My 2010 Book Review!

So, I thought I would try something different right now. Lot's of people are starting to get resoultions ready, and looking back on their year. I thought I would look back on my year too...but I'm going to focus on the books that I read in the past 12 months during the year of 2010. I will give my review of the book, and a score out of 10 for that particular book.
Chances are, I am going to forget a book or two that I read, and there is also a good chance that one or two of the books I mention here will have actually been read by me at the end of 2009...but oh well. These are in no particular order:

1) Son of Hamas (Mosab Hassan Yousef)- This book was, simply, AMAZING! It's a story about the son of one of the people that started the terrorist organization Hamas. Incredible events, well written, and really gives a fresh new, REAL perspective on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. This guy went from Hamas, to working as a collaborater for Israel to becoming a Christian. He is now in hiding in the U.S. I bought this book on Thursday, and it was finished by Friday night. The deduction is because sometimes the names got confusing (not his fault as it's his true, life story...but made it kind of hard to fully grasp everything sometimes). 9.5/10

2) Gone, Baby, Gone (Dennis Lehane)- A real page-turner. It's the story of 2 detectives, who are reluctant to take on the case of a missing infant, but when they do the stakes get high and more and more questions are raised, with less answers being given. Lehane is the author of Shutter Island and Mystic River (both to be reviewed later). While this one is better than Mystic River, it falls short of Shutter Island. Overall tho, a great read. 9/10

3) The Town (originally published as Prince of Thieves, Chuck Hogan)- As I read this book, I couldn't get Eminem's song "I'm Not Afraid" out of my head...as it is the theme song of the movie trailer (which apparantly isn't in the actual movie). An incredible story of bank robbers in Charlestown, one of which falls in love with one of the people that they robbed. It has romance, action, some humour, a bit of mystery...it was a great read and was definately better than the movie (although the movie was pretty freakin awesome too!). 9/10

4) Jesus Want to Save Christians (Rob Bell)- I am a big Rob Bell fan, and this book does not disappoint. He writes in his classic style of short, often incomplete sentences...and it reads like his NOOMA videos. He raises excellent questions about the church, while going through the story of Israel. 8.5/10

5) The Rainmaker (John Grisham)- A typical Grisham novel...about a lawyer. This one is all about insurance fraud. If I were to tell you that a book about lawyers and Insurance Fraud would be good, you probably wouldn't believe me...but you should. It's not the best Grisham, but it is good enough to read quite quickly. 8.5/10

6) The Broker (John Grisham)- I was really excited to read this one, about a notorious broker who gets pardoned by the president, in a plot to get him assasinated. It sounded like it would be action packed...but in typical Grisham fashion, the real action doesn't start until three-quaters of the way through the book. It had it's moments, but it was far less then I expected. 6/10

7) The Guinea Pig Diaries (A.J. Jacobs)- This was another book I was really excited to read, and once again minor disappointment ensued. I say minor, because each chapter in this book is a different 'experiment' that Jacobs puts himself through, such as being 100% honest all the time, outsourcing his life, and doing only 1 thing at a time. Some chapters were great, others were ok and a few weren't as good as they could have been. After hearing reviews about his other books, especially "The Year of Living Biblically", I was really excited for this one. Too bad it wasn't as good as it had the potential to be. 6.5/10

8) Boneman's Daughters (Ted Dekker)- For being a Christian Novel, this one was really good (Did that sound cynical?). It kind of had a "Kiss the Girls" type feel (the movie with Morgan Freeman..check it out, it's a good one), and was a good page-turning thriller. I like that Dekker doesn't use this novel to preach at us, as other Christian novelists often attempt to do (even he does in some other books...more on that later as well). A decent 8/10

9) Plan B (Pete Wilson)- I read this book when I was going through a phase about what Faith is. This book was exactly what I needed to read. He talks about when life throws us unforseeable curveballs. When our Plan A becomes a Plan B or C. He uses real life stories, and has some great points. A good book to read for anyone going through a Plan B in life, or who knows someone who is. 9/10

10) The Summons (John Grisham)- 2 brothers, a father's will, and a big secret. This one isn't as much of a legal thriller as other Grisham novels, which is a nice change. It still has lawyer-esque elements to it, but it stays out of the coutroom. Surprisingly good story, typically well-written, and nice shocking moments throughout. 8/10

11) Blessed Child (Ted Dekker)- One of Dekker's first, and not one of his best. It's about a child who has a special connection with God. It has the cheesy Christian novel feel to it, almost to the point of frustration. A few action packed moments wasn't enough to save this one. Sorry Dekker fans, this one is a 5/10

12) The Street Lawyer (John Grisham)- Not very action packed, but packed with heart. Grisham takes on the homeless situation, and he does it in a profound, almost tear-jerking way (yes...I think I teared up a little in this one). This book inspires me to want to get out and DO something...which is rare for a novel. 9/10

13) The Pelican Brief (John Grisham)- Let's get my last Grisham novel of the year out of the way. This one was good. Excitement, explosions, intrigue. Not much to say, other then Classic Grisham. 8.5/10

14) Deadline (Randy Alcorn)- I did a whole blog on this book (and not in a good way) a while ago. This one takes Christian Fiction cheesiness to a while other level. This book comes in 3 parts, the main story about a murder (which was good), a characters experience in heaven (unnecessary and complete b.s.), and Alcorn's stance on abortion. To say that I felt preached at would be a huge understatement. 3/10

15) Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane)- Words can't express how much I loved this book. Just hands down, one of the best works of fiction I have ever read. Chilling, exciting, very well written. Just an amazing novel from beginning to end. The only reason I am giving it the score I am is because I somewhat predicted the ending. I fit could have actually surprised me in the end, it would be a full on 10. 9.5/10

16) Adam (Ted Dekker)- This book started well...with a serial killer. Then it turned into a weird "kill me so i can get a near death experience" book (The main character dies about 3 times in this one). And then, if that wasn't enough, it turns into an Exorcist type book...which wasn't what I expected when I read the last few chapters while in bed ready to go to sleep. Definately not Dekker's best. 4/10

17) The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)- Any book that I use as a discussion starter for my status on Facebook has to be good. Brown delivers another winner. I read this one fast, just like his other ones. Raises great questions about the mind...and the power of prayer. Whether you agree with his stance or not doesn't take away from the exciting story and his amazing writing ability. This one actually did surprise me...so for that, I give it the much awaited and highly anticipated 10/10.

18) O Me of Little Faith (Jason Boyett)- Moving from a Dan Brown novel, to a non-fiction book about doubt. This book was incredible. Had sort of a Donald Miller, Pete Wilson, Rob Bell feel...and was just what I needed to read. It didn't challenge me, as I already agreed with everything in the book...but it did encourage me that I am not alone. A great read for all those who doubt. 10/10

19) Crime and Punishmen (Fyodor Dostoevsky)- My critique with Son of Hamas was that the names were tough at times...that would be an understatement for this one. Not only are the names Russian (such as Raskolnikov)...but Dostoevsky gives each character about 3 or 4 different names throughout the book. The story itself is interesting, and raises ethical questions, but the name issue, and the fact that the book had many slow moving, too-much-detail moments turned this classic into a bore for me. (In fact, this book took me so long to read that Kristi said it was very painful watching me slowly get through it). 3/10

20) Lord of the Flies (William Golding)- I never got the chance to read this one in High School, which disappointed me. I had low expectations for this one, as everyone seemed to hate it that I talked to. But I actually enjoyed it. I mean, it wasn't spectacular...but it was a good read. It took on some very interesting issues, and really brought into question the raw nature of mankind. Plus...who can hate a book with a nerdy kid with "athsmar" named Piggy. 6/10

21) Mystic River (Dennis Lehane)- As I mentioned in the Gone Baby Gone review, this book wasn't as good as his others...which isn't to say that it's not great. It's about 3 boys, one of whom gets kidnapped by perverts. After he returns home, he is different (not Tobey Maguire in "Brothers" different...but different). The story mainly focuses on their adult years...and ties them all into a murder investigation. If you want the best Lehane book, read "Shutter Island", but this one is still great. 8.5/10 (I couldn't give it the same score as a book I said it wasn't as good as).

22) Evil and the Justice of God (N.T. Wright)- No book review would be complete without N.T. Wright to end it off. This was a book I 'read' while at Bethany...but I literally skimmed through it so fast that I didn't remember anything from it. To be honest, I expected a bit more, but at the same time Wright is such an intelligent thinker and writer, that the book was exactly what it should be. Why is there evil in the world? Will it ever end? Great questions, and he does a great job of attempting to give a satisfactory answer to those, and other, questions. 8.5/10

Well...that's my review of the 22 books that I read over the past 12 months. That averages to almost 2 books a month, which I guess is a pretty decent number if I do say so myself. So what do you think? Do you agree with some of my reviews? Was I too harsh on some, too lenient on others? Did I inspire you to read some of these books? What have you read over the past 12 months, and what books should I read in 2011? Let me know. Merry Christmas...and hope you enjoyed this review...and if not, then that's ok too. Blessings everyone, and Happy New year (perhaps a bit early for that...but it's close enough).

Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! And a Merry Xmas to you all as well! What? now your upset at me because I am being rude and inconsiderate to Christians? You think I have taken Christ out of Christmas? Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad? Is that better?
I'm sick of people who get up in arms over taking Christ out of Christmas. Give it a rest people. Seriously...let it go. Here is why I have no problem with the Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays.
1) X is NOT exing out Christ from Christmas. That would look like, "Merry ____mas". The X is an ancient symbol FOR Christ. It's greek. It's a shorthand and a symbol...nothing more, nothing less. Do some people use it to take Christ out of Christmas? Maybe, but the X itself is not an insult to Christians and Jesus...so stop taking offense to it.
2) Christians AREN'T the only people who have a holiday in December. We act is if we own the month, when in fact, we don't. To be honest, Jesus wasn't even born in December (or at least it is very unlikely that he was)...so why do we act as if everything in December is holy? It's a freaking month people...and the 25th was a day chosen because it coincided with an ancient pagan festival, and the winter solstice. What about Hanukkah and Kwanza? Plus countless other festivals and religions who have celebrations around that day? Why do we think that we are better then everyone, and deserve exclusive rights to this day and the traditional greetings of that day.

