Hypocrisy July 6, 2007

          Many time throughout the bible Jesus condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites. Unfortunately not much has changed since those days. From talking with unbelievers I have found that those who are vehemently against Christianity consider Christians to be hypocrites and to a big extent we are. Here are two hypocrisies that non believers point out.    

Hypocrisy #1
Teaching love but having none. Many Christians do not love unbelievers especially those who are living in sin. Now, I don’t mean they should accept unbelievers as they are, but they should love them and try to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.   

Hypocrisy #2 not witnessing.
Believe it or not I know unbelievers who are upset that more Christians don’t share their faith or that when they confront Christians with a question, the believer is unable to answer. C’mon people. If we have been saved we need to tell the whole world. If the unbeliever doesn’t see that we are exited about our faith, why should he be interested in it?    

          There are many moor hypocrisies I could mention, but these are the ones non-believers notice and I have also already posted about some other ones.    

          Now if you’ve read my blog long you know that I do a lot of ranting about what I think is wrong with the world or with people groups and I realize that is probably what this sounds like. However that is not what I want people to think about this post. I want the believer [including myself] to look at himself and see if his life is showing hypocrisy that might deter someone from coming to the Lord.

Plus One – I Don’t Care Lyrics June 6, 2007

Could it be yesterday
I coulda swore the same thing happened just the other day
Put on the spot
Now what am I gonna say
If I tell them who You are will they think that I’m insane?
Do I really care?

Well yes and no, maybe so
Cause if they don’t think You’re real how will they ever know
So I won’t stop
Cause even if they laugh at me
It doesn’t change a thing about what I believe
(What I believe yeah)

*Chorus*
I don’t care what it takes
I don’t care who it shakes
I don’t care what they say
I’m gonna do it Your way
Even if I’m afraid
Don’t wanna make You look fake
I don’t care about anything
It’s not about me

You make me feel secure
You’ve given my your word and now I know I’m sure
I was so messed up
Like a wheel you turned around my fate
When I thought you were just something up in outer space
But that’s not the case

You’re more real to me
Than what they make you out to be on the TV
Can ya turn me up
‘Cause you know we’re getting serious
When we talk about the invisible it’s clear to us (so clear to us)
*Chorus*

I don’t care about the things that used to keep me far away from you
Left me so confused
I don’t care about the things that used to fill me up with so much doubt
I’ll turn it inside out

So if they start to wonder
and they start to stare
You know it don’t matter cause
I don’t care

Someone needs a grammar lesson May 31, 2007

Ever notice how so many road signs have bad grammar? I mean come on

`

  Hello! It’s slowly

      

“Well Officer I thought that by speed limit you meant I had to go at LEAST 75. Your not really going to give me a ticket for going 90 are you?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if the pets are on a leash why are you warning me about them. I would hope the owner would be able to control a leashed animal.

`

 `

Now that was random.

It ain’t over ‘till it’s over. May 27, 2007

           There’s been a lot of talk that the Republican’s don’t have a chance this presidential election. In-between switching control in both the house and the senate and an unpopular war, things aren’t looking so good for Republicans. However there maybe hope. People are beginning to wonder, “What in the world is the democratic agenda anyway?” They don’t really seam to have one. Democrat’s have barely any real agenda; all they can talk about is how bad Republicans are, but America is noticing this. According to the pew research centre, only 37% of Americans approve of the job Democrats have done since entering office. When the Republicans took control in 1995, 59% of American’s said that they kept their promises; today, only 40% of Americans think the Democrats have kept their promises. What are the democrat’s promises? Pull out of a war, but who know how. Raise taxes. Gravel at the U.N.’s feet. Force people to buy cars that get from 0-60 in two days [maybe, that’s if the wind is with them]. Now that the dems are in control people are going “ok, now what.” Republicans haven’t lost yet. It’s time to make a stand.  

