Grumpy, complaining Christians

Ever noticed how some believers act like they're prisoners serving life sentences?

They express their faith by complaining, finding fault with fellow prisoners and griping about the least little thing that upsets their routine. Confined to their cells, not much changes. Every aspect of their lives feels controlled by malevolent outside forces, and yet their greatest fear is losing their miserable lives.

Compare their grumpy hostility and negativism to a different kind of a believer ... the kind who's more like a prisoner condemned to death, but who then received an unconditional pardon from the king.

They have no fear of death because their crimes have been forgiven: they've been set free from the confinement of their cells. They continue rejoicing with the good news and aren't afraid at all of telling others what the king has done on their behalf.

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That first group of believers, the ones who act like they're serving life sentences, are suspicious of everything and deny that kind of pardon ... and freedom ... exists.

They're so preoccupied with maintaining order, following prison rules and "just serving out their time" on earth that they can't see that the king's pardon has opened their cell doors and set them free, too.

They just lack the faith to walk through it.

The Sin Chokehold

I understand why so many un-churched people have a negative opinion about church: chances are that they've met church people who represent their faith as little more than a long list of YOU CAN'Ts.

Wonder why church folks who tend toward legalism aren't more concerned with sharing the Joy of knowing Christ ... instead of being killjoys?

This sounds harsh, but I think there's just one explanation.

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Sin isn't the same thing as fun.

It wasn't God's idea to hate fun or to make everything that's "fun" a sin: it was man's idea that sinning is fun. God commanded us to avoid sin because he HATES sin.

Sin separates us from following God's will and from receiving the blessings he promised.

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Why am I always having money problems? Because we don't put God in control of our finances.

Why is my marriage falling apart? Because Christ isn't at its center.

Why does something always go wrong with my relationships? Because you're always putting your priorities instead of Christ's.

Why do I feel so empty inside? Because you're living your life for yourself, and keeping Christ on the outside.

See, sinning isn't as much fun as it sounded like.

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Sin traps us, and keeps us held in the snare of believing that what we're doing, and the way we're living, is FUN. Sin isn't fun at all: sin is a chokehold that dulls and slowly strangles us from within.



"A Chokehold is a grappling hold that strangles the opponent, and may lead to unconsciousness or even death. "
- wikipedia

How Can I Make God Give Me What I Want?

Isn't that the truth? Isn't the reason that lots of folks even bother paying attention to God in the first place is because they picture him as a religious puzzle that, when solved, will eagerly drop blessings, favors and solutions into our lives?

Solving the religious puzzle is thought to include:

- finding the church that best agrees with our personal agenda (comfort, politics, social status, dating opportunities)

- praying (using the most solemn-sounding code words, like Thee, Thou and Art)

- temporary tithing (our way or pre-paying God for delivering the solution we need)

- scripture skimming (in hopes of finding quick n' easy answers hidden between the lines by the Creator)

- promising to stop sinning, just as soon as the solution we requested shows up on the doorstep

- Sincerity: "Lord, I really really really want this, so please give it to me."

No wonder so many folks give up on religion, and cite experiences from their own lives as evidence that "God must not exist."

What we lack is the Faith to put our self-serving interests and agendas aside; we should be asking God to forgive our selfishness and to teach us His will in every aspect of our ransomed lives.

What's in it for me?

It's funny, isn't it, how people will decide what they want and then figure out ways for God to agree with their choices.

Whether it's politics, finances or dating and marriage, folks feel like God's pretty flexible and will Flex in their direction: all the Creator needs is a little coaxing and convincing to see their point of view.

I've heard folks argue that Christ agrees with their political party. I've heard folks argue that tithing is Old Testament and need not be practiced under the New Covenant (I guess charge cards must be under the New Covenant, too?).

But mainly I hear folks argue that their romantic or sexual relationships are their private business, that sexual gratification outside of marriage is "only normal and natural," that pre-marital sex is "no big deal," often followed by the argument that "God loves me and wants me to be happy. He knows I can't be perfect."

What is that attitude saying, exactly?

It says God's not Number One in that person's life. It says that person hasn't repented and surrendered to God's will, but is actually asking God to surrender to their sin. It says that person looks at Grace, shrugs and wants to know, "What's in it for me?"

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Ever wondered what Jesus thought about while he was dying on the cross?

I have ... and I don't think "What's in it for me?" is one of the choices.

24x7 bug

I haven't written a new post in exactly a week.

One night earlier this week, I had a 24 hr bug. (I actually prefer the 24 hr variety to the week long type, b/c even though the former is more virulent, the recovery period for the latter lasts far too long to remain interesting.)