Let's put ourselves in other peoples shoes for a second. Let's assume that Christians are the minority, and the common holiday is Hanukkah. We still celebrate Christmas, but everyone comes up to us and says, "Happy Hanukkah"...and when we reply with, "Merry Christmas", or "Happy Holidays", they get upset and angry, and tell us that we aren't celebrating the TRUE meaning of the season. How would that make us feel? We are celebrating what WE think is the true meaning of the season, and no one seems to respect or acknowledge it. Same can be said for those who have their own celebrations and festivals around the Christmas season. And what about those who DON'T celebrate it, like Jehovah's Witnesses, and atheists...how do they like having others beliefs thrown intho their face? The truth is...we can't really know what others believe. We don't know who is Jewish, who is Christian, who is muslim, hindu, atheist, jehovah's witness...we can't tell by looking (we can assume in many instances...but we all know what happens when we assume). Which is why Happpy Holidays works well for everyone. Everyone is celebrating some sort of holiday, whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza or just a holiday from work and school. Is it an attack on the Christian faith to be accepting of ALL faiths, beliefs and religions? In fact, I believe it is MORE Christian to be more aware and accepting of others.
Saying Happy Holidays does not take Christ out of Christmas. Santa Clause, Christmas Trees, Presents, Reindeer...those don't take Christ out of Christmas either...what takes Christ out of Christmas is Christians who claim that they are followers of Christ, and yet they don't serve him. They claim that they love God and Jesus...and yet they neglect the poor, needy and homeless. THAT is what is taking Christ out of Christmas. Who cares what greeting we say to eachother. That's my Christmas rant. What do you think? Agree or disagree?
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Merry Xmas, Happy Hanukkah...and to everyone else who I don't know the proper greeting for your celebration, I hope that your celebration is great!

note: I got the idea for this blog from Stephen Colbert, as well as a friend of mine's (Paul Woodburn) blog. So...credit to them!

O Me Of Little Faith

Many of you may not know this, but 2 weeks ago I got a job at the Christian Bookstore in Abbotsford. It's been an amazing experience so far, although I am right now hoping that it won't only be a seasonal job but will instead become a full time thing. Anyway, that's not really the point of this blog...just an update. While on my break at House of James, I have been reading a book that was kept in the staff room called "O Me of Little Faith" by an author named Jason Boyett. I can honestly say that I have never read a book like this. It is refreshing, it is honest and it is funny. Like, laugh out loud funny (and I don't mean that in the lame 'lol' texting/facebook way). But the main thing that is getting me about the book...is how I can relate to almost everything in it. Usually when I read a book, there are a few things that I love, many things that I like and one or two things that I hate and despise...so far, this book has been exactly what I needed to hear (now, I'm not done the book yet, so there may be something coming up that I won't like...but we'll have to see about that). Anyway, so far, here are a 3 of the main points that Boyett makes, that I think are excellent (even though they do push against the Christian norm).
1) People give God too much credit. Now before you rebel against me, and burn every copy of Boyett's books, note that those words are my words and not his. Secondly...let me explain. Boyett talks about people who thank God for a parking space, for sound and video equipment working, for finding a job, for weather...you know the type of thing I'm talking about. What he says is that, he's a logical person. If the sound and video equipment works...it's because the people who made the equipment did a good job. Did God have a hand in it? possibly...but does he deserve ALL the credit for that instance? likely not. Now, this isn't to say that we should never say "Thank God", or pray a prayer of blessing before we eat, or recognize the hand of God in everyday occurances...but I think it's safe to say that God doesn't need to be recognized for everything. First of all, because many things are just natural occurances, or coincidences, and secondly...even if he is involved in all the mundane details of our life, he is big enough and mature enough to not need the credit for everything. He's not that much of an egotist that everything has to be credited to him.
2) Arguing doesn't convert people. I knw there have been many times in my life when I get into a heated argument with someone who believes something different than me, and when the argument is over we are both just frustrated and don't believe anything new. Why do we have this incessant need to always be right? Why do we always have to speak up when something is said that we slightly disagree with? And more importantly, even if what we believe IS right and everyone else is wrong, we still have to treat them with love and respect. The moment we argue with others, we draw a line that says "you are over there, and I am over here. I am right, you are wrong. You have to agree with me". Do you ever notice that when the pharisees wanted to make Jesus look bad, they tried to get into an argument with him? Jesus never went for the bait. Instead, he showed love, respect and had very creative responses to their difficult questions and traps. From what I gather from the Bible, Jesus didn't get into arguments (at least not in an attempt to convert someone). Arguing is ok..there is nothing wrong with a heated argument every once in a while...but arguing doesn't make people believe in God.
3) The Sinner's Prayer is not Biblical. This one will probably cause the most controversy, as it is something we all grew up with. But it's true...where in the Bible does Jesus say, "I am the way, the truth and the life...anyone who wants to see the father must pray a certain prayere with certain words, asking me to come into their hearts and forgive them of all sins". The main problem I have with the sinner's prayer, is that it becomes the end. People pray it, and then move on with their lives...knowing that "Well, I'm good now, God will forgive me and I'm going to heaven. I can do what I want". Perhaps not everyone is like that, but it at least opens that door of possibility. I appreciate that the Sinner's Prayer can be a starting point. A beginning of a journey, it's too bad that it is often portrayed as the destination rather then the starting line. Jesus calls people to be like him, to follow his example, to have faith like a child, to love Him and love others, to put others first, to turn the other cheek, to forgive the unforgivable...he never says that to follow him you must walk down the long aisle to the altar and pray one particular prayer

That are the three main points of the book (as I gather them anyway...there are other great points and comments in the book) so far. Perhaps when I finish the book I will do a final blog summarizing everything. I hope that this blog encourages you to read the book (it's fascinating...really), and more importantly, I hope it helps you to realize that you don't have to believe everything that everyone else does. You can push the envelope a little bit, have a few doubts. Doubts are a good thing. Without Doubts, we don't ask questions. Without Questions, we don't have any answers. Without Answers, we won't learn anything. Blessings guys...and an early Merry Christmas to you all!

Come, Emmanuel

I love Christmas music. Carols, Hymns...it's all good. I love the fun Rudolph and Frosty, and the more solemn Silent Night. But the one Christmas song that I never fully understood, as a kid anyway, was O Come O Come Emmanuel. What's all this talk about "ransom" and "captive"? This song doesn't mention shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph, the inn, sheep...how is this a Christmas song? And then, recently, it hit me. O Come O Come Emmanuel is THE Christmas song...while other Christmas carols focus on the angels, the shepherds, the inn, the sheep, the wise men...the shoes...this one focuses on the attitude of the people. It focuses on the REASON for Christmas.
Before Jesus was born, before God came to Earth as a baby, the people of Israel were crying out for God to save them. To ransom them. To free them. While they weren't in slavery in Egypt anymore, or in Exile in Babylon...they were enslaved by the Romans..in their own city. The Romans had taken over...Caesar was king, was god. The Israelites wanted God to come, and shoe the Romans who was boss..."Come and Save us! Ransom us! Free us!". And so God did. He sent Jesus to save them. Rescue them. Redeem them. Ransom them. Unfortunately...he sent him as a baby. Jesus didn't part through the clouds, with sword ablaze, white horse galloping towards the Roman soldiers...he came as a lowly, infant child, born in a stable to an unmarried virgin. Not like he was expected to arrive.
But that's the point of Christmas isn't it? The point of Christmas was that God would lower himself...not only just to human form, but to the weakest, most vulnerable of human form...a baby. Christmas is about God hearing the cries of his people...of the poor, the outcasts, the sinners, the weak...and answering their prayers. But while the people wanted the coming of the Savior to be the end...they wanted it to happen fast..."God, Come down, rescue us, kill our enemies and then go back up to heaven so we can worship and praise you forever (or until we end up in exile again, in which case we will forget you for a while)". But that wasn't God's plan. It was to be a slow process. Instead of going all Chuck Norris on the Romans...he took more of a Ghandi approach. Instead of being born into a royal family (or skipping the birthing process altogether and just arriving as a fierce warrier), he came as a baby to a poor carpenter's family.
Christmas isn't really about the nativity at all. It's not about the shepherds, it's not about Mary and Joseph, it's not about the Angels. It's about God, hearing the cries of his people. Christmas is about God arriving, listening, caring. Christmas is God finally saying "enough is enough", and taking matters into his own hands. That is what Christmas truly is all about. It's about God's people crying, "Come Emmanuel. Rescue Us. Save Us. Ransom Us"...and God coming. Merry Christmas everyone...let's praise God that he heard our cries, felt our tears, and came to our rescue.

God, Apathy, and the Windows 7 Phone

One of my new favourite commercials is for the new Windows 7 phone (I'd never buy the phone, but the commercial is GREAT). This is the full, minute long extended edition of that commercial...