Rudy is a scary man May 25, 2007

Today I came across a news article in the Washington Post talking about Rudy Giuliani’s [a 2008 republican presidential candidate] liberal stance on a “woman’s right to choose.” The author of this article seams to be very liberal and yet he makes an amazingly good point. Here is an exert from that article [read the whole article here]. The article is talking about Rudy at this point. 

 

 

 

His argument comes down to this: “I hate abortion,” which is “morally wrong.” But “people ultimately have to make that choice. If a woman chooses that, that’s her choice, not mine. That’s her morality, not mine.” 

 

 

But the question naturally arises: Why does Giuliani “hate” abortion? No one feels moral outrage about an appendectomy. Clearly he is implying his support for the Catholic belief that an innocent life is being taken. And here the problems begin. 

 

How can the violation of a fundamental human right be viewed as a private matter? Not everything that is viewed as immoral should be illegal; there are no compelling public reasons to restrict adultery, for example, or to outlaw sodomy. But when morality demands respect for the rights of a human being, those protections become a matter of social justice, not just personal or religious preference 

. 

All I can say is RIGHT ON. I don’t believe this author is pro-life, but at least he sees the idiocy of believing that it’s ok to kill a human. If you think about it, believing that killing a human is a personal choice is way scarier than believing that an abortion kills a bunch of cells.

Evil is real April 27, 2007

     The media’s coverage of the Virginia Tech. shooting has made me realize how our society really tries to ignore evil. I would like to begin by saying my prayers go out to all the families of the Virginia Tech. shooting victims. My prayers also go out to the family of Seung-Hui Cho. I know they must be going through a tough time. I do not judge them nor do I judge South Korea. With that said, I want to say that what happened of on April 16, 2007 was simply evil, but the media has tried to call it something – anything else. News articles have claimed that Cho was insane when he shot sixty one people. However how could someone who was insane be able to buy weapons and ammunition, hide them, and be able to film himself and then mail the video? He couldn’t. Whenever someone commits something atrocious like the Virginia Tech. Shoots, our society’s first response is to suggest that the culprit might have been insane. That’s wrong. 

     Another thing the media has tried to do is label Cho as is a poor-guy who was just depressed because he didn’t have any friends. As if that’s an excuse for killing thirty two people. I understand that Cho had speech problems and might have had a hard time finding friends because of that. However I watched parts of the videos he sent to NBC and he was certainly understandable. Being an immigrant, Cho probably had a much tougher time than any of us, but NOTHING to excuse the evil he committed.       

       As America’s sense of moral decency declines, Americans continually develop knew words for explaining away sin. What is the church’s response? They go right along with it. I have a friend who will never say the word “hell” [I’m not talking about the swear word]. He’s “afraid of offending someone.” This person is a professing Christian and I’m sure he probably has had this teaching reinforced at his church. It’s sad to see such liberal views in such a close friend.   

      Christians today need to stand up and call sin-sin. When dealing with someone one on one we need to be very sensitive, but very firm with the truth. There are many Christians who I know would correct not out of love, but those who wouldn’t correct at all are far more common. So then, call sin what it is. Never name called a mistake, a bad thing, or some other excuse. Call it what it is. God hates sin and so should we. 

     Ps. Again my prayers go out to the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting.

Leave Change April 21, 2007

I made this image and even though it sticks I thought I would share it with you because I think it correctly describes the common change in churches in American. Churches in
America have given up trying to change people. Instead they focus on receiving “change” from people so they can have the post people of any church on the block, the coolest buildings, a TV show, a high pastoral pay-check ect. I thought the play on words was kind of cute.

Time, a beautiful thing April 4, 2007

Time is a beautiful thing. Organizing it is not. If you’re like me, you probably have a hard time organizing your time. Proper time management is one way to honor God. God has given us a certain amount of time on this earth and he wants us to use it wisely.  

