Cultural Taboos

This is something I deal with daily. Not my taboos but others. You see, I work with several people from India. Most of the Indian's that I deal with are vegetarians who, for religious reasons, find eating meat taboo.

According to one online dictionary, taboo is defined as

1. proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable (adj)
   
2. a prohibition or interdiction of anything; exclusion from use or practice. (noun)
3. to put under a taboo; prohibit or forbid.

Many of those things we count as taboo we have good reason for. Driving while intoxicated should be taboo as it puts others in danger. The Bible has prohibitions on sex outside marriage as it is against God's ideal and as we have found, can lead to contracting an STD, pregnancy, etc.

What is disappointing to me is when we make something taboo when there is no danger to others or prohibition in the Bible. Doing this tends to put us above God.

Today, as part of my Daily Audio Bible listening (June 15th actually as I am two days behind because of some download problems previously) we heard Acts 10. This is where Peter is in a
trance, sees the sheet and is told to eat all the animals previously thought to be unclean.

It is tempting to look at these verses and just think about the pork (or some other unclean dish) we had for dinner. In fact, this is how I looked at it for years.

Looking at the context of the story, however, the trance happens as the servants of a Roman army officer is on the way to ask Peter to hear the message of Christ.

Had this happened one day earlier, Peter would not have seen the servants as they would have been unclean. There was a religious taboo against seeing these men as it was against the laws of Moses. Jesus, however, had set a different example and we assume Peter was there to see most of these examples. Jesus spoke with a Samaritan (taboo) woman (taboo) (John 4). He healed the servant of a Roman Officer (taboo) (Luke 7). He healed on the Sabbath (taboo) (Mark 3). He spent time with sinners and tax collectors (taboo) (Matt 9).

Peter was given new instructions though. It was now permissible to eat unclean animals. It was permissible to talk to the unclean people (like me?).

This brings me to the question at hand. What cultural taboos should I be breaking to better follow Christ's example of reaching those who need him? The other side of this issue is if others are breaking my taboos, do I need to give them grace in order for God to be glorified.

New feature - Click Comments

I added Click Comments to this blog. Why? I don't know. I am surprised when someone tells me "I was reading your blog" or when I get an email to that effect. I have several friends who I know read the blog. I have also found I enjoy the feedback but often, there are people who have had some sort of technical problem leaving a comment.

I have often found that, although I like the feedback and I know others like feedback on what they write, it is sometimes quite brief so this allows you to quickly add a comment, just by clicking, no text necessary!

Interrowhat‽

While listening to the Grammar Girl podcast yesterday, I learned about a new punctuation mark. Honestly, I don't know how new it is, maybe I wasn't paying attention in class that day.

It is called an interrobang and is used in suprised questions. For example ...

What‽ You won the lottery‽

The name makes sense to a computer geek, as it is an interogerative and the "!" is called a bang in unix (computer operating system and C programming) speak.

iLounge - The Free iPod book

If you have an iPod, you may want to check out iLounge . They are offering their "The Free iPod Book 3" for the cost of downloading it. There are a lot of advertisements but also some good information. The need to pay for it somehow though so maybe you get what you pay for!

As of this writing, the download is in a large banner near the top of the page.

Tech Support

A friend recently introduced me to this video. It has to be one of the funniest tech support videos I have seen!

Kyle's World Wide Debut.

A couple of weeks ago, Kyle and I were listening to the My Trivia Podcast #79. Evey couple of weeks they do a "Who am I round" which allows callers (or those who email) to answer the question outside the show being listened to. The answers are given in a later show.

As we listened to the "Who am I" for that show, Kyle knew the answer so I suggested he call the answer in.

If you listen to the answers in Episode #81, you can hear Kyle answer the question.

If you would like to find out more about the show, follow the link to My Trivia Podcast.

Mr Smith goes to Washington

Kyle & I caught the last 45 minutest of this Jimmy Stewart/Francis Capra movie. Sometimes I think it should be a pre-requisite for any politician prior to running, then again, after they have been elected.

AMC (the movie channel) said that it was considered an un-American movie as it was too critical to those that held the offices at the time.

If you have never seen the move, rent it! The message contained in the movie is that a politician works for ALL the people they represent, not just the rich few.

Farewell to Falwell

The question on the bus on Tuesday was why the flags were at half mast. Nobody figured it out. We did find out that Jerry Falwell had died. I still don't know if it was related as Law Enforcement Memorial Day was Monday or Tuesday as well.

I remember in the early 1980s when Falwells Moral Majority came into prominince. It was the Regan years and it seemed that "Christians would finally get what we deserved". We may have, I don't know. I know that many of the changes in our society in those years have not been pleasing to God or to Christians. Some changes in society may have been pleasing to Christians but maybe not to God, something I won't judge here -- just a tendency to think that what we think is good is not necessarily reflecting God.

I don't know if Falwell's work there slowed the slide towards Chaos or if it had any effect at all. You see, God is in contoll, whether we recognize it or not.

Sometimes it's the little things

Sometimes it is the little things which show us that God cares for us.

Today, I need that reminder (more about that at a later date).

The background? Due to an effort to save money, I have been taking my lunch nearly every day for over a year. The lunches consist of a frozen entree which tends to saves at least $5 daily.

Today, I grabbed the one from the freezer which looked "the best" for the day, a nice little Italian dish with noodles, sauce and meat. It felt a little light so I did a quick check to see if I had gotten just a box. No, from the check, things looked normal so I packed it in my bag and headed out the door. That was my first mistake.

Around lunch time, I went to the break room to heat it up, pulled it out of the box and found I only got one of the three ingredients -- the noodles. Disappointed but not defeated, I figured I'd pop down to the nearest sub shop and buy a nice sandwich and chips. The shop even has Diet Dr. Pepper in the soda machine, a bonus!