Ok...now that you are laughing and entertained, I'm gonna put a spiritual twist to this commercial. I find that, while we can laugh at these people in the commercial who miss out on life because they are so focused on their phone, many Christians do the exact same thing with the Bible. I know right...bold. But think about it. So many Christians go around, with verses in their head, stories, themes, ideas, whatever...all fine and good...but they never live them out. They never use those verses, stories, parables, ideas, lessons. While it's not like we are walking around with a Bible in our face, running into people and forgetting about our wives and family, we do seem to have a lot of "ideas" in our head, and not a lot of "action" in our life.
For example...we read the story of the Good Samaritan, or the passage about "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat", and we feel good about ourselves. We take something from the passage, we try to see Jesus in the homeless, in the forgotten, downtrodden, outcasts, poor. But instead of helping them, we walk by, give a smile and move on. Or, we read about love and acceptance, and see how Jesus hung out with sinners, hookers, drunkards, theives...and yet we stay in our small little cliques. We judge those who are different, we ignore those who disagree with us. We fail to comfort those who are mourning. We read the stories, we get the point in our head...but we don't do anything about it.
Like the commerical...we are missing out on life. Phones are supposed to connect people, and yet the people in the commercial are more disconnected then ever. The Bible is supposed to inspire us to action, and yet we don't act. By just reading the Bible, and doing nothing with our knowledge, nothing with the words, themes, ideas, parables, lessons, we are misuing Scripture. It becomes just a book. And I'm sure, God is looking down from heaven...seeing all of his so called "followers", who claim to love him, serve him, and follow him, and yet they do nothing. They are in their own little world (I should say, We are in our own little world, cause I'm including myself in this too), missing out on opportunities to love, opportunities to serve, and opportunities to show people the love of God...and he is yelling down at us, "REALLY?"
Look up from the pages of the bible. Look outside the windows of the church. Instead of walking around with your head focused on Heaven to see if Jesus is descending, look at the ground to see who you can BE Jesus For?
Anyway...that's just my opinion. What's yours?

Fmylife

A While ago, I bought a book called "Fmylife". Yes...the "F" stands for exactly what you think. The book is a collection of very short anecdotes about crapy things that happened to people. I'm not going to lie, it's a freakin hilarious book. To be honest, while I was reading through it at HMV, I was literally convulsing at moments, trying to contain my laughter and to not cause people to stare at me (because having a 23 year old shaking and crying tears of joy wasn't distracting at all). Now, I'm also not going to lie and say that the book is full of appropriate material that everyone can read, and is fun for the whole family. There is a lot of content that is...sketchy, to say the least. However, I am going to share some of my favourite clean stories, and perhaps edit a few of the sketchier ones. I hope it makes you laugh a little bit...and then I will finish this blog off with some spiritual relevance, I promise. So...here we go:

1) "Today, I was at work at the grocery store, and a woman pulled a cart toward me filled with chips, breads, lunch meats, and sodas. I said 'looks like your going to have a fun party', she replied 'my mother just died. This is for after the funeral'"-fmylife

2) "Today I was walking through a bookstore with my girlfriend when we passed a stand selling Girl Scout cookies. I saw a box of my favourite kind, so I pointed at them and shouted 'Yeah!'. My girlfriend looked shocked. Behind the box of cookies was a nine-year-old scout bending over with her bottom pointed at me"-fmylife

3) "Today at a rehersal, a friend poked me and said, 'my mother is in the orchestra. Guess who she is' I jokingly answered, 'the fat singer?'...it was"-fmylife

4) "Today I was at an interview for a music school. When I got my guitar out of it's case, I realized that my friends thought it would be funny to replace my real guitar with one from Guitar Hero"-fmylife

5) "Today I went to the gym to get into shape. I pulled a muscle while taking off my sweater in the locker room"-fmylife

6) "Today my anatomy teacher was putting together a skeleton model for class. A leg bone was missing, so I jokingly said 'what's the matter, lose a leg?'. Unfortunately there is nothing funy about asking that question to a guy who's had a leg amputated"-fmylife

7) "Today my crush talked to me for the first time. He told me to stop staring"-fmylife

8) "Today I fell asleep in drivers ed, and woke up in the middle of a dream, laughing. Everyone was staring at me. I found out that my teacher had just told a story about his niece who didn't wear a seatbelt and is now brain-dead"-fmylife

9) "Today, while at work, a kid of about 5 was having trouble zipping his jacket". When I reached to help him, he started screaming 'No, bad touch! bad touch' and kicked me in the knee. Everyone looked"-fmylife

10) "Today in the middle of a date, I went to rest my chin on my hand, missed, and stuck the straw from my drink straight up my nose. My nose bled all over the table. He hasn't called me since"-fmylife

11) "Today I got a Save the Date card for the wedding of a couple my husband knows. I emailed the bride back saying 'I got your S.T.D.', and hit send before I realized how that sounded"-fmylife

12) "Today my parents met my boyfriends parents for the first time...bailing us out of jail"-fmylife

13) "Today, my professor, who was born without arms, asked somebody 'Need a hand?'...there are over 300 students in the class, and I was the only one laughing"-fmylife

14) "Today I got 31% on a chinese test at school. I moved here to New Jersey from Beijing 2 months ago"-fmylife

15) "Today, in front of 20 guests, I yelled at my husband for not coming to blow out his birthday candles. It turned out that he was in the other room, quitely changing his disabled friends adult diaper"-fmylife

16) "Today for the first time every, I met someone with the same name as me. I'm 20...he's 97"-fmylife

17) "Today my boss asked me, 'Can I give you some constructive criticism?', I said sure. He said 'your work is [crap], you have no talent and i can't figure out why I hired you"-fmylife

18) "Today I found a bone in my sandwich. It was a veggie burger"-fmylife

19) "Today I walked into the kitchen and accidently broke my mothers vase. I said 'Acciden't happen', to which she replied, 'Yeah. Like your birth'"-fmylife

20) "Today I told my dad that I was going to get some beauty sleep. He said, 'see you in a decade'"-fmylife

21) "Today, at a strategy meeting, my manager displayed a flow chart of his employess. I wasn't included. Turns out I had been fired, and they forgot to tell me"-fmylife

22) "Today, while shaving, I cut myself. With the blade protector"-fmylife

23) "Today I made fun of my friend when she tripped over a curb. I said loudly, 'haha, you can't even walk'. Then I noticed the man in the wheelchair a few feet ahead of us"-fmylife

24) "Today I asked my boss for a raise. He responded by saying, 'Who the hell are you?'"-fmylife

and finally...
25) "Today I met a really attractive guy, who introduced himself as Wyan. He was really cool and sweet, and we got along pretty well. Later someone told me that his name is Ryan and that he has a speech impediment. Througout the conversation I had been referring to him as Wyan"-fmylife.

So, you are likely wondering...what is the point? Why list 25 embarrassing stories? Well, to be perfectly honest, we have all been in similar type situations. Ok...maybe not those exact type situations, but we have all done embarrasing things, humiliated ourselves and put our foot in our mouths. We have all had days that made us feel like our lives our pointless. Worthless. We have all thought that nobody could possibly have a worse life than we do. Well...it's not true. No matter how bad our lives get, or how humiliating a day we have...someone, somewhere has it worse. Life can throw curveballs. Life can be unpredictable, and devastating...but life goes on. The embarrasing situation you had the other day, will be forgotten by everyone eventually. Will you let it go? Will you move on from it? When you focus on your mistakes, on your embarrasments, you can't truly enjoy life. When you are focused so much on not humiliating yourself, you can't truly live. Life is full of embarrasing, humiliating situations. Stop dwelling on them. Life will get better. Life will go on. Enjoy life. Have fun. Your life isn't over because of one mistake, or one humiliating moment. Laugh it off and move on.

Lest We Forget...until tomorrow.

Today is Remembrance Day (Or Veteran's Day, if I happen to have any American readers). It's a day set aside to remember the men and women who served, and currently serve in the Armed Forces, protecting us, and earning our Freedom. More specifically, we attempt to remember those whose lives have been lost while fighting for our rights and freedoms. The thousands, upon thousands of young men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. Many people attend Remembrance Day Ceremonies, wear poppies, visit veterans, fly flags at half mast. There are numerous ways to show our love and appreciation for those who fought, and are fighting overseas.
Remembrance. It's important to remember. Lest We Forget! For many people, today is the only day they really think about the soldiers, the wars, and the lives lost. To some, Saving Private Ryan is just an entertaining movie, and never really think about the real lives, the real people who died, in horrible, gruesome ways. As Christians, we are called to remember. Unfortunately, like many who only think of veterans during Remembrance Day, many Christians only think of Jesus death and sacrifice during Easter, or communion (even though many people only see it as a meal, and don't take much meaning out of it). Why is it that we only remember one day out of the year? Why do we only praise God one day a week? Why is Christmas the only time we think about Jesus being born? Now, I'm not saying that we should eliminate these special holidays and just treat every day like a holiday...but I am saying that we should be constantly remembering. Every day should be an act of worship. Every meal we eat, we should be thinking about the Last Supper, and Jesus sacrifice. Every time we see a veteran, we should remember the cost of our freedom. Whenever we look at our flag, we should think of all those young men and women who fought for us. Who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live in freedom.
Too often, we think about the veterans during Remebrance Day, think about Christ's birth at Christmas, his resurrection at Easter...and then once the day passes we don't think about it again for a year. Lest We Forget doesn't mean that we only remember once a year...it means that we should NEVER forget. Even for a day. Remember the sacrifice. Remember the love. And with remembering, look ahead. Look to your future, your present...and think about how you will honour God with your life? How will you honour the veterans with your actions? It's more than just wearing a poppy for a day or two, or putting a Jesus fish on your car. Live out your gratitude. Live out your appreciation, your love. If those thousands of soldiers didn't fight for our freedom and pay the price for it...our live would be drastically different. If Jesus decided that we weren't worth it. If he fought back, and refused to go to the cross...think of how meaningless our lives would be? Let's Remember. Shall we never forget!