This bug only lasted for 24 hours but apparently it's taking me a week to completely recover.

Fatigue and the lack of physical strength are enemies ... at least, so long as we're living in these jars of clay.

Imagine you were the richest, most famous, and most attractive person on the planet

Sound pretty good so far? Let's make sure we did't miss anything.

If riches, fame and attractiveness weren't enough, go ahead and tack your personal wish ... whether to be influential, prestigious, glamorous, socially prominent or anything else you'd like ... just add it to the list and imagine that person is you.

Now that all your dreams have come true, are you starting to feel like the happiest person on the planet?

Let's keep going ... and imagine that your wealth, fame and attractiveness only lasts 1/10 of a second.

All gone now, sorry.

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So, what was it like being the richest, most famous and most desirable person on the planet for a tenth of a second? Was it all over much too quickly? Everything we wanted, all the things we thought would make us happy, suddenly vanished in the wink of an eye.

Are you thinking, "Wait a minute, it didn't last long enough! That's not fair!"?

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Five years from now, that happiest one-tenth of a second of your life will be fairly hard to remember. Just like 100,000 years into eternity, an entire lifetime of fame, wealth, power and prestige will feel like infinitely less than a tenth of a second.

Makes me wonder why some people use the eye-wink length of their lives to pursue fame, wealth, power, prestige or popular acclaim.

Especially since Christ offered us eternal life.

Identity Crisis: Who Am I?

"Identity Crisis" is a label often applied to folks who find themselves in a life-turmoil. The term nominally applies to folks who're having a tough time "figuring out their purpose and where they fit in the Universe."

Who Am I? Where am I going? What is my ultimate purpose and why do I matter?

Those are the kind of questions typically associated with adolescents, to folks in their teens who've just had their first glimpse of Real Life and who're apt to feel perplexed, helpless and uncertain of themselves and of their ability cope with new situations and dilemmas.

But an Identity Crisis can also occur in folks who've just experienced a life-changing crisis ... like the death of a child or spouse, an abrupt divorce (after years of apparent happiness and stability), a sudden "termination" from work, a loan default followed by home foreclosure, a physical malady requiring a painful "surgical procedure" ... or even because of very small things, like the joint paint that lasts more than a week, the glimpse in the mirror that reveals sagging skin, the first gray hair or the the indisputable proof of a receding hairline.

Oh man, what's happening to my life! I'm getting OLD!

Life has a way of pitching curve balls over home plate ... and all too often, the curves start coming just as we're feeling ready to knock the next pitch out of the park.

Who am I ... and how could this happen to me? What did I do to deserve it?

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How do I know God exists? How can I keep focusing on Christ and reject the importance of the "real" things in life like love, money, security, prestige, fame or material possessions, and put my faith in an invisible Creator?

The answer might not be easy, but this illustration is indisputable: any man or woman enduring the most painful, traumatic, life-changing series of events in their life need only walk away from their old life, surrender themselves to God, beg his forgiveness and accept Christ as their Savior and that man or woman will receive salvation, eternal life and the forgiveness of every sin.

God is that powerful, that just and that merciful. The proof is that God loves us more than we can comprehend.

Speaking of "real life," imagine how different the outcome would be if you'd just been fired ... and then confessed to your boss everything you'd done wrong every single day of your life, surrendered to him (or her) and begged for a fresh start from the beginning?

Imagine if your home was in foreclosure and you marched into your loan officer's office, threw yourself on the floor and begged for the bank's forgiveness? Would you receive forgiveness and an eternal extension ... or just a prison detention?

The reason we keep making bad choices based on WHAT I WANT, and then run full-speed into brick walls and damage ourselves, is because we forget how much God loves us.

God is real, and only through Christ can we receive the grace, forgiveness, Salvation, purpose and identity that lasts.

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Who am I? Nothing. Truly. I am lost, worthless and condemned without Christ.

But please don't miss this: So are you.

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This is one of my favorite quotes, and if I had 50,000 words I couldn't add anything to it:

"Many people are trying to define who they are by a position or a title. Position or title will never satisfy your soul or define who you are. We must define ourselves by who we are in Christ alone." - Jake Beaty

Linux ya no Windows?

(technology)

By Victoria Ho ZDNet Asia
Posted on ZDNet News: Oct 14, 2009 4:38:52 AM

The Linux desktop experience is now closer to the Windows environment than before, but the gap in mainstream adoption for the open source OS will not close anytime soon, says an industry analyst.