 

I’ve known for the longest time that I need to start using my time efficiently, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about doing that. I tried making a routine schedule, but that didn’t work at all. Maybe for some people those work, but not for me. If you’ve tried schedules and haven’t been successful at them, let me suggest something to you: create a DAILY schedule. Take a piece of paper and make 5-7 columns across for each day of the week you want a schedule for. Then either the night before, or the morning of that day right down a flexible schedule. Maybe you’ll put down the exact time, maybe you won’t. I do better just setting times for some things, but putting everything in the order I will get to them.* Throughout the day be flexible. One of my biggest problems used to always be trying to fit the schedule exactly and if anything went amiss, I got totally flustered. Remember to leave a half hour to and hour for unexpected things. Another thing that I’ve found helpful is to put boxes bellow the schedule. In these boxes put what you want to get accomplished in a particular subject or activity for that day. You may also want to do this at the beginning of the week and fill out all 7 days. 

 

The most important thing with a schedule, however, is remembering to keep God in it. Maybe give yourself reminders throughout the day to pray [and yes you can actually pray at other times besides your designated prayer time]. God should be the center of our lives, and he should be the centre of our schedules.  

 

* It would seem that you would put down the most important things first, but for me that doesn’t work. I [and probably some of you] have activities that are best to do as a whole chunk. That may mean designating an hour chuck for this activity. It may be a hard concept to grasp, but sometimes you have to plan your schedule for when you can fit long projects in, not what’s most important.

The proud prince March 31, 2007

One day, a proud and arrogant prince named Charlie was traipsing through the forest. As the prince traipsed along, he held his nose up in the air as if to say, “I don’t care about you because I’m better than you.” Presently the prince passed a worn out looking woman walking along the road. The prince, who of course cared nothing for this woman, was about to walk on by when the woman cried out, “deer prince I am in need of money. You see I borrowed a necklace of great price from a friend, but now I have lost it and I don’t have the money to pay her back. I could, of course, ask her to forgive me, but I would rather die before I did that. Do you know of anywhere that I might look for work?” “I don’t know where you can work, I don’t care about your troubles,” replied the prince. “Don’t you know that I, a prince, have better things to do than worry about your troubles?” Then the prince hastily passed by.   

  Pretty soon the prince encountered a fox standing along the road. Again the prince was about to pass by without a word, but the fox cried out, “dear prince I am hungry. You see I haven’t had anything to eat today. I had caught a rooster and was bringing it back to my den, but then I turned around and mockingly called out to my distancing followers, but as I did so the chicken fell out of my mouth and escaped. Now do you know where I might find another yard to steal chickens from?” I don’t know any yard with chickens in it, and I don’t care about your troubles,” replied the prince. “Don’t you know that I, a prince, have better things to do than worry about your troubles?” Then prince started off once again down the road.    

  A few minutes of walking brought the prince to a fork in the road. There, in the middle of the fork, stood an old farmer with a stunningly beautiful horse. The prince was curious as to how such a poor farmer could come by such a valuable steed, and since he was tired the prince stopped and asked the farmer where he had gotten his prized mount. The farmer replied, “I received this beautiful mount from the king himself. I gave the king the most beautiful apple from my orchard, and, though I asked for nothing in return, the king gave me this horse.” The prince sat and thought about how this man was different than the last two travelers he had met. While the other travelers had been prideful and were suffering because of it, this farmer had humbly and selflessly given the king his very best and had received a beautiful gift in return. “From now on I shall strive to be humble like this poor farmer instead of proud and arrogant like I have been,” thought the prince as he started off once again home; however, this time the prince was not so proud, and he kept his nose down while using his eyes to look for anyone that he, because of his lofty position, might help. James 1:9-10 says the brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.  

The character of the farmer was taken from the story “the gift and the giver” by Russell G. Davis and Brent K. Ashabranner. 

The character of the worn out woman was taken from the story “the Necklace” by Guy de Manupassant.  

The character of the fox was taken from the story “Chanticleer and Pertelote” by Geoffrey Chaucer.  