Let the Idiots be Silenced

There seems to be a growing epidemic amongst Christians...we seem to have become stupid. Ok, perhaps not stupid, but we seem to have lost our ability to properly discuss our faith and beliefs. Now, I could generalize this and say it is predominatly a certain denomination, or gender, or particular country of origin...but I will not do that, as it seems to target everyone.
Now, in the Bible we are told to always have an answer ready...but it seems that many Christians interpret that as "give an answer for everything...whether you know the answer or not". We read that we are to have an answer ready, and see it as we can't say "I don't know"...as if not knowing the answer is a sin. Let me tell you people...it's OK to not know the answer. It's ok to say "pass", or "That's a good question, I'll have to look it up for you", or simply "I don't Know". What is happening instead, is that Christians are making themselves, and therefore other Christians, look stupid, unintelligent and crazy.
Here are a few very unintelligent Christian responses that I found on Christian chat rooms and forums. Buckle up...it's a sad scary ride.
"Evolution can't have happened because we aren't born monkeys"
"It's funny how non-creationsits will blame a God they don't believe in, but they won't let evolution take the blame for amputees not being able to heal"
"For those who think the bible has 'fiction' it it...what parts"
"Would you rather have a not smart Christian running the country, or a smart Atheist. I'd rather have a not smart Christian."
"Light can't be '11 million light years away'...if it were, I wouldn't be able to see it. I'm 20, not 11 million years old"
"Man is made in the image of God the Father. That s the primary reason why man has a penis" (????...wow)
"By not hating gays you are disobeying God and deserve to go to hell"
"The first 5 books aren't [jewish], Moses was a Christian"
"Does planting trees help bring people to Christ? It's like going to a starving country to feed the hungry. It doesn't do them any good to live another day, if they are doomed to Hell anyway"

Ok..I'm going to stop now because it is just getting sad and ridiculous. I know that most Christians aren't at that level of stupidity and intolerance...but as I drive down the road and see church signs like "Experts built the Titanic and amateurs built the Ark", I can't help but wonder how non-Christians interpret that. So here is the challenge, and the point of this blog. Do your research...THINK before your speak. Don't just give a comment for no reason, or give an answer you haven't fully thought about. Want to know why people are atheists, or have a negative view on Christians? It's because Christians tend to be more vocal about their beliefs (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), and they say things that are offensive, stupid, and even unbiblical. If Christians actually acted intelligent, and researched, thought about and prepared their answers...then maybe we'd get more respect. It's too bad that while there are many, MANY smart, intelligent Christians out there who do a lot to further the kingdom of God, there a many stupid Christians who open their mouths and ruin all the good that other Christians are doing. As the chidlish phrase states, "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all"...this applies to stupid, unintelligent, poorly thought out responses and questions too.

Hallow"evil"?

Well, it is that day of the year again. The day that children, and many adults, dress up as everything from Justin Bieber to fairy godmothers. Police officers to Mount. St. Helens. Princesses, knights, wizards, witches, chicki magnets, the doplar effect. It's all been done. It's the night that kids are actually encouraged to run in the streets and take candy from strangers. For many kids, this is the best night of the year. Late Night, cool costume and lots of candy. What could be better?
While the holiday is celebrated by many, there are many people (especially Christians), who find Halloween sinful and evil. They may give out candy (or possibly scripture passges and tracts), but they likely will just sit at home, with the lights turned out, praying for the lost souls who are selling their souls to the devil walking around dressed up as demons and taking candy. Why is it that there is such an issue with this particular holiday? You don't see people boycotting Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, New Years, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day or Labour Day (Jehvah Witnesses excluded of course...of course even they just go about it in silence). I figured that I would do a quick history lesson here...what is the origins of Halloween? Why is it the holiday that it has become? Why October 31? And more importantly, why do many Christians find it evil and scary? Let's find out shall we...
According to Wikipedia (it's always truthful and accurate right?), Halloween is sort of a spin off from the Celtic holiday of Samhain (meaning "summer's end"), which is a celebration of the end of the "lighter half of the year" and the beginning of the "darker half". It was believed that on this day, the Otherworld was opened up and spirits (both good and bad), could pass through. The wearing of costumes is believed to come from people dressing up as bad spirits in order to avoid harm.
Jack-O-Lanterns were initially created to commemorate the souls in purgatory, as well as warding off evil spirits. Trick or Treating originated from the practice of souling, when poor people would go door to door asking for food in return for prayers.

This is a very quick, overview of the history of Halloween...please, feel free to comment and fix any errors, or add any vital information that I am lacking. Anyway, now to the questions. How should Christians respond? Personally, I see no harm in participating in Halloween. I think it can be a harmless holiday, filled with fun and games. Yes, there are some creepy costumes, and lots of mischief...but overall, it's a fairly harmless holiday. In fact, for many people it is the only day of the year (other than Christmas, with carolling), that they get to meet their neighbours in a non threatening way. Friendships can be built, relationships formed. Now, I don't think we should go around casting spells on people, or performing exorcisms (leave that to the priests), but in reality...the holiday, while rooted in the spiritual, has evolved into just a night of fun and candy. Things change over time. Word meanings change, things that once meant one thing, mean something different now. For example, the word gay once meant happy...today it is a word describing a homosexual. Bitch once was a harmless word meaning "female dog"...now it means...well, you get the idea. Halloween has evolved too. It is no longer just a day to ward of spirits...in fact, most people don't even know the origins anymore. The day has brought together many different celebrations and days (All Saints Day, All-Hallows Eve, Samhain), and created a new holiday.
So should we embrace it? Perhaps. I'm not here to tell people how they should respond to something. The Bible does say that if something causes someone else to stumble, then it should be avoided around that person. If you are intimidated by Halloween, or it makes you uncomfortable, by all means don't celebrate the holiday. But do it in silence. If you love Halloween, don't force others to love it with you. People have choice. Just like religion, yes we are called to make disciples, but a disciple CHOOSES to follow, it is not forced to follow. Make up your own mind about Halloween, love it or hate it, just don't judge others for their view.

Forgiving Mel

So, I was planning on finally doing my "Fmylife" blog...but then I was surfing around on the Rotten Tomatoes website (a move critic website), and saw an article about Mel Gibson being turned down for the Hangover 2 sequel. Apparantly, the creator/writer or whoever of the movie wanted Mel to have a cameo in the movie, but the rest of the cast and crew turned down the idea, due to his anti-semetic remarks a while ago. Now, I definately condone these people for standing up for their beliefs...but seriously, can we give the guy a break?
Keep in mind, that the first Hangover starred Mike Tyson, who isn't regarded as a great role model. My point is...I think as a human race we tend to dwell on the past way too much. If someone does something to offend us, we will forver see them as the "person who did this", instead of just a person. Mel Gibson says an anti-semetic remark (keep in mind he was drunk at the time...and his comments were likely taken out of context), and immediately he is thrown under the bus, cast aside and banished. It seems that no matter what he does, he will always be remembered as the person who hates jews. He could probably even make a movie about Judaism, and it would still be seen as a mockery. Tiger Woods will forver be remembered not for his golf, but for his "encounters", Rick Rypien for his altercation with the Minnesote Wild fan (although, i do find that one hilarious!)...there are many people who have been marred by past sins. But is it not time for forgiveness? Can we not move past the past, and instead focus on the future? Jesus forgave those who beat him and hung him on a cross (some of whom did in fact happen to be jewish...so Mel, you were partly right). The ancient Christians were able to, over time, forgive Paul (formerly Saul) even after he killed and persecuted countless Christians. Why is it that we have such a hard time letting past sins go? Why do we hold these things over people? Why can't we let them forever break free? God forgives them...why can't we forgive?
I'm not saying we have to forget...forgetting is hard, especially after someone does something to really hurt us. But give them another chance. Move on....if the guilty party is seeking forgiveness, then give it to them. Love them. Accept them. Forgive them.
Please note, I am not saying that the cast and crew of Hangover 2 are bad people, nor am I saying that the movie should have Mel Gibson in it. This will not stop me from wanting to see the movie (I don't expect it to be as good as the first one...but I do think it will be pretty funny), I am merely making a point. Forgiveness is one of the foundational pillars of the Christian faith (and most other religions actually)...why does it seem that we have lost that over the years? Why do churches split over differences or arguments that can easily be solved with a little love, forgiveness and compromise? Why do friendships dissolve, marriages break up, siblings hate one another? Forgiveness is not easy, I definately understand that...I have people I need to forgive, and have many people who I need to be forgiven from...but it is something we have to do...or at least give a good attempt to do, not some half-hearted "meh" attempt. It's time to forgive the Mel Gibson's of our life...forgive, and move on. Don't hold someone in a certain box...free them, let them out, and let them become more than just one event, one altercation, one sin. We all mess up...we all need forgiveness...it's time to give it!

