What on earth?

It isn't often that I am speechless, but watching this left my jaw hanging open. I cannot even imagine an entire television show of this. Here is a link to some info about this guy.

It seems like everyone is trying this now

One of the great goofy news stories of the 1980s has now become an annual feat it seems. A guy just flew from Oregon to Idaho in his home-made aircraft. It looks like fun, but I can't imagine spending $6000 on helium.

To each their own I suppose.

When is your October 19?

Do you know why October 19 is such a special day? I'll get to that in a moment. We just finished the annual July 4 celebration here in the United States. July 4 is called "Independence Day" because it is the day in 1776 when the rebel colonists declared their independence from England, and thus began the Revolutionary War.

But freedom didn't come that day. It came on October 19, 1781, when the British surrendered to General Washington and the French forces allied with him at Yorktown, Virginia. That was the day that freedom came to the land.

Nearly 2000 years ago Jesus declared your independence from the tyranny of sin and death when he was crucified, died and was resurrected. But with that day you need an October 19 as well. Christ died so that you might have eternal life, but you have to accept that and end the war with God within your soul. That is your October 19. Take a minute in the post-fireworks glow to remember that day when you surrendered to your God and ended the war within your soul. That is the second leg of your spiritual Independence Day. The day that you broke free from bondage to sin and entered a life of Freedom in Christ. Remember it, thank God for it, and then live a life worthy of it. As the video below shows, the price of your freedom was incalculable.

Happy Independence Day

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Goodbye Cruel World

I'm going to die. I'm going to die an awful, painful, disgusting death, and probably soon. How do I know this? Because, as a favor to all of you, I break chain letters. That's right, all of those curses and threats that accompany chain letters fall on me. I do this not because I have a Messianic complex. Rather I do it to free all of you from the guilt that comes if you don't comply with all of the rules in a chain letter.

Here is what I have learned from my chain-breaking so far:

• I don't love Jesus because I don't forward all of the letters that tell me that only 3% of the people will forward them.
• I will never have good luck. Ever, ever ever.
• I will never get $$ from Bill Gates or AOL for forwarding emails that are being tracked
• Some dying kid will not have the requisite number of greeting/business cards he/she wants before he/she dies
• I'll never have the Nieman Marcus cookie recipe
• I will never get rich with some money from a Nigerian Princess

Just so you know, I will do this until my horrible fate befalls me. Each and every chain letter and email that requires me to forward it to X number of people to prove some point will meet a quick death in my inbox. Guaranteed, no questions asked. All I ask is that one of you take up the reigns and continue this service after I get sucked through a sewer, killed by a madman, lost at sea, or whatever calamity the chain letter deities wish to unleash on my mortal body.

You can thank me in the next life

Roy

The End of Days

No, not the bad movie. Actually I was ruminating a little on prophets of doom and apocalypse, and two just suddenly seemed to merge into one in my head. The first is very well know, one Albert Gore Jr. He of the global warming hysteria. The other is Jack Van Impe, a televangelist who sees EVERYTHING as a sign of the imminent return of Jesus. Seriously, if a bear were to poo in the woods Jack would quote a scripture about how that foreshadows the return of Christ.

These two prophets share one unique talent. They have the ability to make anything that happens fit their agenda. For Gore, if it is hot, cold, rainy, drought, hurricane, blizzard or just normal weather, it is all a sign of global warming. No matter what (seemingly) aberrational weather hits, it is a sign. Sort of like the folks in The Life of Brian who saw a "sign" into all sorts of things Brian did, even though he was not the Messiah.

Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella (her real name) go through the newspaper headlines on their television show and tell how the events of the day forecast the imminent return of Jesus. Never mind that every generation has someone who thinks they know when Christ's return is imminent and to my knowledge, they have all been wrong to this point. Keep firing away and eventually you may be right.

I just don't see whey people can't see through this. If everything points to something, why are you the only one who figured it out? Maybe I'm just too rational in my thinking (cursed influence of Augustine and Aquinas) but I can't bring myself to believe their claptrap let alone send money to the causes.

