Clean Clothes

One of my goals this year is to read through the Bible in its entirety. I have selected the Message Version to accomplish this goal. I have finished Genesis and half of Exodus, and have some thoughts I would like to share the next few days. The first is on worship.
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Imagine that you received a letter in the mail. The envelope is coated with shiny gold. The actual card inside is also coated with gold. It is simply an invitation, with the words:

“YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED
TO MEET WITH GOD IN 3 DAYS.
PROPER ATTIRE REQUIRED.
NO RSVP NEEDED. SIMPLY SHOW UP.”

Imagine what it would be like to actually meet with God. Imagine entering into the presence of the all-powerful God of the universe. What would you wear? How would you act? What preparations would you take beforehand? This was precisely what happened to the Israelites after they had left Egypt and were headed towards the Promised Land. From Exodus 19 in The Message Version:

“Yahweh said to Moses, “Go to the people. For the next two days get these people ready to meet Holy Yahweh. Have them scrub their clothes so that on the third day they’ll be fully prepared, because on the third day Yahweh will come down on Mount Sinai and make his presence known to all the people. Post boundaries for the people all around, telling them, ‘Warning! Don’t climb the mountain. Don’t even touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain dies—a certain death. And no one is to touch that person, he’s to be stoned. That’s right—stoned. Or shot with arrows, shot to death. Animal or man, whichever—put to death.’

On the third day at daybreak, there were loud claps of thunder, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud covering the mountain, and an ear-piercing trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp shuddered in fear. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God. They stood at attention at the base of the mountain.”

Every time I read this passage I am struck by the preparations God required and then they took to meet with the Holy God. First, they scrubbed their clothes for 2 days to get rid of all the dirt they had accumulated on the trip thus far. Then they posted boundaries on where to go and where not to go. They also abstained from sexual relations (not listed in my condensed version above). And what was the result? They arrived in God’s presence and His full power was put on display before them. It caused the people to shudder with fear.

Here’s the point for me. Most people, myself included, just show up for the worship service. Perhaps we bathe and put on nicer clothes, but our attitudes have not been examined. The stain of sin has not been removed. Church turns into another appointment on the calendar or a routine to go through each week. It is not what the Israelites experienced. It is not truly basking in the presence of God. It is not a time that is full of awe, wonder, and maybe even a little fear when God shows up, if he does at all.

And I wonder, is it because we don’t make enough preparations? Do we spend time in repentance beforehand? Do we concentrate on the fact that we are entering into God’s throne room? Perhaps if we took a little more time before “church” getting our minds, souls, bodies, and spirits ready, and not just putting on clean clothes we might experience something amazing this week in worship. It might not be lightning and thunder, but God might show up in power, and knock our freshly cleaned socks right off.

Who is my Neighbor

I ran across the following statement in Thoughts for the Quiet Hour. This is from A.P Stanley. I have wanted to use it for a while, but have not found an occasion until now. It is of course based on the question posed to Jesus in Luke 10:29, “Who is my neighbor?”

“Who is your neighbor? It is the sufferer, wherever, whoever, whatsoever he be. Whenever you hear the cry of distress, wherever you see anyone brought across your path by the chances and changes of life whom it is in your power to help—he, stranger or enemy though he be—he is your neighbor.”

In light of the Tsunami in the Far East, such a quote takes on even more meaning. Couple this with a special I saw on ESPN about the many professional athletes that did contribute quite a bit of money and support.

MLB $1 Million
Michael Shumacher $10 Million (he lost his bodyguard in the tragedy)
Kevin Garnett $100,000
Tiger Woods $100,000
Ben Rothlesburger donated the Game Check of his first playoff game ($18,000)
Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and Jalen Rose pledged $1000/point scored in a game
In total, $37 million were donated from the sporting community.

I look at these contributions and I don’t know what to think. Honorable? Yes. Desperately needed? Of course. Consistent? I don’t know. I look at Kobe Bryant and Jalen Rose, and I don’t think, “Humanitarian.” I don’t think, “One who loves his neighbor.” Am I being too hard on them? Perhaps. But they have a forum to send a message regularly, not just at times of crisis, and I think they fail regularly.

Are they Christians? I don’t know. But it teaches me about how I live my life, or at least how I should. It shouldn’t take tragedies to have us show love. It shouldn’t take the bombing of buildings to return us to God. It shouldn’t just be the big events in life that point us to God. God is in the little things. He is in the ignored coworker, classmate, and stranger. He is in anyone who you come across who is in need. Love is an ongoing action that cannot be confined to cataclysmic moments. Where there is suffering, little or small, there must be love to counter it. Where there is a neighbor, there must be compassion.