The Truth about The Bible

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now, and am finally doing it. I've had the question in my head recently, "Is the Bible True, or does it only contain Truth?". This question all goes back to my first year at Bethany, when I said something along the lines of, "The Bible is true", and someone said "Is it?". It led to a discussion, in which my only response was, "umm...yes?" followed my a wimper. This of course was before the days that I enjoyed debates and discussions, and actually cowered away from them (my how things have changed). So I raise the question, once again "Is the Bible True?".
This will likely sound horrible and very unChristian, but I would have to argue that the Bible is NOT 100% true, and only CONTAINS Truth. It's a big difference, and may seem to shatter faith, although when you really look at the contents of the Bible, you can't say that everything in the Bible is infallable, True, and Holy. First of all, we have to look at the types of books we have in the Bible. We have letters, we have poetry, we have stories, songs, legends, and proverbs. Now, I am not going to argue that the stories in the Bible are false, and didn't happen. I believe that they did happen, and are true. However, we have to take into consideration that, back in biblical days, it was not uncommon, nor was it frowned upon, to exaggerate stories. Also, it must be remembered that theses stories were passed down verbally for many years before written down. We all know what happens with verbal stories. We've played the game Telephone as kids...we know that usually what is left at the end is not what started. I'm not going to say that the stories are so embellished that only very small fragments are true, but I am saying that we have to keep in mind that things have been embellished slightly, or at least very likely have been. For example, the story of Gideon. We know that story as a man who led 300 men against THOUSANDS of me. Now, he likely had more than 300 men, and perhaps the enemy didn't have as many men as the story says...but the bottom line is...he was vastly outnumbered, and defeated the enemy with God's help in a miraculous way. Does it really matter if he was outnumbered 3 to 1 or 10 to 1? Not really.
These exagerations don't mean that we can't trust the Bible...nor does it mean that the Israelites were liars...it's what was done back then. Numbers were symbolic, for example the number 40. Was it exactly 40 years that the Israelites wandered wht desert? Exactly 40 days and nights that it rained? Who knows....but it was a long time. The number 40 , like the numbers 7, 3 and 12, were very symbolic and meant a lot to the Israelite people. That is why certain numbers appear numerous times throughout Scripture...it's not a coincidence.
Now I want to get into likely the part of the Bible that is most often misread, misunderstood and misinterpreted among Christians. The Psalms. Do you ever notice how we take Psalm 23 and make it out to be whole hearted, 100% infallible truth? We analyze it, tear it apart and meditate over it. I'm not denying its power and beauty. I love it, and think it is a wonderful psalm...but we must remember that it is written by a person, in poetry form. We don't study World War II based solely on the poem "In Flanders Fields", even though that is a wonderful poem. It doesn't contain the whole truth...it's one persons opinion, feeling and description. Now, does Psalm 23 contain truth that is consistent with the rest of Scripture? Of course it does. But the Psalm was written by one person, at a particular time of his life, during certain circumstances. He also wrote Psalms about destroyign cities, killing enemies and having no hope. We don't take Ecclesiastes "Everything is Meaningless" super seriously, nor do we take many of the Proverbs as purely accurate...and yet we read the Psalms as if it is the word of the Lord himself. The Psalsm are beautiful, evoke wonderful emotion, and can be very worshipful...but we can't make them more than what they are. They are poems, hymns and songs.
Finally I want to talk about The Letters, or The Epistles. We can't forget that these books are written by one person to a certain group of people, or in some cases to one particular person. Do they contain truth, and great wisdom? Yes, but we can't attempt to claim every insight and every word as a word written to us. For example, there is a verse in one of the letters about women not being alolowed to lead or speak in church. At first this seems sexist, but when you realize that this was written to one particular church, where the women were gossips, liars, loud, obnoxious and spreading falsehoods, it makes more sense. It's not saying that no women ever should lead or speak in church..it's saying These women in This church.
This blog very likely will be misunderstood as me trying to undermine the Bible. I will probably get nasty comments about how we just need to take all of Scripture as the Holy Words of God. I don't want to make the Bible seem unimportant, false, or incomplete. On the contraty, I want to make sure that we fully understand what we can actually get from the Bible. It's because people take Scripture out of context, and put Truth where there shouldn't be, that we have genocides, sexism, racism, slavery, wars, bigotry, hate, and why Christians are judgemental, and seen as "better than thou". Please, leave a comment, let me know what you think, and feel free to disagree. What do you think, "Is the Bible True, or does it just contains Truth?"

Glee, God and Grilled Cheesus.

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted. To be honest, I have wanted to blog for a while now, just didn't know what to blog about. I've had a bunch of ideas bouncing around in my brain for a while; a discussion about the Bible and whether the Bible is Truth or just contains Truth, a sort of funny blog from the popular website and book Fmylife (which I still do plan on doing one day...just give it some time), and a look at the Psalms, and whether Christians sometimes take them too seriously. But then I watched Glee. Yes, that's right. I watch Glee. Usually I watch it just for the music, get a few laughs, and then download the songs the next day to put on my ipod. But Tuesday's episode was different. It stirred emotions. It asked questions, and it begged to be discussed. I realize that my blog demographic doesn't include very many Glee lovers (that I know of), so I will try to discuss the episode in a way that will allow those that have not seen the show to appreciate and get involved in the discussion as well. To start with, here is an episode summary:

Finn, the main character of the show, makes a grilled cheese sandwich, and ends up creating the face of Jesus in the burn marks on the bread. He immediately turns religious, and wants to dedicate the week of Glee to singing spiritual songs. Of course, the school (or more specifically Sue Sylvester the arch-nemesis to the Glee club) takes a firm stance against seperationg of Church and State. Then Kurt's dad (Kurt is a fellow Glee member) has a heart attack, and the Glee club tries to comfort Kurt with prayers and spiritual songs. Kurt then professes that he is an atheist...much to the shock and awe of the Glee club.

That is a very quick synopsis of the episode. Yes, there is much more that happened, but I will save those for the discussion part. So let's start with my opinions and discussions.

Grilled Cheesus!
As silly as turning religious after seeing the face of Christ in a grilled cheese sounds, it happens. People turn religious over the silliest, and seemingly stupidest things. A dream, a near-death experience, a relationship...whatever. There is a tendency to try to "find the face of Christ" in everything. We want God to speak to us in every imaginable way, and even when he isn't, we still imagine that he is. It's a major problem. Yes, there are worse problems in life than trying to find God in the ordinary, and I don't want to say that he is not found in the ordinary and everyday life...but it's dangerous to go around and put God's face, or God's voice to things that don't have God's face or voice in them. When we do that, we tend to idolize those things, or that event. We pray to the Grilled Cheese, read The Purpose Driven Life like it is Bible (or even worse, like it is better than the Bible), and learn all we need to know about faith from Facing The Giants (yes...I went there). I am not saying that God can't be found in strange places...he was the "whisper in the wind", but when we go and look for him in those places, and CREATE him in those places, that is when we get ourselves into trouble.
Seperation of Church and State
This can lead to a heated debate here I'm sure. I personally am all for, to some extent, the seperation of church and state. I find it offensive that Christians beg, plead and cry when we aren't alowed to pray/worship publically, but then get angry when they see someone of another religion worship in public. We don't like seperation of church and state for us, but we want it for everyone else. It has to be either no one, or everyone. Christians can be the most arrogant, and selfish people ever. When we don't have it, we demand it, and when others have it we beg for it to be stripped from them. I remember at Bethany, we had a survery in class (I believe it was Issues and Ethics class) in which we were asked if the Lords Prayer should be reinstated into public schools...and a majority, if not unanimously, of the class said no, because once you open the door to the Lords prayer, then you have to open the door to every other religion. It's true..we can't expect to be the only religion given rights. Seperation of Church and State is a good thing, or at least it can be...in my opinion anyway (feel free to disagree and voice your comments).
"I have a hard time believing in a loving God when his followers don't look to highly on gays, or science, or women".
As hurtful and perhaps humorous this comment is, spoken by the gay atheist Kurt, it has a harsh truth to it. I have blogged about this before, but the church treats gays like crap. And there are many churches and Christians who feel that Science is opposed to the Bible, and that all Scientists are out to disprove the existence of God. And as sad as it is, there are churches who don't look highly on women, and are racist as well. It's horrible. As DC Talk says at the start of the song "What if I stumble", 'the biggest cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians'. We claim to serve a loving God, we claim to be a loving and accepting group, and yet we are the most secluded, and often hardest to penetrate (insert innapropriate Office joke here). We are loving and accepting to those who have the same beliefs, same opinions as us...but once we meet someone who believes something different, we close up, segregate and hate. And then, after we push people away (often they are the most needing people as well), we are suprised to find out that they don't believe in God. They calim it's because there is no proof, but deep down it's because of us. We caused them to stop believing in God. So much for being disciples.

...ok I realize that this is getting kind of long so I will do one more, a follow up to the previous discussion point.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
The episode ends with Kurt going to church, after an invite from Glee member Mercedes (yes, she is black). Despite Kurt being gay, and an atheist, the church is inviting and accepts him. And when the choir, led by Mercedes, sings "Bridge over Troubled Waters", an elderly woman next to Kurt, grabs hold of his hand, which is very significant to the episode as that is the main memory of Kurt and his comatose Father. The show never shows whether Kurt changes his theological beliefs...but the church definately warmed his heart. THAT is how church should be. Could you imagine what would have happened if, as he was expecting, the church closed its doors to him. Pushed him aside. Ignored him, and looked at him condescendigly? His faith in there being no God would have been all but proven. Church should be a place of comfort, healing and faith building. It should be where the spirit of God is most felt. It's too bad that we have turned it into a place of judgement and hate (I'm looking at you Florida pastor who wanted ot publically burn Korans!".
For those of you who watched the episode, there are many more things that can be discussed...please feel free to comment on those things and discuss them. Let me know what you think, do you disagree, agree? Let the discussion, comments and opinions flow!