The character of the proud prince was taken from the story “Oliver Cromwell” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. [though in that story the prince, latter king, never changed]

2008 election March 18, 2007

This 2008 election will be the first election in which I can vote. I’m very exited. I just wanted to post some facts about some of the Republican candidates and my opinion about them.  

 

The candidates  

 

 

Filed with the FEC 

John McCain 

AbortionAgainst 

Gay rightsFavors 

Marital statusLives with second wife 

Religious statusCatholic. He’s also called [semi] conservative Christians narrow minded  

Other remarksMcCain is a left-wing environmentalist. 

 

 

 

 

Rudy Giuliani 

AbortionFavors 

Gay rightsFavors 

Marital statusIs with his third wife. Has had numerous affairs.  

Religious statusCatholic.  

Other remarksOut of all the republican candidates Mr. Giuliani is my least favorite. I have no idea why this guy calls himself a Republican.  

 

 

 

Mitt Romney 

AbortionAgainst 

Gay rightsAgainst 

Marital status1^st wife. No affairs that I’ve been able to find out about 

Religious statusMormon 

Other remarksHe’s Mormon, but at least he has values [unlike others] 

 

 

 

 

Sam Brownback 

AbortionAgainst 

Gay rightsAgainst 

Marital status1^st wife 

Religious statusConservative evangelical  

Other remarksSam who? As much as I like this guy [and I really do], he really has no chance of winning. He’s a nobody.  

 

 

 

 

All other republicans [some good some bad] that have filed with the FEC are two obscure to get elected and thus are not going to be mentioned here. 

 

 

 

Not filed with the FEC 

 

 

 

Newt Gingrich [my dad’s favorite choice]  

 

AbortionAgainst [I believe]* 

Gay rightsAgainst [I believe]* 

Marital statusLives with his third wife. Has had at least one affair. His third wife is 20 years younger than him. He has [supposedly] repented to God of his divorce record.   

Religious statusChristian 

Other remarksGingrich verbally expresses his Christian beliefs, he also votes conservatively, but when it comes to his personal life, Gingrich is far from squeaky clean.  

 

 

 

Fred
Dalton Thompson 

AbortionAgainst 

Gay rightsAgainst 

Marital status2^nd wife 

Religious statusProtestant [I don’t know much about that though] 

Other remarksOne too keep an eye on. He’s an actor so he might have enough support to pull off a win. 

 

* = I’m not totally positive 

 

 

 

What about other parties? 

 

 

DemocratSo what if an ultra liberal Republican was chosen to run? Would I consider voting for a moderate Democrat instead? No. The president of the United Sates appoints lots of people like his cabinet, new Supreme Court judges, and others. If a Republican is elected he will likely appoint fellow Republicans who are more than likely more conservative than the average Democrat.  

 

 

Third partiesThird party candidates sound good, but don’t waste your vote. 3^rd parties haven’t come close to winning in forever and it doesn’t look like they will anytime soon. Don’t waster your vote! Pick what you consider to be the lesser of the two evils.  

 

 

Conclusion/My choice 

 

  So who do I want the Republican’s to nominate? Mitt Romney. At least that’s my opinion right now. But what about the fact that he’s a Mormon? Yes he may be Mormon, but at least he has values, which can’t be said about the other two Republican front-runners. However, there’s lots of time before the nominations. Look for Fred
Dalton Thompson. He might be an interesting choice, but I haven’t been able to find a whole lot about him. If Mr. Brownback could get the support he’s for sure be my number one choice, but I fear he’s too conservative/unknown to get elected. Newt Gingrich has supposedly “repented of his ways,” but I’m not totally convinced. His record seams embracing for a Christian.   

    So there you have it. That’s some of the facts and some of my opinion on the Republican candidates so far. It doesn’t look all that pretty, especially with Giuliani and McCain in the lead. Just remember to pray about this. Yah it seams way early, but still pray. This is going to be a very important election.