What? I can't hear you! The TV's too loud!

I know that I rant quite a bit here at my site. It was not intended to be such a blog. But I have to vent to someone, and quite frankly, my wife gets sick of it. So here goes another one.

I enjoy watching TV. There are quite a few shows that I am a big fan of (Lost, Alias). I also have a decent sound system to watch these shows with, though I have had to tone it down since the birth of Elijah. Loud noises hurt little ears. Now, for some reason, certain shows, in fact most shows make it difficult to hear the dialogue without turning the sound up a little bit. That is no problem, because the music, sound effects, and other noise don’t usually get too loud.


But then the commercials come, AND THE SOUND LEVEL INCREASES DRAMATICALLY. It is like I just walked into Grand Central Station. The volume level difference is incalculable. I have to have my finger ready on the remote or I can guarantee that a sleeping baby will be startled awake, not to mention the damage to my own ear drums. In addition, I get frustrated when a show has a dramatic moment followed by a loud commercial hawking their annoying product. Why are commercials so much louder than the shows? I suppose it has to do with advertising, but it is annoying nonetheless.

The same things happen when I switch stations. Imagine a sound scale. One channel is set at say, a 5 and then the next station a 3, and then a 7. Up and down the volume goes with no telling when it will stop or be set at the appropriate listening levels. Can somebody please level the volumes? If I can do it when recording a CD from MP3s with a $50 program, I have to believe that TV stations can do it too. I understand that volumes fluxuate depending on scenes in shows, but this fluxuation is intolerable. Or perhaps, someone could come up with a chip for a TV that helps with this. I set a range that I want the volume to be at, and no matter what the show or station I flip to, the TV automatically adjusts.

Until such improvements occur, I must remain vigilant on the remote control, careful to enjoy my entertainment at the appropriate levels.

Drug Problem in America

By reading the title of this post, you may have assumed that what would follow might focus on teenagers and marijuana, crack, crank, speed, etc. But no, I have noticed a new problem that plagues our culture. Prescription drugs are taking over America. Everywhere you look, there is a commercial advertising a drug, a pen or a pad of paper hawking that same drug, a program sponsored by a drug, or a racecar with the drug on the side of the car.


But with all these drugs and their advertisements, I don’t know what half of them cure. And the other half, well, they are for Erectile Dysfunction. If you were an alien visiting planet earth, you might think that the biggest medical problems facing our society were not Cancer, HIV, or Influenza, but an inability to perform sexually. Do we need 15 pills (whose names I can’t pronounce or remember other than Viagra) to cure such a “disease”? Are we having problems reproducing that this sort of research is top priority? I don’t think so. 6 Billion people can’t be wrong.

I suppose what bugs me most though, is the price of prescription medicine. If you don’t have insurance but have any sort of illness that requires medicine, be prepared to take out a loan. Perhaps the most appalling part involves deception by the pharmacies. They and the doctors get kick backs by the drug companies to pander particular pills. My wife (who used to work in a pharmacy) tells me that for the majority of prescription medicines, there is a generic brand that is stamped at the exact same plant as the name brand stuff, only without the name on it. And these generic pills are sold at a fraction of the cost. The only catch—you have to ask for them. So next time you get a script written from your doctor, ask the pharmacist about generic drugs.



I have never been a drug guy. I don’t take anything for headaches, muscle tightness, or anything else. I tend to think the body is made to heal itself, and with a little help from nature we will eventually get better. But our immediate satisfaction and gratification society will not stand for that.

Lately, with my back problems, they have prescribed anti-inflammatories which have not particularly worked. Actually, I took Celebrex, which they took off the market after the linked it to heart attacks and such. Another reason why I don’t take drugs. But there are times when people who have serious diseases need medicine, and can’t afford it. This is a travesty and a gross oversight mostly because of the drug companies and those people who pop a pill at the first sign of problems. But I didn’t here much of this discussed during the presidential election. After all, things can’t be so bad. Look at the happy people in the drug commercials. Obviously, everything is better with drugs.

Friends and the Church

I preached this past Sunday. Technically, the topic I was given was “friends” but I tweaked it and talked about the role of individual in the body of Christ. Here are some of the high points (devoid of my illustrations).

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The church is a group of friends who care about more than just knowing names, but who care about helping them in any way.