3 Guys, a King, and a Fiery Place!

One of the most beloved stories in the Old Testament, at least in my mind, is the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abdnego. It is found in the book of Daniel (right after Ezekiel and before Hosea, if that helps) chapter 3. Now, before we get into that story, let's go through the brief history lesson.
Daniel begins with a siege and exile of Judah. This is the first of 2 exiles the Israelites will face. The Babylonians, led by king Nebuchadnezzar, takes over the nation, but takes back with them some of the smartest, handsomest, strongest and best of the Israeli men. Four of the young men taken to Babylon are Daniel (whose name was changed to Belteshazzar), Hananiah (whose name was changed to Shadrach), Mishael (name changed to Meshach), and Azariah (changed to Abednego).
(Back to the story now!) Not too long after being taken to Babylon, the king Nebuchadnezzar decides to have a gold statue built in his honour. He is a pretty humble guy, so he decides to have it built 90 feet tall, 9 feet wide...and summon everyone to come to the dedication of this idol. Now, Daniel is never mentioned in this story so it is unclear as to where he is during this time. Perhaps he was away on an assingment, or perhaps he actually was there and decided to go along with the crowd. We don't really know. What we do know, is that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Rack, Shack and Benny...as told by Veggie tales) are there, and they don't appreciate what they see. As the story goes, the king tells everyone that at the blow of the trumpet, they are to bow down and worship the idol-those that don't will be cast into a fiery furnace. The trumpet sounds, and everyone but the 3 friends bow down and worship the gigantic image of the king. The King doesn't like this...so he summons them to him. Now, as much as he doesn't appreciate their refusal to bow, he does seem to be a generous king and he offers them another chance. He suggests that maybe they didn't hear the trumpet (of course, seeing thousands of people falling to their faces should have been a clue). He gets everyone set up, and again blows the trumpet, forcing everyone to their faces in adoration and worship. Again, the friends refuse. This time, the King is furious and gets the furnace heated up seven times hotter, and brings Rack, Shack and Benny back to him. Now this is where the story gets really interesting in my opinion. These 3 guys have been looked upon as incredible examples of faith. We tell their story, and talk about how they knew that God would deliver them from the furnace. But we seem to miss the part that, they accept the fact that God may not save them. Verses 17 and 18 recount what they say:

"...If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, WE WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WE WILL NOT SERVE YOUR GODS OR WORSHIP THE IMAGE OF GOLD YOU HAVE SET UP"

There are a few key words here..."God is able" and "even if he doesn't". This, in my opinion, is the key to what true faith is. We often have this idea that faith is believing without a shadow of doubt that God will rescue us. We believe that God will give us what we want, because we have faith and are asking it. But I don't believe that that is true faith. That is arrogant faith. These 3 men show what true faith is. It is believe that God is able. Believing that God has the power, and has complete control. But then it is also the knowledge that, while God is able, he may not answer the way we want. These guys were willing to enter the fiery furnace. They were willing to DIE!. They didn't know if God would even save them...they knew he COULD, but they accepted that "even if he doesn't".

We can learn a lot from these 3. They aren't mentioned in the Faith Hall Of Fame in Hebrews 11 (wait, let me check again....nope. Not there), but in my mind they are the perfect example of what true faith is. We need to set aside our arrogance. We need to stop telling God how he should respond. We need to lay aside our 100% certainty that God will answer "in this certain way", and instead remember that, while God is more than able to save us...he may not. True faith is accepting that God may not. These 3 guys were willing to die with that knowledge. Now, we know that God did in fact save them, which is an amazing miracle. But the point, in my mind anyway isn't that God saved them. It's that they were willing to stand up, even if God didn't save them.

So next time someone tells you that something is going to happen because they have faith ("I'll get the job because I have faith", "We'll be safe because I have faith...whatever it may be", remember that God is much bigger than this right here right now. He is more than able to provide, protect, and prosper...but he may not! THAT, my friends, is what true faith is. That is what we can learn from this incredible story of 3 friends, willing to stand up when everyone else bowed down.

Walking on Water

So, for those of you who read my blog on a consistent basis, you know my dislike and disdain for those clever, witty church signs. Anyway, there is a new one that I saw recently, which says "Looking for a life guard? Ours walks on Water". I don't know what it is, but this one really bothers me. I don't know why...it's not like it is offensive, or sacriligeous or anything...but there's something about it that just makes me frustrated. Maybe its because it is comparing Jesus to a life-guard. I'm not sure...maybe I just have such a bias against church signs that I can't enjoy them...perhaps I'm just a negative, pessimistic person. But it did get me thinking a little bit...which I guess is the point of it, about the significance of Jesus walking on water.

First of all I have to say that, too often Christians give too much credit to the miracles Jesus does. What I mean is...they focus so much on the miracle itself, that they miss out on the person performing the miracles. The Miracles Jesus did were never meant to becomes these major specatcles, in fact many times he tells people not to tell anyone about the miracle. The one that seems to get the most publicity from Christians (other than the resurrection) is when Jesus walks on water. They seem to equate walking on water, with perfection. Have you ever heard the saying, "Next time you think you are perfect, try walking on water". We seem to make a huge deal out of this one...I don't really know why. But we make a big deal out of it for the wrong reasons I think. We look so much at the miracle itself, that we miss out what Jesus is actually telling his disciples by walking on water. To fully understand that, we have to understand the significance of water in biblical times.

In biblical times, water (or the oceans) were met with fear. It was a place of horror, a place of terror. A place where people left and didn't return. A place of death, and chaos. In fact, in Genesis 1:2, when it says "...And the spirit of God hovered over the waters", it is referring to the fact that God has control over the chaos. No matter how chaotic and crazy things get..God is in control. That is in a sense what Jesus is showing the disciples here. The disciples are out in a boat, trying to cross to the other side...when all of a sudden, Jesus walks out to them. This story is found in Matthew 14:22-36, right after he feeds the 5,000.

It's night time, the wind is picking up...the boat is probably rocking back and forth, waves splashing over the side of the boat, and the disciples are probably already fairly scared. And then they see Jesus, walking towards them. This scares them even more...they even think that Jesus is a ghost. But Jesus is showing them more than just a magic trick here. It's more than an illusion, or a funny prank. He is showing that he has control over fear. Control over chaos. Over terror. Over death. Over hell. The water, in the disciples mind...and in the mind of most bibilical characters, was scary. It represented evil...everything that was wrong with the world. But Jesus is showing that he is in control of it all. So this makes it that much more key, to when Peter asks to climb out of the boat and walk to Jesus. It's not a matter of just jumping into water, and swimming. Chances are, he didn't even know how to swim. Peter is entering the unknown. He enters the very thing that scares him the most...the dark, terrifying, chaotic waters. He does this, because he begins to understand that Jesus has control over it. Jesus is bigger than the fea. Than the evil, than the chaos. Peter puts his full trust in Jesus. I think we can learn a lot from this story. We often are stuck in a boat...surrounding us is our fears, or worries. Things that scare us, terrify us, hold us captive. And then Jesus shows up, and reminds us that he has control over everything. That he holds our worries, our fears and our concerns in the palm of his hand. He walks all over our troubles. And we have a decision to make. Do we let the fear, and chaos hold us captive in the boat...in the safety of the boat...or do we take a chance. Step out of the boat, step out of the safety net, and right into the chaos. Right into the fear?

Take the step. Step out of the boat. Jesus is in control. Jesus is bigger than our problems. Bigger than our worries, and fears, and the unknown. Trust Him. Jump into the water!

Sprititual Buffet

There's something awesome about a buffet isn't there? The seemingly endless choice. The ability to usually eat as much food as you possibly can, and to make the plate of your dreams. You can take meaetballs, apple pie, a lasagna, pizza and shrimp one time, and the next time up choose some soup, a salad, perhaps a piece of roast beef, and cake. It's great. You get exactly what you want, and only what you want.
Lately there seems to have been a religious version of the buffet. People go from church to church, religion to religion and take bits and pieces. Ideas, gods, beliefs and cultures, and mix it together into their own form of "perfect" religion. They create their ideal plate. They have the best of everything, and only what they want. It's called Syncretism. Now, don't get me wrong. I want to say first and foremost that I think there is something that can be learned from pretty much every religion. But when you start taking pieces of this religion, with ideas from that religion and create a religious smorgasborg (I don't know how to spell that), you are living very dangerously. It's like taking Scripture out of context, you lose the intent, the meaning...and you make it mean what you want it to mean. Have you noticed how big yoga has gotten lately? Does anyone realise the religious conotations that go along with Yoga? It's more than just stretching...it's a spiritual action. It would be like if everyone started having baptism groups and we opened up a store that sold baptism tanks and baptism clothes and stuff, and made it into a "cleansing, healing" thing instead of the religious statement that it is. (Note: I'm not tearing into Yoga and thinking people shouldn't do it...I'm just making a point here).
There seems to be 2 waves of thought. There are those people who see all opossing religions as "evil" and "infidels" Like a church in Florida that has people burning the Koran as a show of remembrance for the victims of 911. And saying that Islam is of the devil. Or the Crusades, holocaust, genocides, KKK. All of these stems from a belief that "we are right, and you are wrong and EVIL!". This is the one extreme, and I think that it is just as bad as the other "buffet" extreme I mentioned earlier. The buffet seems more accepting. It seems more peaceful and loving. But is it really? In a sense it is saying, "I like this part of your religion, but the rest of it is crap...so I'll throw that away and add parts of this religion".
Let's learn from other religions yes. I think we should be in awe of the respect Sikhs have to the environment (here in Abbotsford, the walk EVERYWHERE..literally), the quiet meditation that Buddhists observe (meditation is not evil...we have a false sense of what meditation truly is), the passion that Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses have for spreading the "good news". I disagree with their methods, but I can't deny their passion and I wish I was that passionate. Don't be afraid to learn from other religions. When you travel to another country, you learn from their culture and customs. But don't go too far with learning from other religions. Look what happened to the Israelites when they "synced" with all the other religions around them. It tore them apart, and it led to their conquering, and exile. Other religions are not evil. Most religions have a lot of things right...just be very careful to create your own religious "plate". Religion is filled with things that are easy to follow, and tough to follow. There are things that I like about Christianity, and things that I don't like. I can't just throw away what I don't like and add things that I like from Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims or whatever.
I realize I've rambled, and I know I have really repeated myself a lot, and likely confused you. I apologize for that. This is more raising ideas, raising concerns, and giving you something to think about. If you are confused, I am sorry. Leave your comments. What do you think of Syncretism? With the spiritual buffet? Should we learn from other religions, or should we try to avoid them? Leave your thoughts!

