I remember back in 1979 watching in amazement as my uncle, six years older than me, hooked up a device to his television and flipped the switch.  Channel 4 became a video game.  Pong was the start of a new revolution, the video game revolution.  With Wii, Madden 09, Playstation 3 and many flavors of Mario games flooding the market, we sure have come a long way from Pong.

But recently I heard that a guy named Moritz Waldemeyer designed a pong table that uses 2400 LEDs and two touchpads.  When the table, which by the way looks like a normal dinner table, is turned on, it becomes a pong table.  You control your paddle with the touch pad and the ball travels back and forth along the LEDs.  WOW!  It’s not likely this game will make it to market but I am sure there will be many hard core video enthusiasts that will put down Halo 3 for a few minutes just to say they played Pong on a pong table.

I wonder if it makes that annoying sound……Booop…….Booop………..Boop……… Bong……..Score 1-0

Raise your hand if you are proud to live in a country that has rights like we have in the first amendment?  All Americans, hands up now.  You Canadians too.  In particular I want to talk about the freedom of the press right now.  It’s absolutely fantastic that we have a freedom like this however I hate what it has become.  My brother right now is probably thinking I am going to bash the “liberal media” but thank goodness because of FoxNews I don’t have to call them that.  That comment was for you bro.

I am sick of how the media tries to control our lives or rather I am sick of how people allow the media to control their lives. That’s probably what I should be saying here.  Let God be the Lord of your life.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6).  Do you remember right after 9/11/01 when the media convinced us that Al Qaeda was going to detonate a dirty bomb?  People were buying duct tape and plastic wrap to wrap up their homes.  A few years ago it was the bird flu and people were worried sick about getting the deadly Avian flu.  It had never mutated to infect humans, but with every dead bird that had mistakenly crashed into a clean window, people were calling health departments all over the nation.  Where is it now?  Not a word.

Now the big media push is high gas prices.  When prices were 2.50 a gallon, they were saying $5 was coming.  Now that we are near $4 and over in some states, they are saying 10-12 dollars is coming.  I even heard an estimate of $16/gallon and as much as $500/bbl.  WHATEVER!!!!!!!!!!  WAKE UP AMERICA!  Seriously, it is time to tell the media to get real and stop feeding us this line of nonsense.  We may hit $5 a gallon but I highly doubt we will see $6.  We may see $200/bbl, I don’t know.  But there’s no likely possibility it would hit $500.  Who would buy it?

Don’t get me wrong, gas prices are nonsensical and definitely hurting the US economy that is already in a huge downward spiral.  I don’t know if we are in a recession or on the brink of depression or even just in a slight slump. I don’t know and I don’t care. I have changed my plans accordingly but I won’t let the media try to scare me and get me to click on links that drive up advertising costs by getting a lot of hits on websites.

So what will be next?  Will they tell us that the Jews own the temple mount once again and have setup an altar?  Oh wait, I forgot, that will definitely happen sometime.

I don’t know what will be next, but the media will find something to talk about for weeks and get people scared and then when it never comes to fruition, they will find another thing to talk about.

The apostle Paul had a good life.  He was well respected and highly esteemed among his companions but he considered it all worth nothing compared to living a life for Christ.  He was ridiculed, scorned, beaten and imprisoned for following the Son of God.  But he didn’t care about this life, he cared only about the one he was serving, Almighty God.

In Acts 20:24 he says “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

It’s hard to imagine coming to a point like that in your life.  We have way too much to attract our attention these days but what joy it is to give it all up to serve Christ and serve Him alone.

I am in awe at the speed a young lady can throw a 12″ sphere. I am talking about Fastpitch Softball and the college tournament games that were played this past weekend and the championship that will be played Thursday.  I remember when I was young, girls played baseball if they wanted to play ball and when I turned 12, a softball field was built and girls softball was born in that league.  It had been around in other cities, I am sure, but not my hometown.  The speed and accuracy with which girls pitch these days however is amazing.  I have heard that a softball coming at you from 40 feet at 60mph is equivalent to a hardball from 90 feet coming at 100mph.  The shorter distance gives it a little more feeling of being fast.

But fastpitch softball is not the only thing that has advanced in recent years.  Technology is advancing at an extremely fast rate.  Almost like a fastpitch softball, it is so fast.  Recently I watched the first season of 24, fox’s hit show that is played out in realtime with each episode being one hour in the day.  The technology they used the show was probably top of the line when the show first came out but who uses an Erickson phone anymore or an IBM Thinkpad.  How about a wired earpiece for your cell phone?  Not one person had a camera phone either.  It’s almost laughable now to watch. It’s like watching an episode of Hawaii Five-O in 1990.  Or the original star-trek in 1985.

