Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: joseph farah, pray for obama, pray for obama to fail, word net daily
World Net Daily has an article by Joseph Farah about why Christians should pray for Obama to fail. Quite frankly, this is pathetic and is not even remotely Christian. Click here and see for yourself. He calls Obama’s presidency an “evil campaign.” He goes on to say that Obama’s agenda is “100% at odds with God’s.” What? It is really sad that he hates Obama (or that he loves Rush Limbaugh) so much that he would say that EVERYTHING Obama wants to do is “at odds” with God. Granted, parts of Obama’s agenda are not godly. But not everything Bush wanted to do and DID was godly. The problem is the extremism.
Obama wants to bring hope (definitely a God agenda). He wants to unite Americans (definitely a God agenda). He just ended “advanced interrogation” (aka, “torture”) which is definitely a God agena (who would Jesus torture?). It saddens me that many Christians would entertain this extremism by Farah. Obviously abortion is not a “God agenda”, but many other things Obama wants to do are part of God’s agenda (that is why many Christains voted for him, including Ed Dobson, Donald Miller, Tony Campolo and others).
The point is not whether you voted for Obama or not. The point is whether we should pray that he fails. I will end with the words of Jesus as quoted in Matthew 5:43-45. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fundamentalism, fundamentalists, fundies, seth godin
I just finished reading Seth Godin’s new book, “Tribes.” It’s really a leadership book, but has a lot of great information for churches (and for anyone, buy it and read it).
He sais this about fundamentalists in his book: “A fundamentalist is a person who considers whether a fact is acceptable to his religion before he explores it.” Excellent quote and so true!
In the church I grew up in, you never would even entertain the thought of something that you had been taught to be “unacceptable.” Dancing was considered unacceptable by my religion (specifically, my church), so it could not be “explored” (or debated, or thought of, or spoken of).
My dad was a deacon in our church. In order to be a deacon you had to agree to a set of rules (disguised as a covenant). One of those rules was that as a deacon neither you nor your family would go to the “show” (also know as “movies” to some). So, growing up, I was not allowed to go to the movies. I was not even allowed to “debate” about whether this was a biblical rule or not.
Here’s the thing. Not going to movies is not the point. People who don’t go to movies are not necessarily fundys. People who tell other people they can’t (without judgment from God) go to movies are fundys. People who don’t allow you to question their belief about going to movies are fundys.
The strength of fundamentalism is that it does not allow you to question it without being judged. Fundamentalism is always right without debate, and that is exactly what makes it fundamentalism. Two people can have the same conviction about dancing, going to movies, etc… One of them can be a fundy and the other can be striving for holiness.
The difference is whether or not you are turning a tradition or a personal conviction into a doctrine (see Mark 7:7).
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: divorce, nonbiblical, physical abuse, saddleback church, unbiblical
According to a Pastor at Saddleback Church if your husband beats you, it would be wrong to divorce him. You can read the whole article here.
The pastor says it is unbiblical to divorce your husband. He does not believe you should continue to live with your husband (or wife, I guess). He thinks you should separate from your husband until you can find a long-term solution. So, he doesn’t want you to endure it, but you can’t file for divorce. So, I guess you have to live single (and in fear) the rest of your life and remain married (yet separated) from your husband.
There is a difference between something being “unbiblical” and “non-biblical.” Divorcing your husband because of physical abuse is not covered in the Bible and therefore “not biblical.” That does no mean it is “unbiblical” or “sin.” It means the Bible doesn’t specifically cover that topic.
The Bible doesn’t cover a lot of topics: What music is right to listen to, what clothes you have to wear, what you should eat for breakfast, etc…
The Bible actually talks quite a bit about divorce. It’s not an easy subject and divorce was never what God had in mind. Divorce is never a good thing, but sometimes it is necessary. The point of Jesus Christ was to restore what we lost in the Fall. One of the things we lost was unity with each other. Certainly beating your wife is not unity or Christ like in any way, shape or form. But staying married to someone who has beaten you and living in fear of them is not unity either.
If your husband beats you once, you may choose to give him a second chance (although my wife has made it clear to me that she would not). That is up to you and God. If your husband continues to abuse you (or your kids), than divorce his a**. If the grace of God works a miracle in his life and changes Him (and He most certainly can and has), than you can always remarry him.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: John Daker, my name is john daker, video
Possibly one of the funniest videos ever seen.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: british medical journal, freakonomics, medical myths
Freakonomics had a great post about the British Medical Journal’s recent issue that revealed some of the top Medical Myths. I am listing all the myths below. If you want to read the full post with all of the explanations, click here.
Here is the list of the medical myths:
1. Sugar causes hyperactivity in children.
2. Suicides increase over the holidays.
3. Poinsettias are poisonous.
4. Most of our body heat is lost through our head.
5. Eating at night will make you fat.
6. You can cure a hangover (Just stop trying, pastor).
7. People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
8. We use only 10% of our brains.
9. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
10. Shaving hair causes it to grow back fast, darker, or coarser.
11. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight.
12. Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy.
13. Mobile phone create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.
It seems like every year churches try to come up with mottos about the new year that rhyme. Here are a few of my suggestions:
1. We are thine in 2009 (this one is for the King James only churches)
2. Come and dine in 2009
3. Give us a sign in 2009 (this one was my pastor’s input for this post)
4. Don’t whine in 2009
5. Better than fine in 2009
6. Cast not pearls before swine in 2009
7. 2009 will be mine
8. 2009 is our time
9. Live in the vine for 2009
10. Don’t wait in line in 2009 (this one is for internet churches)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: jim tomberlin, monday morning insight, multi-site trends
Monday Morning Insight had an interesting article about the expected trends for multi-site churches in 2009. If that stuff interests you, check it out here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: christmas baby peru, lima peru virgin birth, virgin birth
Here is an amazing story from Neue Ministry.
“Appropriately enough, a Peruvian woman named Virgen Maria Huarcaya gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas day in Lima, and named his Jesus Emanuel. Even more eerily, the boy’s father, Adolfo Jorge Huamani, is a carpenter. “Days ago we had decided to name my son after a professional soccer player,” Humani said. “But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: christmas videos, go tell it on the mountain, henrietta and merna, video
