The 7 Deadly Sins: ANGER

Here is one of a series of videos we used that complemented a teaching series on the 7 Deadly Sins using the concept of the "Mayhem" character from the All State commercials.

The 7 Deadly Sins: GLUTTONY

Here is one of a series of videos we used that complemented a teaching series on the 7 Deadly Sins using the concept of the "Mayhem" character from the All State commercials.

Killing babies is the same as abortion?

Consider just the title alone of this article: Killing babies no different from abortion. Now click on it and read it. This is messed up. It is scary in a Nazi-Dr. Frankenstein sort of way. But when you consider their logic, are they not just being consistent? They could have taken this one step further and considered the other end of life and declared all elderly people who have stopped contributing to society and have become a burden to their family and the health care industry as potential candidates for termination of life. I know that abortion is a touchy subject with many people. For many years now, I have often wondered if we would ever, in my life time, become a society where the logic of abortion would expand to all 3 trimesters of pregnancy, and then to infants and eventually to the elderly. All life is a gift from God and should be held as precious and worthy of living the fullest life possible. The question we must ask ourselves is why would anyone want to end the life of an infant (or a fetus or elderly person)? Whether it is a lack of care, finances, stress, or whatever it may be, my hope is that the church can be a source of blessing to all in their time of need. We need to be careful to not just attack ideas (or the present reality of abortion) without providing reasonable, loving responses to help deter those who see this as their only option. A loving and compassionate alternative I believe will help many of those who see no way out of a desperate situation that could lead to the termination of a life dependent on others for its existence. Let's hope that we will never see the day where this concept of terminating infants or the elderly ever becomes reality in our society. This concept of post-pregnancy termination and the word "ethics" make it more of an oxymoron if anything.

'via Blog this'

Santorum's Attack on Higher Education and College Students Abandoning Their Faith

Tim King wrote a brilliant article HERE on the CNN Belief Blog on Santorum's comments on how college students are walking away from their faith due to their experiences at "liberal" colleges.
King states that:

The years young adults spend in college aren’t causing them to leave their faith; those college years are exposing the problems with the faith they grew up with. The exodus has little to do with liberal college professors . . . . Rather, the exodus is about hypocrisy.

 There are those in the faith community who like to point fingers at other people with the failure of their own kids, but the reality is that the church need to stop and take a hard look at itself.  Villainizing education is not a good thing to do, especially when you consider what the Bible says about gaining wisdom and pursuing wisdom at all costs.

 There are many reasons why college-age young adults are leaving the church and to lay all of that blame on the esoteric "liberal college professor" is a lame cop-out.  I left the church for a while for a myriad of reasons.  I could lay it all on my church experience, pointing at hypocrisy and judgmental attitudes (the 80's were just a weird time for evangelicalism).  I could point to my college experience and blame that I suppose.  But the reality is that my own sin and temptation caused me to walk away from my faith for a time.

 The beautiful thing is that I worship a God who still pursued me and loved me even during those dark times.  He never walked away from me or gave up on me.  I am grateful that my God is greater than those hypocrites and finger-pointing people in the church as well as all my "liberal" (and conservative) college professors.  And I personally loved my broad education from the conservative Christian Sociology Professor to my Radical Feminist English Professor to my Liberal "Conspiracy-Theorist" History Professor, to my "Yoda Master" Seminary Professor!  They were all great.  The ones I never liked were the ones whom I felt were trying to indoctrinate me instead of helping me to think for myself.  And, if truth be told, there were a lot of those at the more conservative schools I went to rather than the liberal ones.  A LOT MORE!

Staring Down Your Own Mortality

Wow. Very rarely have I ever watched a video that caused me to tear up. Ed Dobson was my pastor when I went to seminary. He was a great pastor. I had the honor to intern at his church for the 3 years I was up in Grand Rapids. It just pains me to see Ed like this. It seems like a cruel "Job-like" joke for his life to slowly end like this. But then again, does anyone ever deserve an end like being afflicted with ALS regardless of their beliefs, or how good or bad of a life they may have lived? The simple fact that going through this, and finding purpose, meaning and a deeper relationship with Christ just simply floors me. I don't know that I could be this strong if this were me or one of my own family going through this. I simply don't know. I deeply respect this man and all he has done with his life. But to find meaning and purpose in this final stage of life puts him on a level that is beyond extraordinary. I hope his message can bring hope to many who are suffering and going through difficult times. I am sure there will be stages of my life yet where I will refer back to the final lessons that Ed delivered to his national audience through these videos.

Something a Little Different for Lent

Hey! Is anybody up for an interesting challenge for Lent this year?? Take a look at this video below.  Then go to this blog post for a little bit more information.  If you are interested in doing this then let me know. I am not doing this all by myself.  I think this kind of experience would be better as a shared experience that we can dialogue about all throughout the Lenten season. I am tired of just giving up the same old fast food for Lent.  I want to try something a little more different and challenging.  Something with a little more variety.  So let me know if you are in!  I think this would be a fun with some friends!  

steve fuller: Mother Freaker

Here is a great article called Mother Freaker on the topic of "cursing". My LOL moment in the article was the "reverse Scripture throw down" on Ephesians 4:29. Classic.