A few minutes later, my boss pops in and I hear something about being interested in lunch. I shout out that I am interested and ask where he was going. He said a vendor he was meeting with has bought lunch for the meeting and there were some left that they would share. When we got up there, I found a nice turkey sandwich and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

Considering this sort of thing has happened several times, I hardly think it is an accident!

Thanks God!

World Views

This evening, I received an email from an organization. That mail was deleted but it gave me a new realization.

I have been bothered every time I hear the words "Biblical World View", the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I have taken shots trying to figure out why it bothers me so much but tonight I think I have the issue figured out.

My first attempts of figuring out why it bothered me were along the lines of...

A "Biblical World View" depends on someones interpretation of the Bible. What if their interpretation and mine don't match up?

Tonight, the light bulb went off above my head when I read those words. The thing that is bothering me is that I am on earth to help prepare for God's Kingdom, whatever that means, not "follow the Bible" (it's a side effect). If that is the case, should I not be more concerned with a "God's Kingdom World View"?

Bottom Feeders

Yesterday, I listened to this message from Woodland Hills titled "Leadership with a Limp". The summary is as follows:

• We are created to fill ourselves with a relationship to God.
• Anything we fill ourselves with that is not God is idolitry. We often fill ourselves with praise, judgment of others, etc.
• If we are feeding that desire with Judgment, we are bottom feeding, similar to catfish, etc.
• We need to remove that plank from our eye before trying to remove the spec from other peoples.
• In order to lead well, we can not hide our faults and sins, if we do, it can become a different form of idolatry.

If there is any question that I "limp" feel free to contact my wife.

A conference and a challenge.

This weekend, Marj and I attended a Family Life Marriage conference at Northern Hills. I left with a lot of mixed feelings.

Let me first tell you that the conference was quite good. It dealt with communication and the road blocks that are put up that inhibit communication. The longest married couple had been married for 40 years, the newest for 10 weeks with at least one engaged couple there.

---

One thing that struck me as we were going through the material was how easy it is to pull scripture out of context. I'll use some examples here...

I remember seeing the picture of Jesus standing at a door, poised to knock. This is based on Revelations 3:20.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (New Living Translation)

Typically, this is used as an evangelism tool. That is not, however, the use that was intended for that verse. In fact, it is quite the opposite. That verse is stuck at the end of a passage that John wrote to the church in Laodicea. This is asking the people of that church to get rid of their apathy.

The question I have been dealing with is the ethics of using a verse out of context. This is something I see being done all too often.

Pandora Podcast

A few months ago, I discovered Pandora and shared it with a friend (and I think here).

This week, my friend told me about the Pandora Podcast.

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project, an effort to analyze music. The result is their player which allows you to enter a song or the name of an artist. That song or a song from that artist will be played, followed by songs which are similar in sound or style to the one you entered.

Their podcast is also is an analysis project full of information. They have shows that talk about the basics of harmony, drums, bass, guitar, guitar effects, major and minor, vocal mic placement in recording and several more.

So far, only 11 podcasts have been produced but they are full of information!

It's not your Fathers America

Daylight again, following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago, how my fathers bled
I think I see a valley, covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers that cannot get older been askin' after you
Hear the past a callin', from Ar- -megeddon's side
When everyone's talkin' and noone is listenin', how can we decide?

(Do we) find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground

Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
(Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground)
-- "Find the Cost of Freedom", Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

I have been around this world long enough to remember a lot of privileges or freedoms that have gone away in the name protection. For example:

• I remember going to the local airport and watching the planes. Watching the passengers board and de-plane, watching the planes take off and land. Not from a concourse but from an overlook with emergency stairs to the tarmac.
• I remember cars without seat belts and no requirement to buckle-up.
• I remember when the voting age was dropped from 21 to 18 because "if you were old enough to "die for your country" you were old enough to vote.
  
• I remember when the drinking age was 18 or 19 country wide for the same reason.

What happened? Hijackings, deaths due to no seatbelts, drunk driving deaths. Are these "good enough reasons"?

This week we were saddened by the deaths at Virginia Tech. What more evidence of a broken world do we need?

In a conversation with a friend this week, the conversation changed to "we need to do something to protect these students" came up. After listening to the argument, I asked, "At what cost to freedom?". My ancestors for 3 or 4 generations have served in the military to guarantee freedom for themselves and their children as well as to fight injustice.

Looking at the changes to freedoms over the last 40 years or so, each one, taken individually is a "good thing". Taken as a group, however, I wonder.

I wonder if we, as citizens, have lost common sense, self-control and the power of observation. A case in point was the McDonalds Coffee burn lawsuit which netted the woman quite a bit of money for doing somethin my mother would have told me not to do. The result is not, of course a loss of freedom but all these crazy warning labels that, for the most part, are ignored because many people do have common sense.

Observations on Joshua - Taking Sides

If you would like an intro and haven't read my previous "observation" you can go back and read it here.

At the end of Joshua 5, the people have successfully entered the land they were promised and are poised to take Jerhico. Joshua is out doing something (the text doesn't really say what) at the end of chapter 5. verse 13-15 and we read (New Living Translation):

When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”

“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”

The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.

Here is Joshua and Israel about ready to follow orders that are strange, marching around a city to conquer it, and we find out that God's army is not on Israel's side but on Gods.

Why did that catch my attention? Because way too often we find a righteous cause and assume that because it is what we think God would approve of (or even has told us to do) that he is on our side.

The choice as I see it is not whether God is on our side but are we on Gods?

Observations on Joshua

Yes, I do mean the 6th book of the Bible.

The Daily Audio Bible has now finished Genesis through Deuteronomy. As I have been listening to Joshua I have had a couple of "ah-ha" moments.

Let me set the stage. The people of Israel have been wandering around the wilderness for 40 years while the generation that left Egypt have all died off. Moses has just died and Joshua took over and has asked the people for their loyalty. Joshua 1:16-18 (NLT) says:

They answered Joshua, “We will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us. We will obey you just as we obeyed Moses. And may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your orders and does not obey your words and everything you command will be put to death. So be strong and courageous!”