Like A Child

One of the most common phrases Jesus says in the Bible is "become like a child". It sounds good, sounds easy and sounds exciting. But what does it mean to have faith like a child? What does that look like?
Being a "camp kid" my whole life, I have been around children constantly. I've seen them at their best, and their worst. And there are a few things I learned while being a cabin leader about being "like a child". First of all, children believe what you tell them.
I remember one time at camp, we told the campers that there were "Bush Sharks" that lived in the bush, and they came out at night...so campers weren't to leave the cabin after lights out. Turns out, they believed us...to the point of getting nightmares and stuff, and so I had to give a public apology to the campers, and tell them that Bush Sharks don't exist (but Lake Chickens do). The point is, they didn't think about it. They just believed it because they trusted us, looked up to us, and respected us. It's got to be the same way with us and God. We have to believe what he says to us. Look at Abraham..God told him to move to a far away land...and Abraham did, without hesitation. God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son...the son that he waited a hundred years for...and he was willing to do that. Now, the challenge is knowing, what is from God and what is only in our head. We sometimes get these ideas in our head that we credit to God, when in reality it is all made up, and has nothng to do with God at all. When you do know it's from God, however...you must act. You can't hesitate (unless God tells you to wait...in which case hesitation is exactly what you should do)...you have to just do it. Go for it. God won't lie to you, or decieve you the same way we did with the campers and Bush Sharks. Trust him..know that he is honest, truthful, and has your best interest in mind.
Another thing about children, is that they ask questions. It almost gets to the point of annoying. My nephew is in the "why?" stage right now, and asks why about EVERYTHING! I think it is important for us to emulate that sense of wonder. As we grow up, we just learn to accept things as they are. We stop asking questions. That can't stop happening. If we don't ask questions, we don't learn, we don't grow, we don't evolve. Ask questions about everything. It's ok to ask questions about the Bible, "why did God do that? what does this mean?", ask questions about God, "how has God been around forever? Does God know everything?"...it's normal, acceptable, and HEALTHY to ask questions, and have an element of doubt.
Finally...well, there are many more characteristics of being a child, but I'm only focusing on three of them..children have fun. They laugh. They joke. While this is easily overlooked as immaturity, I think it is important to take it to heart. I remember reading in the MB herald a long time ago a letter to the editor by someone who said, "Laughter isn't biblical because the bible never mentions Jesus laughing". What a load of BullCRAP! The bible may never have mentioned Jesus laughing, but he hung out with children a lot of the time. It is nearly impossible to be with children and not smile and laugh. Life needs to be fun. Life should be enjoyed. It's a terrible travesty that as we grow up, we become so focused on work, and money, and "surviving" that we stop having fun. Jesus tells us to be like children. ENJOY LIFE! Laugh, joke...have fun. Play games, run around...stare in amazing wonder at the world. I soon will have a new nephew or neice, and it's interesting to watch a baby see things for the first time. Everything is new and exciting to them. The same should be for us. I've found that as I've lived here in BC for a while now, the mountains seem less beautiful and exciting. I need to see them as amazing once again. I take them for granted. We all take so much for granted. Let's enjoy everything, be amazed by it all.
Ask Questions, Trust God, and have fun. 3 key ways to become like a child. What other ways can we be like little children?

Blame The Media!

I'm sure all of you, at one time or another, have heard someone talk about how the media is corrupting the younger generation. Likely, your parents carefully selected what tv shows, movies and music were acceptable to watch and which were forbidden. If your childhood years were anything like mine, The Simpsons were probably top of the list of shows not allowed to watch, and if the movie wasn't disney or rated G (occasionally PG), it was off limits. As for music...if the artist wasn't a follower of Christ, and said the words Jesus, God, Saved, or Forgiven at least once a verse it shouldn't be on the stereo (I don't know how my sisters got away with listening to Backstreet Boys and N'Sync). Ok...so I am exageratting a little bit, but you can likely relate right? The idea was, the media was trash and if anything "suggestive" got into your head, then it would imediately be followed through, with actions and speech. I actually remember a really lame song that my parents had on cassette tape (remember those things?) called "Input, Output". It was these kids singing in robotic voises (before T-Pain!) about how what goes in our mind comes out, through our words and actions and stuff. In fact, as I write this I have the silly, annoying tune echoing through my brain. But is it really true? Should we really be blaming the media for corrupting us, and our children?

To be perfectly honest, I think blaming the media is a horrible cop out. It's like people who blame God for 9/11, or blaming the ref for losing the game for your team. Yes, perhaps they have something to do with it, but it's not fully their fault. I think the biggest problem with them kids today, is that parents no longer communicate to their kids aobut what they are watching/listening to. In my humble opinion, I believe that if parents would sit with their kids, and watch stuff with them, and then engage them with honest, thought provoking questions about the show or movie, then kids could almost watch anything and not have it affect them in a negative way. I'm not saying that a 4 year old should watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre or anything, obviously it's within reason, but I think that if parents would actually communicate to kids, then things would change dramatically.

I love to go to Plugged In's website. Plugged in is the "media/entertainment critics" for Focus on The Family. Now, I don't go to the website to actually take their advice. Quite frankly, I go there AFTER I watch the movie to see how bad the movie was in their eyse. I often find myself laughing at how negative everything is, and how bad they make small, insignificant things seem. But they strike this fear that the media is to blame for corrupting us. It's not the media's fault. We need open discussion, dialogue, and deal with the issues head on instead of just sticking our heads in the sand. For example, instead of saying that the movie Bruce Almighty is sacriligeous, blasphemous and forbidden...watch it and ask questions. With an open mind, it is a brilliant depiction of why God can't possibly answer "YES" to all of our prayers, and how if we ran the world, things would be a disaster.

To be honest, I think family dynamic has much more to do with the corruption than the media. Kids see their parents constantly fight, their father drink 5 beers a day, everyone swearing, threatening, looking at dirty magazines...and then when they see it on TV, or hear lyrics in songs that match what they see at home, then they assume that it is normal and accepted. On the other hand, a family is loving, occasionaly argues, but always makes up. Swears happen, but not constantly, and onyl at appropriate times, and when alcohol is consumed, it is in a safe limit. These kids will watch the same shows, hear the same music, and yet it contradicts what they see at home, and so they ignore it. The like what they see at home. They love the warmth, the love and the safety. On top of that the parents talk to the kids about how, Media portrays violence as acceptable, and how that violence really isn't the answer to problems. Nor is drugs, alcohol, sex..whatever. Open dialogue, in a loving family and the media's impact is much more minimal. Yes, there are bad things in the media. There are shows that are just disgusting, and pointless. However, there are great shows on TV that kids never get to watch because of a "questionable character" or an "unchristian lifestyle". I think of the shows Modern Family and Glee. They aren't perfect, there are issues with both of them, but both shows depict real life, in a real way. Modern Family shows a very loving family, despite the fact that they are kind of dysfunctional. And Glee follows high school glee club members, who have to face adversity on a daily basis. Yes, it has teen pregnancy, homosexuality and an affair...but it never comes out and condones these things. In fact, in one controversial episode, 3 "couples" are about to go all the way, but only one goes through with it. The one who goes through with it, feels dirty and used. No, it's not a perfect depiction of celibacy, but it does at least push kids into thinking that sex is something sacred, and shouldn't be handled lightly.

So parents...talk with your kids about what they are watching. No, don't let them watch EVERYTHING, but do be a bit open minded. Watch with the kids. Talk with them after, and tell them what is different about the media portrayal and real life. Even those of us who aren't parents...we can still have open discussion and talk about what we watch and listen to. We don't have to be scared about everything. Watching a violent movie isn't going to make you go out an murder people. Trust me, I watched 300 on opening day, and while I was full of adrenaline and testosterone after...I didn't try to kick some guy into a deep well, and shout "THIS IS SPARTA!". A lack of dialogue, and a failure to comminicate, in my mind, are much more to blame than the media. But that is only my perspective...what do you guys think? Is the media to blame?

