Confessions of a Wanderer

Chuck Norris Jokes

2012-01-03T15:22:00.001-08:00

You’ve heard these right???

Before going to bed the boogie man checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.
Chuck Norris doesn’t sleep, he waits.

On and on they go, some funnier than others, but no one gets offended.

We say Santa Claus sees you when you are sleeping and awake and knows the ins and outs of your moral life, but no one gets offended.

Yet if you say Jesus Christ will judge the whole earth one day soon, no one takes it as a joke. It is either very serious (to the believer) or very offensive (to the non-believer). If I said Chuck Norris is coming to judge the whole earth one day soon, no one is offended. You might say “Yeah, with a round house.”

Honestly, I can list hundreds of examples of how people everyday glorify celebrities and it is just fine but glorifying God is intolerant some how. With their minds men deny God but in their soul they know He is, and He is angry with them… they should be offended, but not because God doesn’t exist.

One of my brothers friends is the worst offender. He likes to post on facebook saying stuff like “I hope you know your Christmas tree is a pagan sign” but then when people challenge his opinion he doesn’t want to debate, he just likes “laughing at all the ignorant believers.” If that were true he would attack other ‘fictional’ characters, but none of them offend him like Jesus does. He may think he is convinced of his atheism, but all I see is him fearing judgement of sin and righteousness.

When Caring More is Caring Less (Risk-Compensation part 1)

2012-01-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Did you know that seat belts actually kill more than they save? It’s true, it is a phenomenon known as Risk-Compensation. Now, it isn’t that seat belts don’t save the lives of those that wear them, they really do. It goes something like this: when it is really rainy/icy/snowy on the road you will drive slower to compensate for the additional risk. Simple, eh? Did you know the same works in reverse? When the road is smooth and dry, visibility is near maximum, and there is little traffic you will drive much faster. You are compensating for the lack of risk. That’s why racing drivers are able to overcome the mental feat of entering such high risk driving; they have roll cages, 5-point-restraints, on site emergency services, etc. The same is true with you and your seat belt! It turns out that people perceive less risk when they are belted in and will drive faster. As I mentioned earlier, seat belts do help save the lives of those who wear them, but those who wear them also drive faster and consequently have a higher mortality rate in vehicle-vehicle accidents. These two forces, driving faster and wearing seat belts, just about cancel each other out in lives saved versus lives lost. The increase in total mortality comes when a person in a vehicle strikes a biker or pedestrian. The higher speed (from the lower perceived risk of the belted-in drivers) increases deaths so much that, overall, seat belts increase deaths. It may sound like a ridiculous statement, but if everyone stopped wearing seat belts more people would survive accidents everyday. Risk-Compensation also permeates other areas of our lives.

I want to draw some parallels to parenting here but I will do that in future blogs. For now parents, look at your parenting… are you lowering your child’s perception of risks in this world? Do you call it love when you “protect” them from what life is really about? Do the constructs and expectations you are building into your child have them set up for a life of confusion, let-downs, failure….

Should We Condemn Rob Bell?

2011-05-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Rob Bell has had a unique appeal in this day and age. Time magazine called him a lone rockstar in the Chirstian scene. He has motivated many to closeness with and service to God. I believe Bell has been edgy and provocative in his books, but always in a beneficial and challenging manner. I have spent close to a decade defending Bell to my peers and church leadership. Yet, I have found myself in tremendous internal conflict over "Love Wins" and have concluded it is false doctrine, heresy, and perhaps blasphemy. I am tougher on its content than most of the critics out there. It makes me literally sick to my stomach as it paints a picture of a weak God that needs help from intellectual men; an inadequate God that needs more time to save people than what He Himself granted them on earth. Still, notice how I said Love Wins has caused this conflict, not the man, Bell.

Yes, yes, I know ""our struggle is not against flesh and blood" and that alone is reason enough not to condemn the person, but his teachings. I think it goes much deeper. Do you condemn Noah? Do you condemn Moses?

