The Heart of a Post
So while I love writing post about the church and the culture, I find that they are a little empty for me and require a good bit less struggle and effort. I soap box pretty easily is what I am saying. I however avoid a little more the posts that are about me, my interactions with the folks in my church, family, and friends. I tend to avoid the more personal posts for a couple of reasons. 1) The personal posts are just harder to write. Really who likes digging down deep and finding the root of a problem. Or going back to a painful period in your life and rehashing it. Oh oh what fun!!! Like watching a Golden Girls super marathon! 2) I have trouble knowing what details to include. I want to include enough detail so that the ideas are conveyed but not enough details...
Christians or Followers of Christ?
I originally wrote this for Scot McKnight’s “Friday is for Friends” series. We’ve all seen the “Christian vs. Follower of Christ” ads on the Internet, no doubt. If you haven’t, they are like the Mac vs. PC ads where the PC is represented by an uptight dork with a suit and tie, and the Mac is a laid-back hipster. In the “Christian vs. Follower of Christ” clips, the Christian is the dork who only listens to Christian music, covers his car with Christian bumper stickers, and makes sure his suit is just right. The Follower of Christ, on the other hand, is the hipster who finds inspiration in U2, is comfortable worshipping in regular clothes, and feels like he doesn’t have to literally wear his faith on his...
Enjoying God Forever
“I’m still tuning myself to the Great Key…” Still by Great Lake Swimmers So one of the chief objections that you often here about heaven is that it will be boring. The Far Side comic captured this feeling well with a drawing of a guy with wings sitting on a cloud listlessly with a thought bubble which said, “I wish I had brought a magazine.” At church this past weekend, I was deeply convicted on a passage of text that I knew very well. The exodus story is a often told, much repeated part of the Bible, and as such it is really familiar to many church-goers. Yet, after being in church for over 30 years, I am being convicted, pleased and overall astounded by the truth found in the great Gospel story of the Bible. This got me...
Anger is an Energy
What am I doing here at church? If the pastor knew about all the crap that’s going on with me, he’ll excommunicate me*. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt like a hypocrite for showing your face in a church? I felt like that this past Sunday, but after a while I realized that I was right where I needed to be. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but let me just say that I’ve been having lots of anger issues lately. I feel like the slightest thing will set me off in a rage. And then when I’m angry, I do stupid things. Very very very very very stupid things! Last weekend I realized that it’s time to finally control my anger, and apparently God agrees. The other day while going through my Google Reader I...
Pilgrim / Indigenous
A great quote from Jon Piper while discussing why that as Christians we are to be in the world but not of it. If you only conform then your not salt your not light. If you dont conform in some measure the salt will stay in the shaker and the light will stay under a basket. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.