There is a prophecy in Daniel 12 that seems to fit this fast paced technological era.  “People will travel back and forth and knowledge will increas”  That prophecy can be taken many ways, but many suggest it is being fullfilled in our lifetime with the increase in travel with airlines and the ever changing technology of computers and handheld electronics.  Just today Apple announced they are seeking a patent for solar based handhelds.  What’s new today is old in a week or two.  It’s amazing.

But one thing that never gets old and never changes and is always the same yesterday, today and forever is Jesus Christ. He was, is and will be forever the savior of all mankind.

I hope you enjoyed this first post in the new category called Crossover.  Crossover is for the posts that touch on the Cross and dotnet aspects of this blog.  Look for more crossover articles in the future.

I am not sure where you live, but where I live, this 25th day of May is only the fifth or sixth day this month without rain.  It is nice to have a sunny day and on a holiday weekend too.  As I was driving to the church where I was filling in to preach this morning, I noticed something I had not noticed the last few times I had been there; There are lots of trees along the way.

This got me thinking about the intricacies of God’s creation.  He has put the world in motion so that these trees that seemingly go unnoticed in the winter becuase there are no leaves and no birds singing in them suddenly spring forth with new life every year at this time.  I then paused and thanked God for the rain that He had sent.  We surely needed it to see the real beauty of His creation, life.  Yes, the trees and birds and creatures that walk on all fours are beautiful creations but they are just reminders of the greater creation, that of life itself.

I don’t mean human lives becuase we are a broken people and our lives are less than good. I mean the beauty of restored life.  What was dead in the winter is now alive in the spring and for us a life that was dead in our sins is now alive in Christ.  That’s a beautiful thing.

I read today that Iranian president Achma-genocide or however you say his name announced that his first nuclear reactor will be online in September 2008.  I read thins on worldnet daily and I didn’t try to verify the sources, but they are typically pretty accurate.  It made me think of the Luke 21:20 when Jesus speaks of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies.  Now, I highly doubt that come September we will see this prophecy being fulfilled but it would not surpise me to see it in my lifetime and I am 38 and plan on living for a while.  I am not sure what God’s plans are however.

But it also got me thinking about God more.  He’s completely in control of this entire situation.  I never lived through WW2 but I imagine at times it may have seemed the world was out of control and many may have wondered where God was.  Then in November 1947 UN resolution 181 was voted on and passed and a six months later David Ben Guiron announced that the nation of Israel was reborn and that Jerusalem belonged to the world.  I wonder if people stopped saving for retirement on that day?  But Jesus told us that His return was going to be a long time in coming.  Why?  Because God has plans and they will be done.  He spoke to the prophets and He fulfilled His words.  He has been around from the beginning and will be around until the end.  Think about that.  Think of someone that you know that was around in 1948.  God was there.  Now think of someone born in this century.  God was there for that recent birth.

God was also with the soldiers that fought in the Civil war.  He was at the signing of the Magna Carta and witnessed Caesar being stabbed by his friends and enemies.  God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden.  WOW!  Nothing surprises Him.  This news today surprised me a bit. I thought it would be December before we heard the news and 2009 before the reactor was online.

But then again, it’s only May, almost June and September is still a few months off.  Who knows, maybe Putin will be officially the czar of Russia by then and maybe, just maybe, Hillary Clinton will have given up by then.  I doubt that one too.  I think she will go the polls in November and ask why her name is not on the ballot.

I hope today, as you read this, you do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.  God’s in control and He knows how many hairs are on your head and He knows how to protect you and keep you safe too.  Be blessed this day.

There is an old hymn that reminds us to count our blessings and name them one by one.  This is a good practice becuase it reminds us of what God has done for us.  There are other events in our lives that remind us what God has done for us, both good and bad,  and sometimes the tragedy of others reminds us too.

Wednesday night, May 21, 2008, well known Christian singer and songwriter, Stephen Curtis Chapman, lost his adopted daughter Maria to a tragic accident.  In times like this we are reminded of how fragile and precious life is.  One moment the family is preparing for the graduation of one child and the next moment they are preparing to bury another.

God has given us a wonderful gift by giving us life on this planet He created.  But this life is short compared to the eternal life He has promised.  Yes, we will all meet Maria some day and maybe she can tell us the story of how the song “Cinderella” came to be as it was written about her.

Please join me in praying for and lifting up the Chapman family and other families that have recently lost loved ones.  The void that fills a life after a death can only be filled properly by God’s loving touch.  May it be so with the Chapmans as well.

