A good friend of my daughters’ was hurt severely a couple days ago. He is in the Shock Trauma unit at University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore with a broken neck.

Please pray to Jehovah-Rophe or Allah or Jesus – (however you choose to address the Lord) for complete healing and that this young man may walk again.

You may find out more about Shadoo’s status here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=317217690695

(and I’ll be back here blogging soon Deb!)

Let it be so. Amen.

I made a comment to a previous post that said “I do not agree that our catholic nor individual purpose is to strive to be more like Christ…”

Someone asked me “but can we agree that we are told to strive to become like him?”  and cited the following verses:

1 Peter 1:15-16

¹⁵But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Ephesians 4:22-24

²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

These are good scriptures to start the discussion. The action verb in 1 peter is “BE” and the action verbs in the Ephesians passage are “put off” and “put on.”

Ephesians makes it sound more like a process (and I do agree that there is a process involved) with the putting off and putting on being a gradual thing (any Greek scholars can jump in here to provide more detail). The verse in Peter is quoted more often, I believe, where Peter said “BE” not “try to be” or “strive to be” but simply “BE Holy.”

What are our actions to be if we are “putting on/off” rather than a simple (one time) act of “put on/off”?  How are we to be holy? What does this look like?

I have searched the scriptures (thanks Biblegateway) for the word strive – and it doesn’t really show up that often, and never in the context of Christian living. So where does the idea come from (in Scripture) that this is a process and not simply something we are doing or not doing? Why don’t we simply

Thoughts?

An Arizona pastor preached a sermon recently entitled, “Why I hate Barack Obama.”

It’s easy to find the full sermon on youtube, so I won’t dignify it by linking it here, but here’s a few quotes:

“I’m going to tell you something. I hate Barack Obama. You say, well, you just mean you don’t like what he stands for. No, I hate the person. Oh, you mean you just don’t like his policies. No, I hate him.”

“I am not going to pray for his good. I am going to pray that he dies and goes to hell.”

This is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The following passages are excerpts from the “APPENDIX” of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” published in 1845.

“What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the ~slaveholding religion~ of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference–so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of “stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.” I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me”

“The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works they do for to be seen of men.”

“Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fellowshipping a SHEEP-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a MANstealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with them for it. They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They are always ready to sacrifice, but seldom to show mercy. They are they who are represented as professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors.”

There are two things that jump out at me from reading these passages:

1. I’m not the only or first one to doubt that this is or ever was a Christian nation, and

2. These words ring true today over 160 years after they were written.

The doctors let Leah come home on Saturday! She does have MRSA and she’s on 2 weeks of antibiotics, but they gave her pills and sent her packing.

She has a follow-up appointment with the doctor today to check on her, but she is looking and sounding so much better.

Thanks to all who have been praying for her!

Les Paul passed away yesterday.

As a tribute I thought I’d post some clips of my favorite, Les Paul toting guitar players showing us how sweet they are:

…and finally, the man himself:

Feel free to mention or add your favorite Les Paul player as well.

My wife developed an abcess in her cheek over the weekend that did not respond to the antibiotics prescribed to her last Monday. The doctor punted her over to the ER and she ended up being admitted to the hospital. They haven’t said it “out loud” but they are concerned that she has a MRSA infection (that’s the nasty ‘flesh eating’ virus you may have heard about in the news).

She has been receiving IV antibiotics and she told me this morning that they are going to surgically lance the abcess this afternoon. Hopefully that will relieve her discomfort (alright it’s PAIN) and she will get to come home soon.

Please pray for her today – and my family as well. I woke up this morning to my daughter sobbing; she had a nightmare that Mommy had died in the hospital and my daughter did not get the chance to say goodbye to her. I comforted my daughter and told her that it was just a dream, and she said “yeah, but it still hurts.”

Someone asked my wife today, “what does it mean to be a success?” The question stemmed from a song lyric or televised interview (can’t remember the details) that pointed to money, cars, and stuff as being the measure of success.

That got me to thinking – what does it mean to be successful? In America? As a man or woman? As a parent or spouse? Most importantly, as a Believer in and follower of the Christ?

I’m not sure I have an answer yet, just a bunch of ideas. Usually success is “measured” by some form of yardstick – that is, by a standard like how big is your house, or how many TVs or cars do you own.  So I guess I’m really asking, “What are the measures/standards for you based on your place/status in life? And based on your world view?

thoughts?

Tomorrow is my son Cliff’s 25th birthday:

I must say that having a child that is a quarter-of-a-century old makes one feel old as well. I guess it’s no worse than being a grandfather…

Cliff and I had lunch together today; we had a good talk about life, ambition, mission, and purpose. With all the women in our house (we’re outnumber 6 to 2) we should really spend time together more often.

Cliff and his wife Micky are in the process of getting trained to go in the mission field. They aren’t sure of where or when just yet – still pretty early in the planning stages, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a prayer or two for guidance and discernment.

Happy Birthay, Cliff!