The church is a part of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is a place where people have value regardless of their inadequacies. The kingdom is a place where there is joy in the Lord. The kingdom is a place where there is love. And our hope is that such a place can be found, not just in heaven, but here on earth. It is a hope that keeps a firm grip on the promises of God. His promises keep us going even when we want to let go. We hold on to the promise that God is making us better people. We hold on to the promise that God is making the church a place that people want to be. His promises will keep us from just dropping the reigns. God is faithful. He has been faithful to this church in the past and will be in the future, if we hold on.

Though it is easy to love the loveable, how about those whom no one cares about? God calls us to love them even more. Jesus displayed this friendship wherever he went, accepting the outcasts, losers, prostitutes, sickly, and discarded people in his society. A victorious church is a friend to all, and prods one another forward with love.

And it may seem easy to give up on the church and on each other. We see it all the time. Why do people give up meeting together? Perhaps they leave the church when they get offended. Or, they have lost the hope of finding a place that they can be accepted. Or, maybe they don’t like what is going on. But when we focus on the big picture of the kingdom we can look past offenses. We can see the good that the church is doing and work to reform the bad. God has had the reason and the opportunity to give up on us but he hasn’t. He has been faithful and given us hope. And our response is to be faithful back to Him.

If you miss connecting to the body of Christ, you miss Christ. There is no healthy relationship with Jesus without a relationship to the church. Church is not a building with pews and an organ. The Church is you and the church is me. And if you think that you are doing church by coming once a week for an hour, you’re missing it. You’re missing the body of Christ. You’re missing a healthy relationship with Christ.

A living, breathing congregation is the only place to live in a healthy relationship to God. As Christians we are responsible to both be involved in such a congregation and make such a congregation victorious. If there's something wrong, we should look in ourselves and ask, “Am I being the kind of friend God desires?”

"Lord, I want to be the person You called me to be so Your church can be all You want it to be."

Consumer Vortex

I believe one of the greatest flaws in American society is the greed of our people, often seen in the commercialism. Everything has a retail angle to it. Such a mentality is epitomized in Gatlinburg, TN, the host of our annual teen convention.


If you have never been to Gatlinburg, let me tell you what you are missing. There is barely enough room to walk on the sidewalk. But don’t try to drive when there are big crowds, because it will take you forever. Restaurants, shops, novelty stores, cabins, cars and hotels are everywhere. The number of worthless stores that line the main street is astounding. The prices that are charged for necessities like food, water, and fudge make the depression inflation seem like a steal. And the things that nobody needs, well those are priced just right so that they seem reasonable to unwitting patrons.

I don’t understand why people from my church go there…for fun! I got angry just being near it. That is why at these conventions I tend to stay near my room. Take naps. Play poker. Steer clear of the commercialism vortex. Of course my kids love it, which is where I get the most frustrated. Here I spend a lot of time and energy trying to teach my kids not to be materialistic, and I am foiled by some lame hat shop that peddles the dumbest looking hats around. You know these kids won’t wear those hats again after this weekend. My archenemy is a town!

I suppose I can put up with it, because I know what it will be like going in. The town will not change. But, what I can’t put up with is the vortex taking over the convention. Why do I walk in and see all these booths with all this Christian crap? My kids don’t need to blow $15 on trucker hats that say “I only like Christian boys.” They sure as hell don’t need a John Deere hat that already has been cut to make it look more “authentic.” Then you go on to the stupid t-shirts that make fun of sinners, “Satan,” and more.

It all makes me sick to my stomach. But I suppose we make up for it by taking a collection up for the Tsunami victims and another collection to allow students to fill their “good deeds” quotient by going to Mexico for a week. I guess I just see mixed messages and don’t see how we can teach our kids to allow God to do amazing things in their lives while teaching them it is okay to waste the resources they have been given.

Dream Wild

Having just returned from our annual excursion to Gatlinburg, TN with around 3500 youth, I have a few observations and thoughts that I would like to share over the next couple of days. Some good. Some not so good.

The first thought stems from the theme: “Dream Wild.” I loved the theme. It was taken from Ephesians 3:20 in the Message Version: “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” The goal was to empower these teenagers to take seriously their usefulness in God’s Kingdom. It was more than this sort of simplistic (and I would say erroneous) thinking that is spewed to students like, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,” or “If you try hard enough, you will succeed.” I am sorry, but that sort of thinking is wrong because it doesn’t take into account our human limitations. I will never play a professional sport, no matter how hard I train and work. I will never man a flight to the moon because I have bad eyesight.