One last thought. Do they have the same hairdresser?

WOO WOO WOO

Why do I hear Curly from the Three Stooges when I read this story? Let's see, take 1 ambidextrous pitcher and 1 switch-hitting batter, and you have a comedy of errors.

Can you imagine being at this game? I cannot.

God Help Us

Read this and shake your head.

Maybe they are finally getting the message

It seems that the political class is starting to feel the heat of $4 gas and their ineptitude over the years that has discouraged or even prohibited domestic oil and gas production. Today the White House joined the fray, and there is a bill before Congress to allow drilling in the outer continental shelf.

Call your member of Congress. Their attention span is short, and now is the time

Drill for Oil? Not in our country!

If you wonder why oil is so expensive and why your money goes from the gas pump to countries that want to kill us, ask your local member of Congress. The geniuses in a House of Representatives subcommittee voted to block drilling in the 100 mile wide outer continental shelf, where estimates place 76 BILLION barrels of oil, enough to keep this country running for 34 years at current use levels. Here is a list of those voting for and against the measure that would allow drilling in the outer continental shelf.

AGAINST
Chair: Norman D. Dicks (WA)
James P. Moran (VA)
Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
John W. Olver (MA)
Alan B. Mollohan (WV)
Tom Udall (NM)
Ben Chandler (KY)
Ed Pastor (AZ)
Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio

FOR
Minority
Ranking Member:
Todd Tiahrt (KS)
John E. Peterson (PA)
Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (VA)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio


Here is a list of places that Congress has declared off limits to drilling for oil. I just thought you might want to know this.

Washington, the entire state; Oregon, the entire state; Northern California, Central California and Southern California. The eastern Gulf of Mexico except for a portion of land. The South Atlantic, the Mid Atlantic, the North Atlantic, all national marine sanctuaries. All of these are indefinite. The Olympic Coast, Cordell Bank, California, Monterey Bay, California, the Gulf of the Farallones, California, the Channel Islands of California; the Flower Bank Gardens Gulf of Mexico, Straits of Florida and the Florida Keys, Gray's Reef South and Atlantic, Monitor Mid Atlantic, Stellwagen Bank, North Atlantic. That doesn't include the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Next time you fill up, thank your members of Congress for their foresight. They truly are the World's Greatest Deliberative Body.

Here we go

Last week our church board officially approved me as the Pastor to Children and Families in our church. It's an exciting time, and a humbling one as well for me. I'm excited for the opportunity and humbled by the responsibility that it entails.

I've always had a soft spot for kids. My mom ran a home day care my entire childhood, and I am the youngest of 11 children. I have nieces in their mid-30s so, I've been around a lot of kids in my life. And I care about them deeply. I have worked in the children's dept. in every church I have attended since I graduated from college. I love talking with them, getting to know them, playing with them and teaching them. One parent used to joke that her kids viewed me as a peer. That comment made me smile.

Pray for me. The mission field here in Dundee is large, and I want to be receptive to what God wants me to do and be. Pray for the kids in Dundee that need to know Jesus. Pray for the families that are separated from God. Pray that our church can be the hands and feet of Christ to them.

It's all a little overwhelming. But God is a big God.

Sacred Things

The dictionary defines Sacred as:
1. devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated.
2. entitled to veneration or religious respect by association with divinity or divine things; holy.
3. pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to secular or profane): sacred music; sacred books.
4. reverently dedicated to some person, purpose, or object: a morning hour sacred to study.
5. regarded with reverence: the sacred memory of a dead hero.
6. secured against violation, infringement, etc., as by reverence or sense of right: sacred oaths; sacred rights.
7. properly immune from violence, interference, etc., as a person or office

In the church, we often use sacred in a somewhat less formal manner. Rooms are sacred. Programs, activities, musical instruments and songs/hymns are sacred. But there are some sacred things that we may overlook that deserve our attention.