Noah was the only man with a family God could bare not to kill. He is the reason any of us are here. He was a Christ 'type' who 'saved' the world. But what did he do afterwards? Got drunk and left himself exposed. He blew it!

Moses was the most humble man who ever lived and the only one God would speak to not in parables but plainly like a man. Another Christ 'type' who 'saved' his people. No one was a vessel for such great displays of God's power like Moses. Yet what did he do? He disobeyed God on a simple command and angered God greatly. So much so he wasn't even able to cross over to The Land! He blew it!

Sense a pattern? It seems like the men that God uses for great works he also lets fall. It is almost as if God wants to leave only one 'singular rock star in the church world' and His name is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Holy Son of God!

Love Wins should be condemned because, simply, it is wrong. If you condemn Rob Bell, simply, so are you. You might as well start loving him now, he could be your neighbor in eternity!

Theory of a Dead Man

2011-05-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

If you know me then you know I am currently a student in a Physician Assistant program. So today I unwrapped and began cutting apart a dead human being. The following passage has never been so vivid to me.

" For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. "- Romans 8:20-23

I don't have much to say about it. I know today that I groaned inwardly seeing human decay at my fingertips. The passage continues...

"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

I know decay. I will know it even more as time passes. I groan and hope for redemption. Yet this 'waiting' kind of seems like a weak interim activity. Everything is wrong and dying and I am supposed to "wait?" For a few days I was not happy with that answer then I found Isaiah 40...

"Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary."

Your trajectory in life is based on what (in the distance) you have your sites set on. Set your sites on waiting on the Lord and his return, not anything here around you now. This is hope. Real Hope.

It turns out the Gospel really is Good News.

Ugggh

2011-04-30T12:16:00.001-07:00

I'm so tired. Problems of a mortal I guess. This is not my home. Not only is there no sleep in heaven, there's no tired... of anything.

Two Sticks

2011-04-22T22:31:00.001-07:00

If he was just a good man, he could of been used by God to perform miracles like other prophets have.

If he was just a good man, he could have had wise things to say like other wise men.

If he was just a good man, not much changes about his life. However, it changes much about his death.

"God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:25-26 NIV)

If he was just a good man, his death would not have made you clean nor would his death have cleared God of being accused of injustice... more to come...

New Android Blogger App

2011-04-20T09:02:00.001-07:00

This should make blogging easier. I guess a lot more blogging to come!

Amy Lee(Evanescence) singing Worship Music

2009-12-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

So I always thought Evanescence had a leaning to the Christian side. I guess they avoided that in 2002 by dumping Christian keyboardist David Hodges in favor of a more commercial sound. They dumped that, and another band member, in 2003 for a more artistic sound.

Anyway, the point is that Hodges was able to get Amy Lee (she is married with a new last name now) to sing backing vocals for the worship song "Breathe."

Without further ado, here it is
Breathe by David Hodges, feat. Amy Lee.

The Fire by Nate Pfiel

2009-12-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

The Obama Deception

2009-12-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

Who owns Obama? The same people that owned Bush, Clinton....

This isn't about Republican/Democrat; it is about truth!

Sources of Frustration:Me

2009-12-04T14:20:00.000-08:00

So somebody, especially a special somebody, says something hurtful to you. How do you react? I usually react hurt.

So where does that get me? Nowheresville. Moreproblemsland.

So there is two other options.
I don't get hurt no matter what is said to me.
-or-
I use my hurt to show the other how I have been made to feel hurt, but in a loving and beneficial way.

I don't know if option 1 is possible or healthy. I don't know how to do option 2 when I'm hurt.

Lord help me.

Blogging from my blackberry at Ram's Horn

2009-12-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

[wave id="googlewave.com!w%252Bc9cEdDdJS" width="100%" height="450px"]

So this is a blog from my blackberry. I also added some google
wave script to see if it would work.

Today I am thinking about life. People ask, "what should I do
with my life?". What if we replaced 'life' with a variable...

"What should I do with my X?"

What is substance X? Fill in X in that sentence with words
other than life. Keep the meaning of the sentence the same, just exchange 'life' with comparable words.

Now think about what you are doing with all those things.