At Northern Hills, we have recently finished a series on "Heros" which was based on Judges. The theme is that the people drift away from God to worship idols. The people end up being oppressed by other people in the area. God raises up a leader to help liberate the people. The cycle starts all over again. By the end of Judges, you start asking why?

I think these verses shed some light on it! The people replied "...And may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses..."

This stuck out becase here it appears that they never personalized their relationship with God. That was Mose's and Joshua's job to them.

The iPod as a learning tool...

I can tell you that while people keep buying them, there are those that still see no real use for an iPod. Because they are an "electronic device", their use is frowned upon during take-off and landing in planes.

We did, however, put Kyle's iPod to good use last month. You see, Kyle auditioned for a part with lines in the school spring play at his school. Since Kyle is busy but can memorize well, he didn't know his part as well as the teacher would have liked. To help with this problem, Marj and I got his script, read lines into some recording software (Garage Band in this case) and had him load it onto his iPod. Running through his lines with the lines we recorded (everything around his), he was able to memorize them quite quickly.

Wonder if that would work for Scripture memory!

Life at home without a net

I would have to agree with you if you were to call our situation this week trivial. However, being unplanned, it made things tougher.

You see, on Tuesday evening, I decided to tighten the security on our wi-fi (wireless internet) and, in the process of an upgrade, caused the device to go into an endless (if one or two hours weren't proof of that, I'll send it to you for verification) cycle.

A call to Qwest and magically, another is on the way, as long as you agree to pay for it.

Yes, I had internet access at work but due to the fact that my employer allows me to use it for work I don't like abusing the privledge.

We are back on-line now....

Ice Floats -- That's cool!

I started to think about this while filling my water glass...

Because ice floats you get natural convection. This cools the bottom of the glass as well as the ice cooling the top, making the drink that much more refreshing.

Cool Huh!

Bono honored

Today, on his Leave it Behind blog, Brian Bailey (author of The Blogging Church) posts about an award given to U2's Bono for work done on Project One.

Check out the post, which highlights the speech as well as the speech itself.

"Pause and think of that"

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Last week's version was the Amplified Version. The hook with the Amplified it to take words that are somewhat poorly defined and give several alternative meanings.

Hearing the Amplified read out loud annoys me as often as not because you get several definitions run together as when reading. One example is Romans 12:3 (read it aloud and all the words, even the ones in parentheses for effect)...

For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

One such word, as you go through Psalms is the word Selah. The effect was not annoying but inspiring when I heard over and over....

Selah [pause, and think of that]

Christus Victor Ministries and Practicing the Presence

I ran across the Greg Boyd's blog tonight. Greg is a pastor, and author. He has a tendency to be somewhat controversial (this might be an understatement). On the other hand, as time goes by, he is helping to answer a question I have had for some time... How much has America's "version" of Christianity diverged from what Christ intended?

One of the most interesting posts that I looked at, however was More "Practicing the Presence". The introductory paragraph really stuck out to me...

One major problem many American Christians face is that we tend to embrace a magical view of the Christian faith. We assume that if a person “prays the sinners prayer,” “surrenders their life to Christ,” and “accepts Jesus as Lord of their life,” this somehow magically “saves” them and will sooner or later magically transform them – if not in this life, then in the next. This is why most evangelical churches place so much emphasis on the “conversion experience.” The trouble is, this magical view of faith doesn’t work. Research shows that, in terms of their core values and behaviors, Christians differ very little from their non-Christian neighbors. We don’t consistently experience, and therefore don’t consistently manifest, abundant kingdom LIFE.

Go read it and let me know what you think.

Home...

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thoughts escaping
Home, where my musics playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
-- from Simon & Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound"

It is always somewhat bitter-sweet coming back home from a long vacation (more than a couple of days), especially when that vacation is truly relaxing.

It is good to be back but there is all the "around the house" chores that need to be done. At the same time, there is the realizaton that I need to go back to work on Monday. (if I had only bought that winning lottery ticket).

It was good to see family and spend some time together. Due to distances, we haven't really gotten to spend much time with Catherine and her family (Pete, Ryan and Rachael) so it was nice to do that. It was great to meet Mario's wife Wanda and see his daughter Jewel as she has grown since we saw her last.

Now... Back to the chores!

Vacation day 8

Day 7 was recovery from day 6. It included internet and grilling.

Day 8, Kyle went with the cousins to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Marj and I went for a drive which included eating at Joe's Crab Shack (the Florida Grouper was quite good), a swamp boat ride and a visit to the medical clinic which diagnosed Marj's outer ear infection.

The swamp boat ride was fun. They seem to like showing people the local 'gator population. We also saw sand hill cranes, raccoons and a turtle.

Vacation day 6

On Saturday morning, we checked out of our temporary spot at Westgate and headed off to meet Marj's brother Mario who had flown in the night before from Georgia.

My joy of having internet access turned to mild disappointment when I found our new room (here) didn't have the wireless working in my room.

Marj's sister Catherine and her family checked in on Saturday night.

At this point we had two missing pieces of luggage.

Mario took off on Monday but we had a great time meeting his wife Wanda and getting re-acquainted with his daughter Jewel. Later, we headed to Downtown Disney for a bit of ice cream at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Soda Fountain.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we all ended up at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Not my favorite place but we have 2 seven year-old's and an 11 year old who love it.

Today, we are recovering from being all Mouse House'd out. We grilled by the pool and while most everyone is relaxing by or in the pool, your's truely found the internet connection does work next door and is free to owners so I am taking advantage of the situation to keep things updated!

A Lethal Weapon?

When Marj and Kyle got me an iPod Nano for Christmas, I don't think they realized how lethal a weapon it was.

I saw a link to "8 Ways to Kill Someone with the Nano" at iPod Hacks.

Hmmm...

Ides of March

Yesterday, March 15 was the Ides of March. My first exposure to the term was a band with that name and their "hit" song Vehicle (iTunes link).