But, when we talk about Kingdom matters, our limitations can be thrown to the wind, because we have supernatural aid. We can Dream Wild because we have a God who accompanies dreams with abilities. He causes the mumblers to be eloquent, the screechers to be singers, the lame to walk, the blind to see, the despondent to have hope, the outcast to be accepted, the loser to have purpose, and all of us to have a part in His wonderful Kingdom.

This sort of thinking is the gospel. It is good news to a depressed, pessimistic world full of hatred and bitterness. It is good news to me as I deal with roadblock after roadblock in my ministry. It is good news to those of you who have given up on the church, on your marriage, on your family, or on your life.

And so I ask, what is your wildest dream that only God can fulfill? What do you want to see happen if you could reshape your life?

Wild Weekend

I am leaving for the weekend, taking my youth group to the Tennessee Christian Teen Convention. Please be in prayer for me, not just because of a weekend with teenagers, but because my back is in seriously bad shape. I missed my church basketball game last night (Central Holston CC), and am probably out for the season. If I can’t walk well, I doubt basketball is going to happen. Possibly a bulging disc but we will wait and see. Thanks.

Coinage

I wrote this little essay probably 8 years ago, and I still believe it. I have changed some of the grammer and diction to make it more readable, but the main content remains the same. I still despise American Wastefulness.

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Do you remember the days when you could get a piece of gum for a nickel or a dime? Or, you could get a really great piece of candy for 25 cents or even a plastic miniature football helmet? These days, you might as well not enter into a Walmart with anything less than 50 cents if you want to come out with anything good. Or, how about the arcade? Before, it was standard—25 cents per game, and 25 cents to continue. Now, you need at least 50 cents to even turn on the game, sometimes even a dollar. Before, there was a need for pennies, and nickels, and dimes. Kids would save them up in the hopes of getting some trinket. But you can't buy anything anymore with some paltry coins, and paying with change gets you annoyed looks by the high school cashiers who have a hard enough time with simple x + y=z algebra that this counting the change may take all day.

I am personally sick and tired of filling up a huge bucket with useless pennies, nickels and dimes when all they are useful for is flicking at someone. Times have changed, and the coinage system is as relevant as the Grunge Era to the Millennial Generation. Most of the time coins end up on the carpets of floors and cars, only to be sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. Then they block the vacuum hoses, causing even more frustration. Let’s get rid of these annoying pocket noisemakers since they serve no purpose except raping the ground of its last few precious resources. We don’t use them enough to make them worth stamping, especially since their fate is only to be lost again. Maybe keep the quarters, but lets stop the madness and stop the change production.

This brings me to my next reform that goes hand in hand with the abolition of coins—get rid of lame pricing. Don't charge me 99 cents for a hamburger, then add on tax so that the grand total comes to $1.03. I understand the need for tax, but include it in the price. I will happily pay $1.00 and go on my way. This has to be a give and take system. If something costs 97 cents, round it up to a dollar. If it is $1.03, round it down. Get rid of the change, and standardize everything with bills (ideally produced from recycled paper). Make a 1/4 and 1/2 dollar bill. It may actually teach the Grand Theft Auto playing, OC watching, higher learning haters of America some sort of competence in basic math skills. Continuing to mass produce coins that are not used, just because this is the way we have always done things and because we like little heads of people in our pockets is ludicrous.

Technology is advancing, driving up the price of goods, so why can't the method of purchasing the goods also advance? So we lose the excitement of finding a shiny penny for good luck - well I'm sorry to break it to you, but finding a penny that is heads up will no more affect the outcome of your day than throwing salt over your shoulder, avoiding black cats, or shunning ladders. Let us move forward into the next phase of Capitalism, and cease senseless coin stamping and product pricing.

What God did for me in 2004:

First and foremost, he has continued to bless me despite my pessimism and waywardness.

He has sent me a healthy, perfect little baby that continues to grow and bring me joy each day.

He has allowed Carrie and I to be able to afford staying home with Elijah for the first 4 months of his life without worry of making the rent, putting food on the table, etc.

He helped me through one of the busiest times in my life—15 masters credit hours, a Thesis to write, and expanding church responsibilities.

He has caused the youth group I serve to grow and expand despite my inadequacies and failures.

He has put me in a place where I can use my talents and passions (preaching, teaching, praise) to serve the church.

He has given me a vision of the church and the kingdom and an accompanying passion to strive for it.

He has blessed me with a loving church that has embraced and adopted Elijah as one of their own, making the transition to both parenthood and stay at home fatherhood easier.

I am sure there is more, but these came to mind at first. I would love to hear what God has done for you in 2004. Little brings more glory to God than personal testimony.