It wasn’t that long ago was it?  You know, when PC Computing magazine announced a breakthrough technology that would put an end to the VHS tape?  It was the early nineties.  Ok, I guess it was that long ago when you are talking about technology.  But it seems just months before reading about the advent of the DVD for data storage and movie marketing, I was reading how CD burners were now burning at speeds of 6X.  WOW!  I never imagined they would really burn that fast.  But I guess if I go back to my college years, I could tell you about the guy down the hall from me in the dorm that had an 80286 intel processor.  Now, I was jealous of that.

Children these days probably don’t even know there was at one time a thing known as a monochrome monitor.  I have to admit too that I am not old enough to remember programming with punch cards.  Thank goodness for that one.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with technology as it changes at near light speed.

My daughter recently said she had saved some money and wanted to buy something expensive.  I said “How about a stereo.  When I was your age, I bought one with the money I saved…” I went to explain how big the speakers were and how it had two cassette tape decks and a phonograph on top, but no CD player because they had not come out yet.  She looked at me, tilted her head and said “Why would I want that? I have an iPOD. “  Oh yeah, mp3 files now.  Who needs cassette tapes, 45s and CDs.  I still have my hundreds of 45s somewhere in my basement.  Probably with my 100 or so cassette tapes.  The kids probably don’t even know what they are.

Someday I will have grandchildren and I bet they will look at the phone I have plugged into the wall and ask why my phone has a wire or ask why my television is so deep and not hanging on the wall.  Who knows though, maybe they will ask me why I haven’t purchased a transporter or tricorder yet.

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith (Romans 1:17)

When my youngest child was six months old, she had a coarctation of the aorta and had to have surgery to have it repaired.  This is a narrowing of the aorta and can cause death if it is not corrected.  Typically it is found in the first few days of life.  For her, it was found in the fifth month of life.  We received a call 1 month after her sixth birthday from the surgeon that did her coarctation repair.  He said she would need another surgery, this time open heart surgery.

If you have children, you know how agonizing it can be to hear those words.  I remember just going outside and crying and asking God why someone so little had to have such an adult operation.  I was worried, but then God reminded me what faith really is.  Faith is the first action in the heart.  F A I T H.  There are many things in this life that build our faith and many things that cause our faith to waver, but it always takes place first in the heart.  Jesus told us that it was not what went into our bodies that made us unclean, it was what came out of hearts that made us unclean.  Our hearts, be it the physical pump in our chests or be it the sybmollism of our spirit, are what make us or break us.  Our hearts keep us alive and our hearts can be what cause our deaths.  Jesus wants to be in your heart.  Not so you can say a prayer and claim to be a Christian, he wants to be in your heart so that He can make a difference in your life.  He can change your heart and open it up to a world you never knew existed. He’s knocking, standing at the door.  Won’t you let Him in?

Years after my daughter’s heart surgery, she is vibrant and full of energy.  The surgeon changed her heart the first time, but some day when she grows up and accepts Christ as her savior, He will change her Heart forever.

In case you haven’t heard, today is the day Bill Gates will step down as being Microsoft’s chairman.  He and Paul Allen started the company back in the late seventies when they paid some kid $50,000 for a program called DOS, Disk Operating System.  I remember thinking in college that DOS was all that.  But one of my professors informed me that compared to UNIX or DB/2, DOS was small potatoes.  Not even registering on the radar.  But that was back in the days of mainframes and the PC revolution was just beginning.

Bill Gates is a genius, there is no doubt about it.  He built an empire but like all political empires, his computer empire was attacked and it seems may be slowly starting to fade as did the Roman empire.  Google is king in the search engine arena.  Mac and Linux are taking OS market shares and FireFox hands down kicks IE’s butt.

Whoever takes over for Microsoft has some shoes to fill that 12 men could probably not fill.  But they will try and Windows will still be the top selling operating system for now and along with that it will be the most attacked desktop operating system for many more years to come.  Maybe somewhere out there though, there is another pirate in the silicone valley looking for an unsuspecting programmer that he can purchase the next big breakthrough off of with little capital.  Until then, we will continue to love and hate windows.  But as for Bill, love or hate him, he has changed the world with his ideas.  Good Luck Mr. Gates, you’ve certainly earned the early retirement.

I heard recently that the king of Jordan said that peace between the palestinians and Israel is the biggest threat to peace in the middle East and the world in general more so than Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  He also said that if peace is not obtained by the end of 2009, it will likely never happen.  He says time is running out.