I do find it odd that it odd that something we usually associate with the assassination of Julius Ceaser is usually found somewhere within the whole season of lent.

From Blogcation to Vacation

We are on vacation now... This is something Kyle has been looking forward to for some time. Not because of where we are but the fact he is not in school.

The place we are staying has wireless (for a cost) so I can keep up with everyone!

A Blogcation

A what? I have been missing in action for a bit. I took a Blog Vacation -- a blogcation. One blog writer I know of has quit blogging for lent. I didn't quite go that far, I have been busy.

Between helping Kyle and a friend with a project, work, etc. it has been quite an experience.

We found out over a week ago that my parents were without power due to an ice storm. Within a couple of days of asking for prayer, the power was back on through a temporary fix. (yea!). It took the power company 6 days to do just the temporary fix and a permenent one would have taken longer. Had it not been for the out of area repair people.....

I have also been working at getting a new computer set up... God (and Qwest) were quite generous so I took the plunge. I had been wanting to switch to a Mac (you have seen those commercials) for a couple of years now but other things have taken priority. Finally, the time came! The commercials are right! The only issue I have is that I can't run e-sword on this machine. There are other bible study programs out there but the challenge I am finding is that with copyrights, it is hard to get the versions you want all together. Some of the programs I have found are either too expensive or just not what I am looking for.

On the other hand, I could actually load Windows XP on here and be done with it.

What ever happened to Common Sense (and freedom)?

Tonight I read a news story here...

New York Senator Carl Kruger is introducing legislation that would make it a crime to listen to your iPod while crossing the street. (The next thing you know, they'll ask you to look both ways first!) Canadian comedian and filmmaker Jared Sales has rendered a few mock iPod ads in response to what he feels is an unjust imposition.

The mock ads are below...


My question is, "what ever happened to freedom and common sense"? If I read between the lines on the story above, the reason the New York state senate is considering such a bill is because someone has gotten hurt crossing the street while listening to their iPods. That (those?) someone(s?) have then lacked the common sense to look before crossing.... Now it may cost us another freedom.

Just another manic weekend

This weekend was busier than most. I don't know why I think the situation will change.

With one son, one wife and my involvements, things got crazy yet again.

Last weekend, rather than relaxing and recovering from the previous week, I helped Kyle and a friend build an earthquake table for a science project at school. That evening we headed off to church followed by a play that a friends sons were in.

This weekend, we decided to replace Kyle's bed which meant heading to the store, picking out the bed, loading it up... Then I headed off to worship band practice. Sunday after church, Marj had a party for her media team which I was also attending. The weekend was topped off by a meeting at church. All though this weekend, I was trying to clean up the last bit of a project at work.

The highlights for the weekend?

Our Worship Leader Dan, is getting married this month and is down in Brazil finalizing all the paperwork to bring his future wife back for that to happen (you can read about it here). As a result, we had a guest worship leader, Megan Isaacson, come to lead. Megan is a fairly new recording artist from Colorado who, as a friend says, "Has a voice like an angel". I have been privileged to be in worship bands she has sung with twice this year (and once previous to that). If you would like to hear some of Megan's music, visit her "MySpace" page.

The Church meeting was an informational meeting on what is the vision and future at Northern Hills. Many churches with a more "traditional" structure would have called it a business meeting or a members meeting. Northern Hills called it an owners meeting. I don't want to go into specifics as it is not my place to do so. I will go into my impressions however. Most of my life at any church has been filled with members and business meetings where people go out of duty, many with their own agenda of how "church should be done". This wasn't that meeting! I have rarely seen a meeting run with such a focus on God's Kingdom, not on the church, not on business but on God's Kingdom. Sure, the church was talked about, sure, business was talked about but that was not the focus! I walked out in awe!

Interesting listen

Yesterday, I was listening to Samir Selmanovic talking about "Finding God in the Other" using Pauls discussion in Athens as a text basis.

I don't agree with some of what he said but these point's stuck out.

• "Religion" is typically a "God Management System". Most of the religions around are ways of managing God. If we think about your typical pagan tribe who worships nature, the sacrifices and rituals are ways of managing their "gods".
• Christianity can become an idol. He states that anything that is not God is non-god. If something is non-god, it is a candidate for becoming an idol. While ideal Christianity is a good thing, there is really no such thing. The result is that Christianity can become a God management system as well. I believe that as a religion, Christianity has become the idol, the god of many.

There were quite a few other points he made but I am still not sure I can buy into everything he talked about.

Cabin Fever is setting in.

I'll admit that I am spoiled by typical Colorado weather.

We have had a "weather event" every week, usually around the weekend, since the week prior to Christmas. If memory serves me right, it has been snow, snow, snow/cold, snow/cold, snow, fog, snow/cold. We haven't reached our "snowiest months" of March and April!

The bad part is that the last week has been quite moderate and got my hopes up.

All I can say is that if you hear me complain about summer, slap me down!

My sock dream

As I was sorting my socks, I realized I have a dream for my sock drawer. Maybe you could even call it a vision.

That vision is to get enough of "exactly the same" pairs of socks. Why? Because sorting them is difficult and, in the wrong light, can lead to mis-matched pairs.

Let me give you an example. My tastes in socks would look just fine in a 1960 television set. Either black or white. Black goes with pretty much anything, white goes with the rest -- ok, call the fashion police if you will.

The problem I have is that I have a couple of dark blue pairs, many pairs which are not the same size but similar design, some that are the same size but not the same design. Wouldn't it be easier to have 7-10 pairs exactly alike?

It's a side effect

I woke up this morning thinking "It's a Side Effect". Before I explain that further let's talk about side effects.

As we hear those pharmaceutical advertisements, at the end, you will hear "Side effects include...." and a bunch of nasty things that happen.