This past Sunday in our local congregation we had a sort of homecoming Sunday. Two families that left our congregation to move to Colorado Springs to attend Nazarene Bible College were back to tell us how God is moving in their lives. It hasn't been easy for them in several ways. They left their homes, friends and families to move more than 1000 miles away. One family has had their house for sale for 2 years and it still hasn't sold. But God has been faithful and has moved in their lives, and they gave glory to God for that. It was a sacred moment.

Other sacred moments are when a sinner receives the gift of eternal life from Christ and throws off the shackles of sin. Or when an addict breaks free of the bondage that binds him/her and keeps them from fully serving God. Or when a child/young person/adult hears the call of God on his/her life and says "Yes Lord" to the God that is calling them into Christian service. Or when believers are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

These are the sacred moments that I want to remember. We don't pile up rocks into Ebenezers anymore, like the Israelites did. But we should remember the sacred times when God met us and we celebrated his presence.

Leaps of faith

Chuckle at the image if you will. When I first saw the image, I laughed a little. On its face it is pretty funny. But then, as is my habit, I began thinking about it.

The Christian faith is a lot like this scene. There are giant leaps of faith in our lives that God asks us to take. He may ask us to move across the country or the world, as he did my friend John. He may ask us to change careers as John and I are doing. He may ask you to radically change your life.

Sometimes in life, you are the elephant. You are jumping out in faith toward something that, on its face, makes no sense. But that is what faith is all about. Faith is being obedient to God and trusting Him with the outcome. Our task is to be obedient. The rest is up to God.

Sometimes, we are the monkey. We have to catch/help people who are taking great leaps of faith. People who are throwing off lives of sin need us to help catch them in the church. People who want to break destructive patterns of behavior need a steady hand to catch them. But in all of this, we are being obedient to God's call on our lives.

Sometimes you are the monkey. Sometimes you are the elephant. But God is always God.

Want to see how much you remember?

Check this out.

You paid attention during 91% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

It's a quick little quiz to help you realize how much you do or do not remember from school. Just click on the blue words at the end and you can take the quiz too.

Thanks to Bishopman for showing me this.

Earn this

In Saving Private Ryan, in the climactic battle scene shown here where Captain Miller is mortally wounded, he whispers to Private James Ryan, whom his unit was tasked to find and get home safely, the words 'Earn This." He is telling Ryan to live a life that is worthy of the sacrifice that men made to get him home after his brothers were killed in action in the war.

It made me think of the horrendous price that Jesus paid for our freedom. While we cannot "earn this" for what he did, we can live our lives in a way that honors the sacrifice Jesus made for us. The scene at the end where the older Ryan is talking to Capt. Miller's gravestone is a good reminder for us as we talk to our Lord. Have I lived in a way that is worthy of the price paid for me? That's a good introspective question to incorporate into our prayer lives.

Something to think about.

BTW - don't visit the site that sponsored the video clip. Their URL appears at the end of the clip. They seem to be a nutjob, black helicopter type of group.

Memorial Day 2008

Watch the clip above and take a moment to thank God for the men and women who have sacrificed so that we might enjoy the freedoms we have today.

"All gave some, and some gave All" is something to chew on in your prayer.

A Prayer for the day

I saw this on Soul Care, a daily email sent by the Church of the Nazarene Office of Clergy Development. It is something I will print and keep with me.

Forgive me, most gracious Lord and Father, if this day I have done or said anything to increase the pain of the world. Pardon the unkind word, the impatient gesture, the hard and selfish deed, the failure to show sympathy and kindly help where I had the opportunity, but missed it; and enable me so to live that I may daily do something to lessen the tide of human sorrow, and add to the sum of human happiness.

— F. B. Meyer

A deep thought to ponder

I'll confess that I have shamelessly ripped this thought from another blog, but I thought it was worth discussing here. What are the issues of our day, and what would Jesus say/do about them?

