The Church- a sad story, or an epidemic?
I just wrote a really long blog about this article, but it erased, so I am going to put it below and ask for your comments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/magazine/327MEGACHURCH.html?ex=1112590800&en=1d388f2c94f7024d&ei=5070
And one quote that I thought deserves a comment..."He(the pastor) says that his hope -- his expectation, really -- is that casual worshipers will gradually immerse themselves in Radiant's many Christ-based programs, from financial planning to parenthood and education, until they have eventually incorporated Christian values into every aspect of their lives."
I think that is a good hope, if your goal is to produce a group of 'good people', but the last time I checked the Bible, Jesus didn't come to save good people. It is not the well who need a doctor, but the sick.
this article makes me sick to my stomach because I think the basic message of it is sad, and that may people are being told that heaven is full of people who have "incorporated Christian values into every aspect of their lives."
thoughts?
Funny story, but not surprising
Most of the people close to me know that I am really good about getting into really awkward situations. This one should fit in nicely with the rest of my collection.
So I was in Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago at the wedding that I wrote about previously on this blog and I was an usher. A guy name Chris and I were standing on the bride's side of a two lane church and were performing our duties as they had been assigned. Suddenly a dilemma came upon us. In the front doors of the church walked one of my ex-girlfriends from high school, her parents, and a new boyfriend(?). So I turned to Chris and said, "hey, why don't you take this one, she's an ex girlfriend." He then turned to me and said, well we have a problem, because I dated her in college. Not knowing what to do, I pulled out the trump card and said, well, why don't you take her, b/c the last time I saw her parents was when they walked in on us making out while watching a movie in high school. The strangeness of the situation escalated as she and her family approached. By that point I was hoping that I escorted the ex, but instead, I was stuck with the mother. That made for a really great conversation while walking her down the isle. Mostly of me trying to act like the angel she found making out with her daughter that night.
Porn Nation "The Naked Truth"-- a review, and my own relatings
Last night here at Vanderbilt there was a presentation called Porn Nation "The Naked Truth". It was a series of short video clips with facts and accounts from different individuals of their realizations about porn and the porn industry, and also some of the detrimental effects of what porn does to people. These video clips were interspersed with narrations from Michael Leahy, a man who had a 30 year addiction to pornography and sex, who is now living a life free from this addiction. He talked alot about his own struggle with pornography from the age of 11, and the deepening effects of it, until it finally wrecked his marriage, family, career, and essentially, his life.
He talked to a large degree about the extremely deceptive side of porn and how in our lives, the things that we feed grow, and the things that we starve die. So if we begin looking at porn at a young age, our desire for it and its mastery over our lives grows. And the explicivity of the material that we intake, doesn't stay the same. And if you think the advertising market and entertainment industry in this nation doesn't know that, you're crazy. The first Playboy magazine that came out in 1954, looks more like what i see walking around here at Vanderbilt on the first 80 degree spring day. Now, the mainstream infiltration of pornogrpahy into our culture is tough to ignore. TV, magazines, newspaper, internet, walking to class, whatever, IT IS EVERYWHERE. Guys walk around with MAXIM magazines as if its no big deal just because it doesn't come in a plastic wrapper with an 18&over sticker on it. We've bought into pornogrpahy, and in a big way.
But what is shocking about this stuff is what it does to us. When the guy started talking about this, I was right on with him, because to some degree I know what he was talking about. You see, what porn does to us is it tells us that the normal isn't enough. The normal girl walking around in 'less than painted on' jeans and a nice, but not boob hugging shirt isn't enough. We need, and furthermore, deserve the beautiful porn-star type of girl that we can get every other day of our lives. We can get her in all of the places that i mentioned above, and she is always going to be smiling, ready to indulge our sexual desires, all the time without having any real life problems that she deals with. I mean, why shouldn't this girl have her whole life together? after all, she is beautiful! And for those who have been in a relationship with a woman and meanwhile trying to manage pornography, they will at some point, without a doubt, find that the woman they are with isn't enough. She has problems, she isn't the hottest girl on the block anymore, she isn't always looking at me with a smile and wanting to have sex all day. Notice I said RELATIONSHIP, not marriage. You don't even have to be married for this to ruin you. I have seen it, my friends have seen it, in fact, I haven't talked to one guy who has struggled with pornogrpahy who doesn't agree. "There is always someone better. The grass is greener somewhere. You'lll find someone who is better for you." To continue to buy into this is a lie, it is sin. You see, the girl that we all long for and just KNOW is out there doesn't exist. She is a mirage, as soon as you think you've found her, she disappears. So does this mean that we should just find any girl and date her and marry her. No, i don't think this is the answer. To be physically attractive to someone is important, but for every guy to hold out for the girl with a perfect body, perfect hair, and a 24/7 seductive look, does us guys no service at all, and moreover, what it does to women is even worse. It is no wonder that women struggle with body image as they do, we expect them all to be tall, thin, and perfectly shaped in all the right areas. It is no wonder that plastic surgery for people under the age of 18 has increased 1200% since 1998. Pornography deceives us into a surreal demand. A demand that is literally killing us from the mind outward.