Sometimes, however, the side effect becomes the desired thing. Let me put my techie hat on and talk amplification. The goal of audio amplification traditionally is to have a small input signal from say a guitar or microphone be amplified through the electronic circuits and come out sounding louder. Originally it was done using tube components which are very inefficient and are not very durable (they can be broken easily). Solid state transistors came along and solved those problems but there was a side effect.

As a signal is overdriven (too much input signal) inside a tube system, the experts say that the distortion (variation from the original signal) produces odd harmonics. As a signal is overdriven (too much input signal) inside a system, the experts say that the distortion (variation from the original signal) produces odd harmonics which, while not accurate, can be pleasing to the human ear. In a transistor system, that same overdriven signal produces even harmonics which is not so pleasing to the human ear. Much of the audio world is now using solid state with one exception. Guitar amplification is done primarily with tube so you can get that warm distortion that you hear in nearly all modern music. The side-effect has become the desired product.

Back to the discussion at hand. As someone seeking to follow Christ, we are given two commands in Matthew 22:37-40.

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

So, why no more? It's the side effect. If we do those two things, all the moral issues we face in the world go away. No, I don't mean that the world gets more moral. What I mean is that if we obey these two things, the whole 10 commandments thing goes away in our own lives. We also see that issues around giving to and loving others goes away.

The problem that I woke up thinking about is that too often, we are looking for the side effect to become the end product. In other words, we expect those around us to act morally, obeying those 10 commandments just because they are there, not because they are following the two above. We expect people to "act Christian" even if they are not following those two commands.

Matthew 6:31-33 goes right along with the passage above...

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Let's quit looking at the side effects and considering them the end result... Seek after God first and let the rest take care of itself!

What's in a name?

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned hearing from someone with my name, first and last.

Due to things I have listened to recently, I realized that people don't think about what their name means.

In the Old Testament times, your name described your personality. In fact there are several places in the Bible where people were renamed because their name didn't represent their name. Abram was renamed Abraham, Jacob was renamed Israel.

I am in training this week with another Joel. As a result, I started remember what my name means. I found this site.

My name -- Joel -- means "YAHWEH is God"

The blind man and the elephant

Yesterday, I had a doctors appointment so drove there, then to a Park-N-Ride to take the bus to work. As I was driving, I listened to several podcasts, including several messages.

As we were praying at worship band practice, this illustration struck me. The picture on the right is based on the story of the 6 blind man and the elephant. In the story, the men are placed around the elephant and asked to describe it...

A Jain version of the story says that six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body.

The blind man who touches a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the tail-toucher claims it's like a rope; the one who feels the trunk compares it to a tree branch; the man who felt the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the belly-toucher asserts it's like a wall; and the tusk feeler insists the elephant feels like a solid pipe.

A wise man explains to them

All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said.[1]

As I listened to those podcasts yesterday, the people talking were certainly Godly men. They do not approach ministry or God the same and each sees the part of God they are focused on at that time. In Hebrew, the Bible -- Old Testament -- has the same perspective. You can see a list of all the names for (or attributes of) God here. Each one describes God from a different perspective.

A Strange email

I opened up my email yesterday to an email from Joel Frederick. Usually this means someone is spamming me but no.

Joel told me he registered joelfrederick.com and this blog popped up in a Google search.

Growing up, Joel was such a unique name. There was nobody else that I knew that had that name. Up until this point, I have been occasionally bothered (annoyed is too strong) by emails to someone with a similar last name named Joel. But to find someone with the same first and last name is quite unique.

We have exchanged emails now... I don't know that things will progress any farther but we know that we exist.

The weather underground

A friend at work introduced me to the Weather Underground. One of the features that is fun is the personal weather stations, these stations take readings and report them back to the web for us to see.

Here is information from one near me... One on the other side (west) of town looks like this.

Time for a change

I have always liked rather abstract art. That is one of the reasons I picked the image (thumbnail to the left) from 3dCrew. I figured, after over a year of the same desktop, it was time for a change. Back out to 3dCrew to get another.

They have some amazing images. Oh, one other thing I like about this site... The images are free!

Cover to Cover

As I have been talking to people, I am surprised how many people around me who identify themselves as Christians have never read through the Bible at all. By that, I mean the whole Bible. Front to back. That is a lot of reading if you do it in just one sitting. If you split it up through-out a year, however, it is pretty bite size.

This was something I was encouraged to do when I was in High School, then again a couple of years ago.

Since the start of the new year is the time for all those commitments to do things, many of which get dropped, I started out the year with a decision to read through the New Testament this year. That is where my plans changed.

While at a worship band meeting last week, Rob, one of the drummers suggested I check out the Daily Audio Bible because I can download it to my new iPod. I have now decided to listen to the Bible this year. To start out, let me just say, it took me a bit to get used to the readers reading style. I don't even notice it now!

If the possibility of seeing what is really on those pages gets your interest and you don't want to listen, check out this daily reading plan. The year is still young and it is never too late to start.

If I had a $1,000,000, I'd buy you love

That line is from a song by the Barenaked Ladies (they are neither naked or ladies -- they don't even look like ladies) called "If I Had $1,000,000".

This evening, as we rode home on the bus, I glanced over at the billboard and noticed that the Powerball Lottery was now at $151,000,000. Every time I see the sign, especially with that high a dollar figure, thoughts start to swirl in my head.

My first thought is that I realize that without a miracle, I would never win, even discounting the incredible odds, I rarely buy a ticket. I don't consider it gambling, more like voluntary taxes.

So, at $151 million, as a single winner, you would probably take home just less than half of that if you took the one time distribution, after taxes.

So what would you do with that? I was talking to a fellow on the bus about that. He told me he would buy a bunch of land and build a house. While the house was being built, he'd go on a cruise. When he got home, he'd set his friends up as employees and pay them lavishly. He would also set up trust funds for his kids who would receive that money after completing various important life events like years of college or anniversaries.

Myself? I could see taking a enough to feel secure, paying off the house and living debt free, helping out family members, etc. That would leave a whole lot of money laying around that could be put to good use helping people who need it (as opposed to people who think they need it).

