me reassure you that all those who didn't have been pushed out of the eldership through carefully calcualted rumors and unchristianlike comments and pressure. Starting next Sunday we will have our new worship services so that we will look a lot like the church down the street and we believe this will bring more people into our services because looking like the church they are already attending we'll make them want to come here instead...cause that just makes sense that they'd switch for something that has no additional benifit, is not more biblical and is a room full of 600 strangers...I mean...what a deal. When they ask why we've made the change we'll say, "For you of course. Please take sit here where brother Smith used to sit untill we ran him off. I don't know what his status in the church is these days. I'm just an elder in his church, what duty is it of mine to watch after his soul...I ran him off so now that's someone elses job." It should be also noted, church, that in a few years the changes we have instituted today will grow old and boring due to our lack of realizing that what keeps people in church is their heart and not catering to their ADD problems. You should also note that if it again comes down to the peaceful love and respect we hold dear in our church that we elders will sacrifice it and ship you out just the same. So member new and old, welcome. Who knows what the future holds or where we get this crazy stuff we've come up with. Just know this, out with the old and in with the new. If that means you need to leave then pack it up. God will be so pleased I've split this church for a littel external stimulation to keep it up beat. We'll show up to judgement with 50 saved and 50 damned. That should break us even. I'm glad we've spent the last year rationalizing this because it sure was hard but like usual, we managed to fool ourselves and ignore the overal theme of the bible " Christ loves the church ".

Don't cause trouble in your church but stand up when people do. God loves the church and died for it. Encourage one another and be aware of how you are a stumbling block to others. On judgement we'll bring souls with us to heaven instead of casting souls into hell. If you don't like your church then leave. There's a church for every flavor these days. Sad but true. Don't touch my church or like Paul I'll confront you in the temple and take care of it. I'm watching...listening to members in my church and making sure their attitudes don't shift away from the pure gospel and love for the church. I suggest you fight for yours as well.

Goodnight all my good Christian friends. You're my life and we'll fight together for the purity of the church.

No More Notes

2008-02-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

I just figured out the other day that my generation is one of the last to experience note writing in school. Obviously I'm referring to paper notes vs cell phone notes. I still have some of my notes from early High School. Kids will never again exchange paper notes folded into amazing shapes and fully functional Chinese stars. That's just sad. The teacher can't say "Is that a note...read that in front of the class". Those days are over. You can't come up with cheesy codes that only you and your friends know or weird signatures. You can't do the note swap in the halls like secret agents exchanging brief cases so fast no one notices. Your mom can't find the notes and then ask you about them. It's all so secret. You couldn't show off your latest drawing skills or sketch the next skateboard trick you want to try.

And here s the worst part, there is no historical record to look back upon. The cell phone messages are just gone as soon as they are read. No one will stumble on to them years from now and smile. Maybe some things about it are better but the good old notes were pretty cool.

Who would have thought so much would change in 10 years or so. Man I sound old.

Jett found heaven

2008-02-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

In our devotional last night at bed time I was reading a passage in Luke that said...roughly..."if you cause one of these little ones to stumble it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and cast into the sea." For some reason I elaborated on that point which caused some amazing interaction. To get to the point, heaven was brought up and Jett figured out that we are leaving 'here' and going 'there'. His face went blank and the wheels were turning so fast in his head I could see smoke rising. Acutally, I could see tears. He looked like a kid getting forced to ride a roller coaster for the first time.

Dad...Um....uh...will I...um...well...what...um...

He proceeded to confirm that it was after we get old, after we die, that his toys or something just as fun will be there and that every family member...by name...will be there. He was still shaky by the end but forced a smile. He wants to stay home...in this house. Maybe he's still getting over moving in November and doesn't want to move again.

Anyway, I was so happy to see a step in the understanding of God and was ashamed I had not provided more of an opportunity for him to realize all this sooner. Those "boring devos" at night can be so exciting for the kids if we'll just trust in their understanding and quit racing to the end so we can all go to sleep.

A Blog...A Real Blog

2008-02-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

O I've blogged before...MySpace style. But my ideas and thoughts are a bit deep for the kiddies. So first we'll transfer any worthy content here and then see what fresh ideas the mind holds.