So now this begs the question “Is this possibly going to be the seven year agreement of Daniel chapter 9?”  We don’t know for sure.  I have my opinion and I will share that with you some day in the future but not today.  Let’s say though that a deal is struck sometime next year and it turns out to be a seven year deal and it is between Israel and Palestine and someone brokers the deal.  Would you consider it could be the beginning of the final seven years of this earth?

Personally, I think you would be foolish to not consider it.  I am not saying this is it or it will be the time we have all eagerly tried to figure out but if you don’t consider anything that happens these days seriously, you should.  We are living in the end times.  Why do I say this?  Because Jesus told us that if the master of the house knew what time the thief was coming, he would be ready for him.  We don’t know the exact day or hour that Jesus will return, but He did tell us to watch for Him and He could be returning soon.  Even if there is not a peace agreement next year or even if they strike one up today, you should be ready and watching.

No one knows for sure what tomorrow brings.  Only God knows when this treaty will be made but we all know that someday a treaty or covenant will be established and it will be broken and we know that prior to this there will be many birth pangs like floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, famines, wars, pestilence, etc.  These days may be birth pangs, I think they are.  But they may pass just as the great depression passed and WW1 and WW2 passed.  But regardless, Jesus said be ready.  Are you ready?

Ooops!  When I switched hosting companies, I didn’t realize that anyone that registered a username back when i started this site lost their username.  If you want, you can register again.  Remember you need to register a username to post a comment to any post that is posted here.

EDIT: This passage was edited at 9:20am EDT. If you read it prior to this time, please read again. All that was changed was some of my cynicism was removed.

I am sure you have heard the buzz about Dr. James Dobson speaking out against Senator Barack Obama’s comments given in a speech in 2006 to an evangelical group. If you haven’t here’s a link with all the buzz. I am not sure how long that link will be good so if you are not reading this within a period of a couple weeks of the post, the link may not be good.

I need to speak up now and say that I mostly agreed with Dr. Dobson. However his comment that “Obama should not be referencing antiquated dietary codes and passages from the Old Testament that are no longer relevant to the teachings of the New Testament.” is treading a thin line that I feel the church has traditionally taught incorrectly.

In all fairness to Dr. Dobson, I don’t know what he meant by that comment. But my guess is probably accurate that he agrees with most evangelicals when he says that God declared unclean animals are now clean foods. I am sorry to say that I disagree with this 100%. Also the term antiquated in referring to passages from the Old Testament is extremely dangerous too.

Oh how I wish I had time to go over it all. Let me hit the highlights. God never changes. People change, but God doesn’t change. If God were to repeal his laws, He would have said “NO LONGER DO YOU OBEY THIS COMMANDMENT” or something clear like that. To get from teachings in the new testament that God said eating shellfish or pork is acceptable takes a lot of squeezing of the lemon. It’s just not there. So what then can we say about Romans 14? Some say that Paul says we can eat whatever we want. No, Paul says don’t judge someone based on what he or she eats. I don’t eat pork, don’t call me Jewish because of it and I won’t call you a heathen for eating it. The anatomy of a pig, created by God, along with snakes, rats, bats, vultures, dogs, rabbits, raccoons, cats, and other non food animals is such that they should not be consumed by humans. God didn’t change the anatomy of a pig. He declared it unclean and never made it clean. This uncleanliness is not ceremonial in respect to what Christ’s sacrifice did for our lives. It is unclean in regards to being not something we should eat. Just like we shouldn’t eat wood or metal. It’s just not good for us.

Mark 7:19 is a common passage used for those that declare God changed. If you want to eat it, I will not judge you for this. That’s a matter of faith for you and I won’t stand in your way, however I do not feel that the Bible indicates that Jesus declared all foods clean. All foods were already clean so whomever added that passage to the original manuscript must not have realized this. (If you check your Bible, you should be able to determine that this passage was not in the original transcripts) Pork was never food. By definition food is clean. Let’s look at Leviticus 11 now. God is speaking of what can be eaten and also speaking about ceremonial cleanliness which was a shadow of Christ’s cleanliness for sacrifice that was to come. There are two different thoughts being carried on here. What we can eat and what makes us ceremonial clean or unclean. Now Jesus reminded us that we are clean if we have faith in Him, we no longer need to worry about being unclean, but Jesus never said pork and shellfish are clean now.