A struggle with the infiltration of pornography probably will never end so long as you live and have functioning eyes, because the last time i checked, the media and advertising is not giving up on this profit cow. But our hope is not in ourselves, our hope is in the one who can change our mind and our heart and redeem even the sickest areas of our lives. To have any hope at all in this area is to look at Christ and admit that we can't do it, my pornogrpahic mind and heart will fail every time if He does not change it. If the Holy Spirit does not draw me to the Lord and show me that any love other than Christ is a lover less wild, then I am hopeless. We are hopeless, our friends our hopeless. All the accountability groups in the world will not change your heart. They can help, but they will not change your heart. The gospel applies here as it does in every other area of our lives. Repent and Believe the good news that Jesus has died to redeem you, to redeem me, and to rescue me from my addiction to and idolatry of anything other than Him. Repentance and belief in Christ change us, they are our hope. Have mercy on us Lord, and give us strength to overcome this love that can never love us like you do.
The Bride and Her Wedding
I just made a 12 hour journey from Nashville to OKC last night, so I'm feeling a little rugged this morning. But I tell you what, books on tape are a wonderful thing. The drive pretty much flew by as I found myself entrenched in Deception Point by Dan Brown.
The reason that I drove 12 hours to Oklahoma is that a couple of my good friends from Duncan are getting married. Its a beautiful story, they dated for 9 years until last spring when they broke up. They haven't dated for 10 months, and on Valentine's Day he showed up at her house and they got engaged, and 3 weeks later, they're getting married. How normal is that? Not very. But at any rate, I am so happy I can hardly contain it. JJ grew up down the block from me and was a very influential person in my growing up and spiritual maturing. He's what you would want in a friend, other than the fact that he doesn't ever call you. I'm a pretty big fan of weddings in general, and I think we all should be for good reason. Weddings are a wonderful time when two people come together with all of their sin, shortcomings, and, well, their crap. But the reason that I love weddings so much is that they are a small glimpse of the grand wedding that is to come. For all believers, all those who are part of the (invisible) church, we are a bride too, Jesus' bride. This thought has not always gripped me as much as it does now. I don't think anyone can fully understand how beautiful a thing it is, until we realize how much we(the church) don't deserve our groom. You see, what we bring to the table is a lifetime of rebellion, sin, and whorring around (as Biblical imagery would have it). What Jesus brings is incomprehensible patience, forgiveness, and love. We will never be able to understand why or how he loves us like he does (hence the word incomprehensible). He loves us because of what we do. WRONG!!!!! Listen as the Lord talks to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-8,
"6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." Did you catch that? He loves them because.......He loves them. There is no reason why. He just does. That is unconditional love. We as humans can't love like that. Because of our sin, there are all sorts of conditions on our love. Even in the best of marriages, husbands and wives love conditionally, and probably more often and in more ways than they would like to admit.
So as I sit there tomorrow night and watch (and probably cry) as my two very good friends are wed, I will be joyful for what is happening. It is a picture of the gospel. It is a picture of sacrificial love. But this joy, as beautiful and deep and as real as it will be, is but a foreshadow, a small glimpse of what it will be like that great day when we are wed to our groom in glory! We are his bride, he has chosen us and loved us, just because he has. There are no conditions. With that in mind, shouldn't our only response be to love him back and to give him the affections that we give so many other less-deserving things here on earth? I hope and pray that it would be so, and in increasing measure!
Ebay, i love you
Now, why I may not always put out information worth reading, this site should be sure to give you something to laugh/think about.
www.mattymattsax.blogspot.comWhen I was a student at OU, I vaguely remember this concept called arbitrage. It was used mainly in the context of buying and selling stocks, or playing the market in a way that was guaranteed to make money. As you may or may not know, to do this in stock market is nearly impossible (unless you have inside information) because by the time you hear news about something, the stock price has already reacted. However, there is still a very fair and sometimes easy way to do this. It is called ebay. Because of the popularization of ebay in recent years, this is actually easier than it might seem. Some people refuse to use ebay because of the seller fees, and so they still are trying to sell stuff through online bulletin boards, or perhaps even online classified adds.
So here is my story. A few weeks ago I saw a great deal on some snow skis at an online bulletin board so I bought them. I was well aware what they were worth on the ebay market, and i figured i could make a little cheese. I bought them for $325 which included shipping, and then I skiied on them for a few days in New Mexico. After the ski trip, I put them up on Ebay and sold them for $495. Man, i was excited. The price went up $100 in the last 20 minutes. That was a nice bonus. As far as I can tell, I think that is what I would call arbitrage in the open market.
Holla