So why haven't I won? Honestly, I suspect that God doesn't want me to. Not because it is a punishment but because it doesn't teach me character. At least, I hope that is the reason because the alternative (and if I were totally honest maybe the reality) is that my heart really isn't that charitable.

I do not believe that God cares if we are rich or poor but cares more about our hearts. This closely parallels the message this last weekend (Jan 7) at church. The question that was posed to us was: "Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you"!

A sad media storm

A number of strange (for Colorado anyway) occurrences over the last 3 weeks.

If you have been watching and reading anything about Colorado, you should have seen that we have gotten our 3rd major amount of snow in as many weeks. Typically, one snowfall will melt off before we get the next. Not this year however.

The second item is the Derrent Williams shooting. Not being a football fan (when I watch the Broncos the tend to loose so I quit watching), I have not been interested or know much about the victim. As I was listening to the news, however, I started to wonder... If this had been someone else other than a sports celebrity, would the police be working this hard? Would the news keep such close watch?

I do remember when my friend Joel England was killed in 1998, there seemed to be a lot a press coverage but under normal circumstances, it is a blip in the normal days news.

So, my question is, how do I redeem this post? What is the worth of a person? Well, if you are here on earth, it seems to depend on your entertainment value or your bank account. To God, however, we are worth quite a bit more. Matthew 6:27-33 says:

"... All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Fund raiser!

If you haven't already heard, my friend Dave is putting on a fund raiser for Home of Refuge.

The worship should be great! If you don't live in the area and want to donate, please do!

Quite a few people I know (and know of) have participated in short term missions trips to the Home of Refuge and are looking forward to going back -- a great endorsement!

Please consider showing up and helping out!

Breaking News

A couple of breaking (well, one is rather old) "news" items...

First, so that I could fully join the "techno-geek" crowd, my lovely wife bought me an iPod Nano for Christmas. It is, as my friend Carol Ann pointed out, is really nice to have. Thank You Marj! I have already put one of my other presents, "Concert for Bangladesh" on so I can listen on demand (Thanks Mark).

Second, my "Back to Beck" suggestion made this Music I-Quiz! (If you are unfamiliar with "Back to Beck" as I suspect most are, think of a musical "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" with Jeff Beck as the end point.

Music memories

My friend Donna's thoughts here reminded me of how much music has complemented & defined me. Some examples of that...

• Growing up, I listened to the small radio station from the local college. It was on FM and was a whole 10 watts. I remember waking up every Wednesday morning one year, hearing the Beatles sing "Good Morning" and jumping into Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the light"
• I still have a dislike for Opera because every Saturday growing up I heard the Firestone Opera on the local AM radio station.
• I still have a love of what Steeleye Span did for (to?) English folk music because my cousin gave my brother and I one of their albums for Christmas.
• I still have an attraction to Herbie Hancock music because a friend and I arranged "Chameleon" for jazz ensemble in our senior year of high school.
• I still love Procol Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" because I did an arrangement for full jazz band that same year.
• I still remember where I first heard the Eagles "Life in the Fast Lane" as I was crammed in the back of a car on the way to a college age church event next to an unwed soon-to-be mother thinking that it was so accurate (judgmental huh?).
• My appreciation for Classical music (and probably covers) was enhanced by the versions of songs I heard from such unlikely sources as Spike Jones and P.D.Q Bach.
  

There are many lasting impressions like that and they continue to occur.

Plastic Jesus

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
I'm afraid He'll have to go
His magnets ruin my radio
And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar

from Plastic Jesus

As I mentioned here, I was reading Eric Sandras' "Plastic Jesus: Exposing the Hollowness of Comfortable Christianity". The title and the chorus of the song above seem to expose the same thing. Too often, we have settled for much less than God would have us be and do.

"Plastic Jesus..." is published by NavPress.

In "Plastic Jesus...", Eric challenges us to quit being comfortable, raising lots of issues that affect me "where I live". For instance, it is quite easy for me to, once making the commitment to follow Christ, check that box off my to do list, continuing down the road to something else. This book challenges the reader to look beyond that initial commitment and determine what it really means to follow Christ.

I am putting this book back into my "to re-read" pile, actually, I am promoting this as a small group study for the group I am in.

2006 Coverville Countdown

I have been enjoying the 2006 Coverville Countdown. This is a selection of cover songs which listeners have voted on as their favorites (no, I didn't vote).

My favorites so far?

From Part 1, the Icehouse version of David Bowie's "Heroes" and The CopperBox version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" (sort of bluegrass/zydeco).

From Part 2, the Cake version of the Muppets "Mahna Mahna" (progressive rock), the Johnny Cash/Joe Strummer version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (folk), Joey Ramone's version of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (punk) and the Yum! Yum! Orange! version of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't worry Be Happy" (ska).

From Part 3, the Opie Gone Bad version of the Rolling Stones (and Stevie Wonder) version of "Sympathy for the Devil/Living for the City", the Weird Al version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (actually called Bohemian Polka) and the Gypsy King version of the Eagles "Hotel California".

Since these are legally (as Brian does work with ASCAP) downloaded, check them out!

By the way, if you are wondering what Sympathy for the Devil is about, check out this Lyrics Undercover which explains the song. There is also a Lyrics Undercover on "Hotel California" here.

A Life Lesson

No not plural, one really.

I stayed home today while Marj & Kyle went to see a movie. While flipping through the channels, I flipped stopped at "The Jerry Springer Show". I have one life lesson I have learned from watching that show.

If Jerry Springer (or any of those types of shows) call and invite you on, DON'T GO, SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN!

There are numerous little lessons but that is the primary one and will avoid all the rest.

Christmas Eve Services

Today being Christmas Eve was a special time for many people. In fact, it is a time when many who don't normally attend church will show up.

In order to show Northern Hills to these people, we did something that, for some of us on the worship teams, was pretty revolutionary and somewhat stressful (for Dan & Dave more than us).