I have often heard some Christians suggest that Peter’s vision in Acts 10 can be interpreted to suggest that God was telling him all animals can be eaten. I believe in context, God was declaring to Peter that the Gentiles have been declared clean through Christ’s sacrifice as were the Jews. I don’t believe this is suggesting that it is a good idea to eat a rat or a snake.

But all I ask of you or Mr. Dobson or anyone that is a brother or sister of mine in Christ, please consider what God was telling us and try to not consider church tradition in determining what you eat. Church tradition doesn’t necessarily mean God’s true intentions.

Please just consider it. I may be wrong, but I may be right.

It was the early eighties and I was in 8th grade.  It was the last period of the day in school and I had industrial arts.  My favorite project that year was the screwdriver that we made in metal shop. I remember the teacher not only telling us but showing us that if we didn’t temper the screwdriver properly, it would not be useful.  We had to heat it up first and forge it into shape.  Then we had to cool it off and heat it again but this time not so it was red hot and quickly cool it off.

It was fun but at that time I had no idea what a life lesson was being taught.  This is what God does to us.  He allows us to be tempered by allowing trials, temptations, and tribulations into our lives.  He then quickly cools us off and the result is something as sharp as iron.  If God didn’t cool us off at the right point, we would be like the screwdriver, brittle and weak.

So take James’ advice: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:2-4)

1 Peter 4:10-11

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Not everyone can sit with someone that is suffering and offer comfort.  Not everyone can preach a sermon that converts 10s or 100s or 1000s.  Not everyone is meant to hear and perfectly understand the word of God without doubts or questions.  Each of us has a special gift from God and some have more than one.  Whatever your gift is, use it in God’s strength and with His leading.  If you are not sure what your gift is.  Just ask, He will tell you.  If we who are sinful would not give our children a snake if they asked for bread, how much more will God give to us if we ask of Him?

Do you listen to talk radio? Watch television? Read internet blogs? Well, of course you do, you are reading this blog right now. These things are not bad, but too often the people behind them have an agenda and subtly get a following and sometimes without even realizing it, change elements of society.

Have you heard the term “Liberal Media”. I am sure you have and I may even have used it before on this blog. Is the media liberal? As a majority, they may be. I am not sure, but this term is a term used by not liberal people to turn some away from the mainstream media. Rush Limbaugh calls them the drive by media.

I recently heard a talk show host refer to people with concern for the environment as “Environmental Psychos”. But I also heard a liberal television news anchor claim that the years of Republican rule of congress was the beginning of the end of our current way of life. Come on everyone. Let’s think for ourselves. I am not telling you to stay away from talk radio or television news programs and certainly not blogs, but please think for yourself. I don’t mean to put yourself first. I mean by saying think for yourself to allow God to lead your thoughts and guide your steps, not anyone else. People spend lots of money studying people and devising what words to say to convince you to buy their product or vote for their candidate. As the election season heats up, please just think for yourselves.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ time convinced the people to think like them and Jesus came to correct that thinking. Will it take Him coming again to correct our splintered and broken thinking?  Probably.

A few years ago, I planted a garden.  By late July/early August I noticed a strange phenomenon occurring.  The crops in the middle of the garden were taller and more fruitful than the crops on the edges of the garden.  I noticed this one night while watering the garden.  This was a year that we had very little rain.  In fact, I only cut my grass once between June 30 and August 15.  So watering the garden was the only way to make it grow.

I soon realized why the crops in the center were taller.  My hose would only reach to about 10 feet in front of the garden.  As I watered, I tried to get water to the opposite edge but I couldn’t get it there as much and actually most of the water fell in the center as I tried to angle the fountain toward the outside edge.  I also did not water the closer edge well because I had to use a lot of pressure and I didn’t want to destroy the crops so I let up a little on the edges as well.  As a result, the crops in the center got most of the water and grew better.

Do you see the parallel with life here?  When churches witness or reach out, too often we don’t want to polarize those close to us within the church because we need the numbers and we need the tithes so we don’t pressure them and we may hold back a little.  Then there are people that in our minds, we consider being too far out there and therefore may throw some water toward them but rarely take time to really help.  We focus our energy on those in the center and as a result, we have churches with some growth in the center but we can’t seem to get the fringe crops to grow.  If we would take time to witness to those closest to us and also those far from us, we would have a stronger healthier garden.