Depending on who you read/listen to/watch the issues facing the world are:

• gay marriage
• societal breakdown
• income inequality
• racism
• militarism
• American dominance
• lack of compassion
• global warming
• global AIDS/HIV epidemic
• totalitarian states oppressing their people
  

The list goes on and on. In a previous post I shared some thoughts on What Are Christian Issues? that went away from the usual fund-raising issues for the religious right and religious left. It is truly sad that we spend so much money and time on issues that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide, when that same money, invested in clean water wells and medical clinics could save hundreds of thousands of lives. It is a form of navel-gazing that I just don't understand.

Somehow I think Jesus would be out healing the people, not arguing in the corridors of power. Oh wait, that is exactly what he did for most of his ministry. He led by example and worked with the willing. He dealt with the powers that be when he had to, and did address many societal justice issues beyond the money changers in the temple. I yearn for the Church of Jesus Christ to take that same role in the world today. To meet the spiritual and temporal needs of the lost, hurting, oppressed and dying with the same fervor that they pursue influence in the corridors of power. Not that the political issues aren't worth fighting for. But one really does have to look at the allocation of resources question. How many lives could be saved if you stopped mailing me stuff all the time telling me the world is going to hell in a handbasket if I don't send you $25, $50, $100 or more. Take your postage and printing money and use it as your loaves and fishes. Feed the spiritually hungry and watch the world be transformed. What an ancient concept!

I need to get off the soapbox now. Hillary, Barack and John are asking for it back. While I dismount, watch the video clip above and think about the Rebel Jesus and how He could transform your thinking and actions. I know I have been.

Well done, good and faithful servant

I pray that I would respond in a similar manner if I were faced with this kind of evil. Sadly, her story is not well-known around the world. But she did the work of Christ when the moment stared her in the face.

Rest in peace, sister. Rest in peace.

Grave Robbing

In a sense, it can be kind of funny, if you view it like Young Frankenstein. But in the church, there is an epidemic of grave-robbing going on. Not for treasure mind you, like those who raided the tombs of kings and Pharaohs. Rather, it is people resurrecting corpses for purposes of excusing bad behavior, or their unwillingness to go where God is calling them.

The Apostle Paul says in a couple places that if we are in Christ, our old self is dead.

2 Corinthians 5:17 therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul is saying that our old self, its desires, wants as well as the things done to it, are dead. Dead, buried, and meant to be left buried. Not dead and meant to be exhumed frequently. Remember the story of Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days? In John 11 there is this exchange between Jesus and Martha, the sister of Lazarus:

38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

Dead things stink. Just pass a road kill on your bike once and you will be reminded of that. Putrefaction begins pretty quickly, and the bacteria begin to do their thing.

I say that to remind us that spiritually, there is a horrendous smell when we dig up our old self. If it has been dead and buried for a while, there will be an awful stench. But why do we do that?

Some people dig up their old selves to:

• Provide excuses to the Lord and others as to why they cannot do a particular ministry
• Play the victim because it gives them cover
• Provide an excuse for a lack of forgiveness
  
• Give an excuse for their lack of spiritual growth i.e.

Don't you know what happened to me?
I can't do that because I'm a {insert issue}
I was {insert crime}
My parents didn't {insert behavior}
My spouse did {insert behavior}

I think you get the picture here.

If we are a new creation, then our old self is dead, and we need to leave it buried. If we are constantly digging it up, there is some peace with the past the Lord needs to provide you. I know our pasts can be painful, and can leave tremendous physical and emotional scars. But ours is a great God who can heal those scars and provide the peace our souls need. But we have to leave the dead in their graves.

Grave robbing is a crime in nearly every culture on earth. Desecrating the dead will earn the wrath of polite society the world over. It's time we in the church adopt that same rule. Let your old self be buried with Christ, and let the new self be resurrected with Him. That is the symbolism of baptism. We die and rise again. We don't die and hang onto the corpse and keep dragging it around for use when it is convenient for our purposes.

Ask Dr. Frankenstein how that worked out for him.