This morning in The River services as well as the two services held this evening, we played "Angels We Have Heard On High". Then Scott or Rob got up to speak. The topic was the "Noel's of Christmas". Noel means song. Prior to the bulk of the message, the people in each service were asked for things that Christmas that were important to them or that they were thankful for.

While Scott or Rob spoke, telling about the 5 songs or Christmas in the Bible, Dan (and in Whitewater, Dave) went to the back and wrote new a song based upon the phrases the people in that service expressed. By the time the message was completed, we had a new song. It was copied, sent up to the media team to be input for words up front and the worship team walked out on stage and performed it, asking the people in the audience to join in.

Each song from the services as well as the one the worship team put together was unique. The words, of course were different, but so were the chord progressions and the tune. The one with the neatest chorus was "Thank you for coming down here".

We then sang "Silent Night" and Dan's song "Humble King", finally we got to sing the song the audience helped to write as the final song.

As the day went on, each of the songs written to that point was performed prior to the service (we were out singing and playing 15 minutes prior to the last service).

This weekend, 5 new songs were written and sung for Christmas.

The "Saturdays with Mark & Tony"

Huh?

Well, thanks to this post, I got introduced to Mark Lowry who is now doing a Saturday video or audio show with Tony Campolo called "Saturdays with Mark & Tony". I have had a long time interest in Tony Campolo and what he is thinking as he pushes the "traditional" evangelical envelope.

The first show I listened to was sort of "mind-blowing". One of the questions they were asked was "What is your soul?". Great answer!

More Karate

By the way, I took Kyle to karate Tuesday and found he had earned his High Red. Only 3 more levels before he tries out for his black belt! It is a real pleasure to watch him teach and work with the younger students!

Christmas Early

If you don't live in Colorado or haven't heard the news lately, we're pretty snowy here. Marj got stuck in our development yesterday after coming home. After digging her out, I got stuck trying to get into the garage. We dug it out and both cars are in.

Kyle is staying overnight at a friends house so, depending on the weather, we may not see him until tomorrow.

Rocky was complaining that he needed his daily walk so I figured I should give Marj one of her Christmas presents early.... Here are a couple more pictures.


When Marj got back from her snowshoeing adventure in the development, I went out to clear snow away from the back.. Here is what I found!

The prodigal son...

I was mis-informed. Well maybe not as much mis-informed but just plain ignorant.

Back in February, I posted this. The title was "Todays Prodigal Sons".

What was I ignorant about? The meaning of the word prodigal. If you look up the word in dictionary.com, you will find out that prodigal means:

1. wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.
4. –noun- a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift.

Oddly enough, it doesn't really invalidate that post, it just puts it in a slightly different light.

Now, how did I find that out? I have been reading Plastic Jesus: Exposing the Hollowness of Comfortable Christianity. So far, it is an excellent book! If you'd like to read a few excerpts visit the authors blog here and here.

What I like about it so far is that it gets "into your business" but is still fun to read!

Congratulations Kyle

This is a picture of Kyle after the conclusion of yesterday's Power Up weekend at Origin Martial Arts. Kwanjangnim Scott is with Kyle.

A little over a year ago, we were extremely proud of Kyle and I posted about his green belt here. Besides the color of belt, he also is wearing a new outfit. That is the Dojo's (Karate Studio's) outfit (and can be taken away if Kyle does not fulfill the responsibilities of his position or belt). It signifies that Kyle has worked as an apprentice (the black shirt) and has put in 200 hours helping out (the black pants). Kyle started as an apprentice early last year for the right reasons. In his words, "...because I want to help other kids...". I have gotten to watch him teach over the last year and he is pretty good at it, especially when you consider his age.

I wish him luck and blessings over the next year as he pursues his brown and black belts!

Understanding your pet

We often don't realize how much our pets understand of our speech. We had an interesting revelation this morning however.

A year ago when we were going through training, we were told that dogs, especially Border Collies, could learn as many words as a 2 or 3 year old child. I suspect they learn these words just like a child does, by context.

One characteristic of the herding dogs is a desire, no, a drive, to anticipate what is going on. This comes in especially handy when you have an unruly animal who will not cooperate. With no animals to herd, Rocky has decided to anticipate what we want.

It was especially funny today. Kyle was getting ready to leave for a Karate Power Weekend and we told Rocky to say goodbye to Kyle. Rocky would start toward the stairs, then turn around and go to his kennel, even though Marj was ready to take him for a walk. We called him out, started to send him upstairs to say goodbye and he again headed for the kennel.

We figured out that he knows that the word goodbye meant that we were leaving and failing to put everything into a proper context and faced with a drive to anticipate, we had him running in circles.

Music downloading and the recording industry

Every since Napster and the popularity of the iPod, the recording industry has (rightfully) cried foul.

They have been aggressively pursuing violators without prejudice. Sometimes some rather funny stories about this such as grandparents who don't use a computer are sued.

All the time, they wronged party is the poor artists who deserve their royalties (no argument here -- it is only fair).

Of course, though out the last few years, the recording industry is just as much trying to protect it's fiefdom as evidenced by this report.

The short form?

RIAA Petitions Judges to Lower Artist Royalties

Aggressively litigious group has claimed to protect musicians in the past. Now believes musicians deserve less for "innovative" music distribution.

Prolific no, oops yes

I had my friend Scott make a comment this weekend that got me thinking...

No, I didn't post 20 items this weekend. What I did do was fix some of the labels for those items.

It hits the RSS readers really hard.

National Treasure and Family Business

If you have watched the movie National Treasure, you learn about Trinity Church and the wall at Wall Street, at least the movie version.

This weekend I received a call from my Aunt in Iowa. When I called back she told me that she had found an ancestor with ties to those New Amsterdam (now New York) land marks.

According to Roots Web, it tells about one of my ancestors, Christian Barentse.

