Table Flipping

For the next little while at Quest (youth group) we are looking at the Gospel of John. We have been at this for three weeks or so now, and we just looked at the story where Jesus clears out the temple. You know the story; Jesus comes into town at Passover, takes a look around at the temple, he sees the money changers and the offering sellers have set up shop in the courtyard. Jesus gets mad, very mad, he flips tables, and drives the livestock out of the area with a home made whip shutting down operations at least for a little while.

War on Christmas

September always seems to go by fast. Before I really know what is going on it is October. Now it may seem early but the talk in my house has begun about Christmas. We are trying to sort out who is buying for who, where Christmas dinner will be held and who we expect to attend. Just the other day my wife arrived home with the first Christmas gift of the year, a book for my son.

Investing

It has only been relatively recently that I started working at a 'real' job. One that could be rightly called my career, that pays me a wage I can live on. So my wife and I decided we needed to do two things; one we needed to start an RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) for ourselves and two we needed to start an RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan) for our son. In short we got into the investment market. I am putting money aside, the bank is doing something with it with the goal to make more money. That is probably not the most intelligent description of investment that you have seen but that is more or less my understanding of what is going on.

Worship Wars 1

What do you think about when you read the phrase worship war? I suspect you think of what might be better call Christianities battle of the bands. There is a music style war going on in many churches. Some like the classic old hymns other prefer chorus' while others like whatever the new song is produced by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Hillsong, or their clones. That worship war is not what I am talking about. I would like to suggest that the music style wars are not really a worship war at all, instead it is a front, a battle, in a much large, much more serious war.

Believers and Practitioners

Do you remember the first Mac vs. PC ads that came out? I thought they were fresh, kind of clever, and really gave that feeling that somehow only nerds used PC’s. They caught on and become an instant hit. They became just the sort of thing that Christian culture likes to emulate... badly.

And If Necessary, Use Words

Perhaps because I am still new blogging I find myself doing two things. One checking my stats like a mad man, just wondering if someone might have stumbled on my blog, and two I try to convince my wife to read whatever I have written. The first is easy, I just click a button. The second task has proved a little harder.

Just Words?

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me". Who hasn't said this at least once on the play ground? Saying words will never hurt me is the premier way to tell someone the mean things they are saying does not matter to you. Of course if I had to guess I would say 8/10 times this rhyme is rattled off the words are in fact hurting you. They are cutting right down to the bone and you yelp out this little mantra to keep from crying as you run off. We all learned by the time we were 10 that words matter, and there is little comfort in the phrase 'they were just words'.

Setting fires for God?

This is not what I had planned to write about today. But it caught my eye in the news and I just needed to comment. The whole concept of a church having an annual tradition of Koran burning is just unbelievable. The audacity of Pastor Terry Jones is even more mind-boggling. His statement here says it all to me "Once in awhile, you see that in the Bible, there are instances where enough is enough and you stand up." This is true of course. Well maybe it is better to say there is a half truth in this statement. I just wish Pastor Terry here went on to give an example of one of those times so I could better understand how he saw the actions of his church fitting into the redemption story.

Stop Going to Church and Be The Church

I might as well be upfront about this, I have a number of pet peeves word usage-wise. I am sure if I ever sat down and made an all inclusive list of my communication pet peeves I would realize I really have earned the affectionate nickname my wife's steps siblings gave me; GP i.e.Grammar police. That being said here is my top 5 list;