Laurent Lachal, U.K.-based senior analyst at IT advisory firm Ovum, said inconsistencies across Linux distributions still stand in the way of wider user uptake.

"For one, Linux has two main GUIs (graphical user interfaces), KDE and Gnome. Some see that as choice, but overall it confuses the market," Lachal told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview. He added that each GUI is further tweaked for different distributions, further compounding the disparity.

Different distributions also have different ways of allowing users to perform tasks, such as terminal commands.

Some distributions also try to mimic Windows as closely as possible in order to entice Windows users to migrate, but has often resulted in only "good enough" experience for "basic" enterprise tasks.

-full story and original source here

Faith in a box

A movie titled The Box is scheduled for release on November 6, 2009. The plot sounds pretty intriguing:

Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. - from imdb.com

The storyline raises an intriguing moral dilemma: what would You do if the box was delivered to your doorstep, and all you had to do to collect a million dollars was to simply press the button ... knowing in advance that your decision would cost a stranger his life?

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In real life, we've received the gift of eternal life through Christ and all we have to do is push the Witness button to share it.

But what happens to human beings all over the world who don't know Christ, people we'll never meet or need to impress, if we insist upon hiding our faith away in a box ... and refuse to push the button?

PRESS HERE

"I can't imagine God would create a place called hell"

Ever heard a cannon shot? I don't mean a sound effect mixed into a war movie or the "digital cannons" featured on your favorite CD of The 1812 Overture.

Nope, I mean a real cannon fired within the proximity of your personal space.

For whatever reason, yesterday afternoon The Pride of Baltimore II was cruising back and forth on the Inner Harbor, firing volley after volley of her 19th century replica cannons just a couple of hundred yards from my slip.

The first shot lifted me from my seat; the second brought me back down and the third made me wonder if the Second Coming had arrived in Charm City. Each successive shot literally made Calypso's deck shake and her hatches rattle.

Thunder might be the loudest sound most folks will ever experience (unless they've pressed the side of their head against a jet engine spooling-up for takeoff), but a cannon shot is different: a cannon isn't necessarily louder (I wasn't standing beside it, after all) ... but the cannon's resonance gives its voice a hard-to-describe Presence and Authority.

No kidding. A cannon shot is like an earthquake, a thunder clap and a slap on the back of the head all rolled up into three quarters of a second.

In other words, until I'd heard it, I couldn't imagine such a thing. And just because I couldn't imagine what a cannon shot sounded like doesn't mean that cannon shots aren't real.

So far we've only talked about what a cannon sounds like: what do you think being on the receiving end of an all-night cannon barrage must've been like?

I can't imagine.

"I don't know"

This morning on TV an economist was quizzed, "Where will the economy be a year from now?"

The expert shrugged and confessed, "I don't know. Nobody knows." Hmmm. That got me to wondering, What does I don't know mean?

Does I don't know mean "I don't have an answer," "I'm not sure," "Opinion is still divided," or does I don't know mean "The information is unavailable"?

Or could I don't know also mean "There's simply no way of ever knowing" or even "I don't care"?

I dunno ... on the other hand, I don't know can also be used as an amazingly honest and straight-forward response. And that's the problem.

Because I don't know has so many meanings, sometimes we think we can hide behind I don't know when the reality is that We DO know ... we'd just rather postpone thinking about the inevitable or avoid dealing with what's inescapable.

You know, like death ... and where we'll spend eternity.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

- Deuteronomy 7:9

For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

- Romans 6:9

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

- John 17:3

"I'm in touch with some important, famous and influential people"

I know some of the world's most famous photographers. I also know some very influential film directors and a few movie actors, too.

I correspond regularly with campaign-crushing political operatives, authors, advertising executives, investment bankers and men who possess stunning 9-figure financial wealth.

Wanna know something else? I know also know and associate with drunks, addicts, porn performers, ex-convicts and prostitutes.

So which of these associations makes me more powerful, influential or important?

None of them. That's the answer: None. Zero.

The only identification that ultimately matters, or that has any importance or relevance, is my relationship with the risen savior, Jesus Christ.

Here's something else: the most important thing in life isn't having fame, a six-figure job, a sprawling house, a new car, a pool, a closet full of designer clothes, an annual vacation in Europe ... or even being popular, well-received or happily married. A hundred years from now, none of those things will matter or even be remembered.

The only thing that does matter is complete obedience to Christ and faithfully following him ... No Matter What my own dreams, goals or aspirations might be.

How can I say that?

Because Jesus loved me more than I can ever repay. And proved it by dying for my sins on the cross.