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Archive for November, 2008

Another Interesting Video

Posted in Just Life, tagged , , , on November 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »

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Interesting little video….

Posted in Too Emergent, tagged , , , on November 26, 2008| 2 Comments »


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Should I Tithe of my Money?

Posted in Messages and Thoughts, tagged , , , , , , , on November 18, 2008| 5 Comments »

We talked about money yesterday at church. How fun! Everyone loves when the pastor breaks that one out. To be honest, I have never been too crazy about preaching about money but this time, it was different.

As some of you know, at the church, we are in a season called Re:boot. We are looking at what God would have us to be as a church versus what we are. Then we are finding areas to celebrate and areas to submit and let go of or change. (I talked about this a little here) As part of this, we have been having Re:boot messages where we as individuals are doing the same thing in the major areas of our lives. So far we have talked about relationships and work. In the future, we will talk about taking care of the poor and worship. As part of this series, we talked about money yesterday and for the first time I was excited to talk to our church family about it. I got caught up talking about freedom in an area that is the most challenging. I also got pumped to share with my friends how to not just live in financial faithfulness but how to get out of a crisis situation and move more and more into freedom. (If you want to know more on this, you can listen to the on-line podcasts. As of the time of this post, the money sermon was not up yet but will be soon.)

I thought it interesting that the next day, a staff member at our store, not knowing anything about the talk at church, asked me what my thoughts on tithing were. I started to realize that many people struggle with this topic and their church is probably too nervous to talk about it or very dogmatic about their approach to raise funds for the new building wing. So, I thought I’d babble about it some here. So, here we go….

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Discussion: Christianity and Homosexuality

Posted in Messages and Thoughts, tagged , , , , , , on November 14, 2008| 3 Comments »

I came across this clip on Simply Ecclesia. It’s a great site with different contributors and I encourage you to check it out. However, this clip from “Speaking of Faith” with Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd and Shane Claibourne is very interesting. Check it out….

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Soles for Souls

Posted in Messages and Thoughts, tagged , , , , , , on November 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Do you want a great way to make a real difference? Soles for Souls is a ministry I ran across at Catalyst last month and they have a current campaign where they are trying to put together 50,000 shoes for people in need within 50 days and you can be a part of it!

If you go to their site, you can buy 2 pairs of shoes for children in poverty for only $5! That’s only $5!

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Victim Mentality

Posted in Just Life, tagged , on November 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »

I was doing some on-line surfing and started to look at articles concerning people with a “victim mentality”. I have come across several people in my life with this learned behavior and it never goes well. They usually have a small band of friends who will die for each other no matter what reality is and will never hold each other accountable. Everyone else in life can be a good friend for years but sooner or later, when something goes wrong, you are the scapegoat and things get ugly fast. So many people get hurt and relationships are never the same.

The good news is, as stated above, this is a learned behavior. It tends to be a defense mechanism and if you can identify that you have it, it is changeable. It could be a simple as making a choice to not to do it anymore but often it needs a little help from a counselor or a professional to work it through.

Either way, you don’t have to live with a “victim’s mentality” and the negative and painful effects it brings into your life.

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Happy Birthday Rev. Graham

Posted in Just Life, tagged , on November 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Today is Billy Graham’s 90th Birthday! He is America’s pastor and a man of great integrity.

I got to see him at a Crusade in Columbus, Ohio about 14 years ago. My girlfriend at the time and myself went to see him on what I believe was a Sunday evening. It was a real treat to me to see him preach and to top it off, Johnny and June Cash were the singers of the evening. Of course, the real treat was to see the lives changed as people accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior as a response to the gospel.

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Obama is President – Now What?

Posted in Just Life, Messages and Thoughts, tagged , , , , , , on November 5, 2008| 1 Comment »

I have always believed in voting but I have never been a political geek. I get the basics information about the causes I care about to see how I wish to vote or, on topics I don’t understand or know enough about, I abstain. However, this presidential race was different. I wasn’t glued to the TV like some (though I did finally get to see “The Incredible Hulk” on DVD last night), but my lap top was open the whole time I watched the movie as I hit refresh every five minutes or so to get the latest results.

I think my peeked interest had to do with the fact that I was conflicted this election. I struggled with if I was going to vote for the guy that I thought was the best for the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, and so forth, then I must admit I was leaning towards Obama. If I voted for the guy who has the most experience, stood where I do on many morality issues, that I respect, and the like, then I would vote for McCain.

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Lazy Church Staff?

Posted in Just Life, tagged , , , , on November 4, 2008| Leave a Comment »

A church staff member from Nashville wrote a pretty interesting post today about how some people enter into the church ministry service because they think they can get away with less than normal work loads. The church I pastor now is the third church I have been a part of, each one of the smaller size, and I have already run across such an individual myself.

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I think I’m going to write that book

Posted in Just Life, tagged , on November 4, 2008| 1 Comment »

Like a billion other people I know, I have felt a desire to write a book for years (even if I suck at spelling). There have been topics that come and go in my mind and never felt right. Every once in a long while, I would get a topic on my heart that I would get excited about but would not work out do to time constraints. Then, with a little time passing, I would get to the point that I would get bored with or at least loss the zeal for it.

However, something feels a little different with what is happening at this point (now I just need to find the time to type).

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