In 1993, a coworker of mine showed me this new progam called Mosaic.  He said with it, he could access the World Wide Web.  I said “The world wide what?” He chuckled and began to explain hypertext markup language or HTML.  The very first web site my I laid my eyes upon was www.wvu.edu and all it had was a bunch of text links.  It was the website for his alma matter and according to him, one of the first colleges with a website.  I find that hard to believe, but it made him feel good.

15 years have past since then and there are far more websites today than there were back then.  With technology comes power and influence for many and especially the enemy.  Not just satan but then enemy within, the flesh.  The world wide web can be a fantastic place to read Christian articles or it can be a place that can destroy a Christian.  It can be a place for people to discuss their faith on a message board or blog and it can be a place where people can share sinful desires like a chat room or pornographic picture site.

You can broadcast yourself on youtube or you can find not so tasteful videos as well.  (However I understand youtube has a pretty good policy against extremely explicity material.  Bonus points for them).  You can read online Bibles or  you can find a site that tries to explain why the Bible is not real.

So as Christians, what are we to do?  The temptation can be strong to just go somewhere we ought not to go.  But God has given us a way out.  It’s called choice.  We can choose to obey, or we can choose to follow the flesh.  It’s so incredibly simple, it’s amazing.  What’s not so incredibly simple for some is choosing to follow God rather than the flesh.

If you eat less, you lose weight.  If you lift weights, you get stronger.  If you pray daily that God lead you, you become spiritually stronger.  If you don’t feed the sinful desires, you desire them less and less.

If you struggle with any kind of sin today, I pray that you will take a moment to ask God to help you overcome.  When the temptation is greatest because you are at your weakest, that is when God is the strongest.  That’s when you need to turn to Him and He will give you peace that passes all understanding.

Today was a bad day for oil.  The oil futures market soared this to new record highs yesterday and that means higher gas prices for us.  I went to work this morning with the local gas station at $3.89 a gallon and left work 8 hours later with it at $3.99. I expect by Friday it will be at least $4.09 and maybe even higher.  I used to complain as it inched toward $3 a gallon but I would be elated if it were anywhere near that today.

Hold On - It’s only going to get worse.  I read an article today, sorry I don’t recall now where, it was on Drudge, that said wells are just drying up.  The wold’s producers are pumping 85 million barrels a day but the demand right now is 87 million.  The math is pretty easy.  We don’t have enough to meet our demands right now.

Hold Fast - Remember that God knows our needs and our desires too.  He knows we have to labor for a living and we have to travel to the grocery store but do we need to take that trip to Myrtle Beach or go to the drive in on Friday night? I don’t know about all of you, but I am doing some serious re-evaluating of my lifestyle and have been for several months now.  Actually about a year ago I told a friend of mine that I feared the US economy was in for some serious trouble.  I am not an economist, I didn’t calculate this.  But I looked around me, saw the declining dollar and rising oil prices and knew it wasn’t going to stop.  Hold fast to what you have in your relationship with God.  It’s the only thing that won’t increase in price in the coming months and years.

Have Faith - What more can I say?  If you have a weak faith, pray for it to be stronger.  If you feel burdened by life, let God know.  If you are not sure what faith is, keep reading here and find someone that does know and talk to them about it.  Stop hiding and have faith.  This may be a time we will get through or it very well may be the birth pangs Christ talked about in Matthew 24.  Either way, have faith.

We will get through it all with God’s help and only with God’s help.  I don’t say that because I think it is hopeless, I am not there yet.  In fact, I will never feel anything is hopeless because we have God. What I mean is the best way out of any bad situation is through your faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Pray today.  Pray everyday.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not let them be afraid.

Tall or short, thin or heavy, blonde or brunette, black or white, young or old, it doesn’t matter.  We are all different in many ways but in one way we are exactly the same.  We are human beings that have been created in the likeness of the man that was created in the image of God.  We all have a heart, a brain, a liver and we all breathe oxygen.  There is no one alive that can say they are different in that regard.  What makes us different makes us unique and individuals.  What makes us the same should be what binds us together.  We may not agree on which days should be special or what foods to eat or what words to say in a prayer.  But if we believe in Jesus Christ as the only means by which a human being can be in the presence of God for eternity, then we are bound by one common thread: The gift of faith given by God through His unending grace and mercy.  That is one bond that no man can break and no one should ever try to dispute.  Paul reminds us of this in Romans 15:5-6

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We may be different, but we should never let our differences work to destroy the spirit of unity that we share through the Holy Spirit of God.  For there is one God, one faith, one baptism and one Lord over all.  For there is no other name by which man may be saved.