On August 1, 1657, Christian Barentze, carpenter, was granted by Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland, a lot in New Amsterdam, by the Land Gate, (now Broadway and Wall streets) for a house and garden. He also owned several other properties in the neighborhood, some of which are said to have covered a part of the present Trinity churchyard.

Kyle made me post this

Graduation

Last night was a very special occasion for Shelby.

It was the night she got her black belt. This is after 14 years of training (she moved around a lot and started over each time).

It was also a special night for Kwanjangnim* Scott, the leader of the school, she is this school's first black belt.

We considered not going to the ceremony but were quite glad we did. Why? First of all, while we do not know her well, it gave us a chance to honor Bo-Sabumnim** Shelby as she is now titled. Second, it gave Kyle a chance to see what he would be doing if/when he graduates to black belt level. Third Kyle got to particpate (more later). Fourth, I got to hear more of the faith (Christian) of Scott than I have before.

The ceremony started with a diagram of the Black Belt testing stations and Scott asking Shelby to set up the stations silently according to the diagram. There were 8 bricks set up around a circle with the black belt stretched across the center. On each brick was a tree of candles. A fourth candle tree was set across the black belt. A student or friend was set up at each station around the side. Shelby was then given a word which described a characteristic of a black belt and asked what that word meant to her in relation to her life and in relation to karate. After she explained what it meant the person sitting at that station was asked to blow out the candles in front of them because without that characteristic, the world would be a darker place. The characteristic Kyle blew out the candle for was 'respect'.

The final characteristic was faith. That candle was not blown out. After this was done, Shelby was presented with her black belt.

* Kwanjangnim means Kwan Leader, a Kwan being a martial arts school. (see Taekwando)
** Sabumnim means teacher, the bo in front means baby or beginning.

My friend was right!

Years ago, when I was doing a lot of cycling, a friend used to tell me things like "The wind is your friend. It cools you on a hot day and teaches you to ride harder."

The same sort of thing you might hear watching Kung Fu.

Body builders know that as they lift weights, it creates small tears in the muscle that are replaced with other muscle cells.

The principle holds through a lot of things in life. A show on the Discovery Channel or one of it's affiliates that we saw called Xtreme Martial Arts tells how the process of breaking boards causes small cracks in the bone being used. The healing process of the body, like with muscles, repairs these cracks, filling them in, making them harder.

I think that many of us are so comfortable that we are afraid of challenges. In fact, we are more than willing to whine when things get tough. We forget that they do build us up.
Remember what James 1:2-4 says:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Done with the end...

I finally finished Great Tribulation--Past or Future?

It was sort of a long read but I did it because I have been curious about the Preterist and Futurist views of Revelation, The Great Tribulation and the end times.

Just to set the record straight, I think to adhere to either view takes faith. In this book, two "evangelicals" debate the issue.

The interesting thing about this debate was the way it was approached by the debaters. I the attitude I picked up in the book (and I could be very wrong about this) was arrogance. I felt the preterist had a much more humble spirit, at least at the start (and again, I could be quite wrong).

A word of warning about debate (not necessarily this one). The winning of a debate does not necessarily depend on the facts.

An example of this was a debate I was assigned to participate in while in High School. I was assigned the position that the world was flat. We won! Why? Because the opposing team was so convinced (and rightfully so of course) of their viewpoint, they forgot the rules of debate, that the newer (in this case, 15th Century view point) was considered true unless proven otherwise.

The format of the book is 2 chapters of explanation of the preterist view, 2 chapters explaining the futurist view then rebuttals.

Would I recommend it? If you are willing to trudge through a lot of linguistic mire, yes. If you hold one viewpoint or the other and wonder how in the world someone could think differently, yes. If, like me, you hold what a friend called a "pan" view (it will all pan out in the end), this one is probably not for you.

Underestimation

As parents we often under estimate what our kids can do and what they can accomplish.

As I was thinking about this weekend I was over whelmed with the busyness. 2 trips to Longmont, a Christmas party and a banquet.

Why so busy? Because Kyle was in Black Belt University. At 11, he now has a solid goal of becoming a black belt. He already teaches as an apprentice so is doing well. This weekend, he earned his high blue and tonight is testing for his red belt.

What actually brought on this post however is this from my friend Dave's wife Tara.

Snakes in the Pew

I was reviewing some of those items in Google Reader that I looked at and marked for later. 1 month later, I ran across this from Church Marketing Sucks. It struck way to close to home, leaving me very sad and very encouraged.

Snakes in the Pew

Thinking things out...

Today, we got a layer of snow on the ground again

I got the privilege of shoveling the layer off alone. Why is that a privilege? Because I get to think while I shovel.

Some time ago, when email was relatively new, I got a list of "imponderables". Thinks like:

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways.

I would characterize an "imponderable" as a question with no real answer.

I tend to think in "ponder-ables" lately. Here is my pondering.

Yesterday, as I drove to a park-and-ride to catch a bus, I listened to the start of "Focus on the Family". Not a show I typically would listen to. As the host was introducing his guest speaker, Josh McDowell he made mention of McDowells latest book, "The Last Christian Generation", he said the book was "scary". Through this, I may have discovered a little more what has bothered me about the traditional "Christian Right" movement (this links to an article about the Christian Coalition for instance).

I heard fear. Fear that the our children may not follow Christ. Fear that our "Christian lifestyle" may be nearing an end.

Contrasting that, we went to a Worship and the Word Movement dinner last night. There Dave said that God is doing great things today.

Why the difference?

I think many Christian leaders have substituted the things of God with the things of this world. This then dribbles down. Here is the list that I thought about this morning.

Gods things	The Worlds Things	In Substituting...
Hope	Fear	We look at the things around us and forget that God is in control
Love	Hate	We forget that those who are our enemies are people that Jesus died for also
Joy/Peace	Uneasyness	We cast of the beauty of God and portray God as unattractive to those around us.

Scott McKnight

I have been enjoying reading Scott's blog.

I have never met but have enjoyed his writing and perspective. You can read more about him here.