Homosexuals and the Church

So today, I did a quick glance through the MB Herald and read some letters to the editor about an article that was posted a few issues ago. I haven't read the original article, so I can't give a full honest opinion about everything, but the article was about homosexuality, and it asked the question, apparantly, about whether our perspective is right. Most people wrote in, hateful, spiteful, and angry (I don't want to comment about the inherant nature of MB's to complain...cause that will get me in trouble with a lot of people, so I'll just move on). Anyway, I don't really remember what everyone said, but it did get me thinking about how I feel about the homosexuality issue, and how I think that the church, as a whole (not just the MB church the worldwide church), has made it a much, MUCH bigger issue than it ought to be.
To be perfectly honest, I think the debate about whether it is genetic, or sinful, or that you are born with a gay gene, or it's due to parenting or whatever is pointless. I think it doesn't matter. Too often Christians feel that it is their duty to call certain things a sin, or certain people as sinners. We take it as our mission to judge and condemn certain people. Tiger Woods, who was once a role model is now doomed to eternal damnation. Bill Clinton is likely the spawn of Satan himself. Of course these are exagerations, but I think you get the point. The problem is, it shouldn't be our concern. We aren't supposed to be the judge. That's God's job. So going back to the homosexual issue, Christians have gone on a rampage protesting gay marriage, picketing the PRIDE parades and festivals, and most unfortunately, judging homosexuals out of the church. The very place that they should feel accepted and loved for who they are, they feel like scum. They feel judged and condemned. We quote Scripture and say that the Bible condemns homosexuality...but the Bible also condemnes calling our brothers (and sisters) names, disobeying parents, God HATES divorce, adultery, idolatry. And yet all of these things are not only in the church, they seem to be accepted. No one kicks out someone who tells a lie, or a child who disobeys their parents. Divorce, perhaps they may get the cold shoulder...unless they are a vital part of the church, in which case it is tossed aside and forgotten. Same goes for adultery, greed, lust. We have the worst double standard ever. We are, in a sense, saying that everything is permissible, and forgivable...except homosexuality.
Now, I do think that homosexuality is a sin. It's my opinion, and I could very well be wrong with it, but I think regardless, homosexuals need to be treated with love and respect from the Christian community. We may not agree with their lifestyle choice, or the fact that they want to be married, but they are still children of God. God loves them...He CREATED them. If homosexuality is in fact a sin, it is certainly not worse than any other sin. It's too bad that we have this heirarchy of sins, a list that progresses from "not too bad" to "AWFUL". In God's eyes, it's all the same. Sin is sin. Why do we think we are so much above the law that we can choose what is acceptable and what is not.
We don't have to agree with the lifestyle, we don't have to agree with everything about anyone...but we do have to show love. We have to show acceptance. We need to be willing to cast judgment aside, and just build a relationship. Build a friendship. Look at the life of Jesus. He hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, sinners. There are cases in which we seemed to "preach" to them, but there are many times he was just their friend, being with them and accepting them for who they are. Instead of focusing so much on the lifestyle, let's focus on the person. See them as the loved, respected, and beautiful person that they are. Let God deal with the rest. Let God do the judging.
That's just my thoughts on this issue. I realize it's a very touchy thing, but it's what I think. Feel free to disagree with me, if you so desire.

It's About Hymn!

"Today's modern worship songs are just all about 'me, me, me' instead of being about 'him, him him'. We need to go back to the hymns". We've probably all heard an argument like that. Followed by the rebuttle, "Hymns are outdated, we need to keep up with the changing culture, and stay relevent". The argument would continue, neither giving up ground or gaining ground. Both would leave frustrated, feeling that the "other generation just doesn't get it". Sound familiar? I wish I could write a blog that would settle the debate once and for all. I wish that I could come up with the pros and cons of both, compare and say "The church needs to do this...". Unfortunately, I can't do that. I'm not writing this blog to settle the debate. I'm not going to preach about the reedeming qualites of one or the other. What I do want to get at is this...when we focus on what we want. When we are only thinking about "I can't believe we are singing another hymn", or "Why are we singing this new song for the hundredth time", we lose focus on what is important. Worship...whether it be hymns, modern worship songs, or even dance, preaching, art, drama...whatever the form of worship may be (I am focusing on the music aspect here, but worship is SOOO much bigger than that), the focus needs to be on Him. On God. Creator. Master. Father. As soon as we begin to focus on our preference, on our desires, on our wants and needs, then we have lost it. We have moved from worship of God into idolatry (as we begin worshiping ourselves, or the music).
To be honest, I enjoy both hymns and the new worship chorus'. I think they are both meaningful, and serve an excellent purpose. I heard a comedian a while ago (I can't say his joke word for word...but you'll get the gist of it), who was talking about hymns. He said, "I used to love hymns...singing them in church. They sounded great. And then I realized that the underlying message in all of them is, 'God is good, and we are [crap]'". As funny (or unfunny, depending on personal taste), as that is...it has an element of truth to it. Yes, there are exceptions, but at the heart of most hymns is the idea that "We are crap...we are worthless without Christ". Which is a great message, I don't want to refute that. But does it really evoke any confidence in the human race? Does it give us self-esteem..make us feel valuable? Not really. Today's worship songs do have elements of that as well, but they focus instead on the love of God, on the amazing splendor of God's creation. And of our desire to be close to God and build that relationship with him. Yes, modern worship songs do tend to seem to be about "self" and "us"...but at it's heart, it is our cry for us to be close to God. Our plea for help. David did this in the Psalms all the time:
"Hasten, Oh God to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me" -Psalm 70:1
"Keep me safe O God for in you I take refuge"- Psalm 16:1
"Do not withold your mercy from me, O Lord" -Psalm 40:11

Do these not sound selfish? Is this not the type of thing that modern worship songs ask for? Yes David also spends a lot of time writing things that sound similar to the hymns too...but the point is, David (the original song-leader), wrote Psalms and songs from every perspective. He even has many angry, lamenting songs. We never seem to get frustrated at David for these, we just say that "it's what was in his heart...how beautiful". Why can't we do the same for the songs we sing in church...whether they be hymns, or chorus'? Every song that we sing has a story behind it. Unfortunately, we usually only know the stories behind the great hymns, which then evoke more emotion into them. But even the simplest worship song has a great story behind it. Let's not forget that. The point once again, however, is to not focus on what we want. To not just see the lack of hymns, or the lack of worship songs, or the volume of the drums, or the speed, tone or key that the songs are sung in. Let's just gather together and worship. One form is not better than another. One Psalm is not greater than another..perhaps we have our favourites, but all were written with just as much heart, just as much puprose, and just as much worship (yes...even the laments, and curses. David was worshipping God in his frustration, he was legitimately telling God how he felt. Honesty. A huge part of worship). Let's focus on Him, and not on Hymns. Let's worship God, and not worship songs. Let's bask in God's glory, realize that God is great, and we are faulty, and yet also see God's love, and our beauty. Don't lose sight of the purpose. Like a football player focuses on the endzone, a track star keeps his eye on the finish line, and a hockey player keeps his sights on the goal...let's keep our eyes on God, our minds on his majesty and our gaze on his beauty. That is what worship is truly about. Who cares if we sing a song that I don't like, or if the band is out of key. Let's just worship, serve, and praise the one who created us, who loves us, and is AWEsome.

Thou Shalt Not Fear!

Do you guys remember Y2K? I remember that whole year, hearing about the doomsday prophesy. All the computers were going to reset, information would be lost, planes would crash, the world would explode and that would be it. The world would end at the stroke of midnight, January 1, 2000. I was13, so I was a little bit freaked out. I didn't really expect anything to happen. I wasn't rushing out to buy gallons of water and thousands of cans of food like some people did...but I had this small idea that "just maybe something will happen". Of course, the ball dropped, the clock struck midnight and nothing happened. We celebrated a new year, and laughed at all the fear based propaganda. Now, the new Y2k is 2012. Apparantly, the Mayans predicted that, in 2012, the world was going to end. In fact, I recently watched a Discover Channel special about this, and they included other prophesies as well (including the book of Revelation...which I never realised mentioned the date 2012 anywhere). So now the fear is mounting once again. The "end of the world" movies are being released, "The Day after Tomorrow", "Knowing", and the aptly named "2012". In fact there were so many of them, that me makers of the Scary Movie franchies came out with "Disaster Movie" to poke fun at them (they are soon releasing "Vampires Suck", poking fun at Vampire Movies...which is about time). Anyway, all of this is causing massive panic. Ok, maybe no massive...but theres a lot of subtle fear. And the closer we get to 2012, the more the fear will build. And I'm not just talking about the London 2012 olympics and their creepy mascots. Anyway, the point is, even outside of the doomsday prophesy, North America, and I'm sure the rest of the world as well, thrives on fear. It's why we watch Horror movies, go on roller coaster rides. We love the thrill. Newscasts generally show all the bad news first, because they know it's what people want to see. Since 9/11, every major event has been met with the speculation that it would be attacked by terrorists. The World Cup in South Africa was filled with security, every Super Bowl is expected to be blown up, the G8 summit in Toronto was feared, the Olympics in Vancouver were in danger of an explosion. Everything is about fear.

But the truth is, there is nothing to fear. We made it through Y2K without any incident, we have moved past 9/11, gotten through the holocaust, the Oklahoma city bombing, the Columbine shooting, WW1 and 2, apartheid...we have made it past all of these things, and more. The world goes on. It continues to revolve around the sun, and will continue to revolve around the sun until God decides to end it. Could it end in 2012? Possibly...but I highly doubt it. God tells us not to fear. He will take care of us. Do not worry about tommorrow, let tommorrow worry about itself. Jesus could practically be saying, "Don't fear 2012...It will all be ok". God also says, "No one knows the day or the hour of my return". I strongly believe that God will return before the world ends...as if the world ends before God returns, he has nowhere to return to. If no one knows the day or the hour, then why are we expecting the world to end in 2012? Why do we predict these things? I'm not saying that this is the first prediction...there have been thousands, probably millions of people predicting either the end of the world or Jesus' return. In fact, a few summers ago, I heard a speaker predict that Jesus would return in the next 20 years. In fact he guaranteed it. Who is he to guarantee Jesus' return? Are you an angel buddy? cause not even they know the day or the hour.

So, I realize this blog is kind of all over the place, but I just want to leave with a few thoughts. Don't Fear. God is in control. As the song goes, "He's got the whole world in his hands". We have nothing to worry about it. And secondly, stop guessing when the world is going to end or when Jesus is going to return. It's stupid, insulting and just creates needless fear. We need to just let things go, move on and live life. We spend so much time in fear that we can't enjoy life. We spend so much time longing for heaven, that we miss out on so much while we live on earth. We fear helll so much, that our whole life becomes a form of hell. We are always loooking to the skies for Jesus, that we neglect to help those lying at our feet. Let's just enjoy life, do our best to live without fear (obviously some fear is good...but you get the idea), and just enjoy life. The world will turn, life will go on, and no matter how crappy and tough your life is now, eventually you will get through it. As Celine Dion sings, "the heart will go on". So will life. Don't worry, don't fear. Everything is under control. Trust God.