Month: July 2007

Tough questions of faith

This is from our Small Group study guide tonight:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!

Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice!” This passages and others like it have caused tremendous confusion in the body of Christ. More than once, I’ve stood by the side of a believer who’s mourning the loss of a loved one and overheard something like this: “Well Mary, we’re praising the Lord with you today. Harold is home with his heavenly Father. He’s rejoicing right now with us. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to praise God even in this? You are praising God, aren’t you Mary? You’re not losing the victory are you?” Mary mumbles thanks then inwardly chastises herself for not being a stronger Christian. Why can’t she sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” at her husband’s funeral like she’s supposed to?
I mean isn’t that what Philippians 4:4 tells her to do? Doesn’t it tell her – and us – to rejoice over death, loss, injury, trial, failure and defeat? Doesn’t it tell the elders of our church, who regularly pray with seriously afflicted people, to rejoice over eyes that don’t see, limbs that don’t function, wombs that are barren, or hearts that are broken? Doesn’t it tell them to meet with grieving and trembling, the broken and the beaten down, and chastise them for not “rejoicing always?”

What is your gut reaction to the statements above?
What does it mean to rejoice in the Lord always?

A reasonable question…

Karl Fisch, a high school technology director has put together a presentation on our shifting culture – towards technology. The presentation is now available on YouTube…

It’s an interesting look at technology and our shifting culture.
For instance, did you know…

  • Today’s 21 year olds have spent 20,000 hours watching television, 10,000 hours playing video games, 10,000 hours talking on the phone, and have sent and received 250,000 emails or instant messages.
  • More than 70% of U.S. 4 year olds have used a computer.
  • 1 out of every 8 couples married in the U.S. in 2005 met online.
  • The amount of technical information is doubling every two years. By 2010, it is predicted to double every 72 hours.
  • If Myspace was a country, it would be the 8th largest country in the world.

So here’s the question: How is your church handling the change?

Hat tip to Churchrelevance for the heads up.

Spoiled rotten

Just when I want to gripe about AT&T DSL service (or sometimes the lack there of) or how my router isn’t working properly or how something doesn’t work right at home, I read an entry like this and realize how spoiled rotten we are…

From Erin’s blog in Jos, Nigeria:

Ok, but get this. It only took about 3 months to get it hooked up. For real. Poor Dan, our missionary computer whiz. He had so many challenges in getting us hooked up to wireless on our compound. The electricity would go off. Or the current would be too strong and would blow something. Or the cables were too short and we had to wait for missionaries coming from America to bring new ones. Or the rains would come. Or the back up battery charger would die. Or I would not be at home at the moment Dan had a second to hook me up. Or Or Or…. ok folks, appreciate your internet.

And so then what happens? Yesterday, ta da, Dan does his magic and I have wireless in my house!!! But, oh yes, my computer battery charger got fried because the stabilizer hooked up to my electricity had a short – sending too much power into my charger and poof. No battery. No internet. Can you believe it?

So. Now I have a couple of Nigerian guys ‘fixing’ my charger, but you can bet my Dad is already online, ordering one to send with the Chicago Team coming in 2 weeks.

My neighbor, Lauren, fell asleep while we were watching a movie on her laptop (cuz my dvd player also got fried – but I think that actually will be fixed by one of my friends). So, while she snoozes, I stole her laptop so I can get online in my house (!) and get a blog posted. This is fantastic. And a new beginning to my blogs, I hope.

The plan was to send a blog out every week, at least. To use my blog as a way to just be real about life in Nigeria.

Well, folks, when it takes me getting into my truck and over to the office to get online and then to try to download pics and… ok, so I got lazy, but as soon as my computer is up and running, or whenever Lauren lets me snatch hers, I will be back in the Blogging Business, better than ever.

Kid Update –
I just love our little kids. We had a debate today about whether or not we should watch Karate Kid 2 at tomorrow’s ‘Film Night’, or to allow all the kids to vote on which movie to watch. I was able to bring a projector out here and now have the whole set up of speakers and such so that we can watch a movie on the ‘big screen’ (large white sheet) under the stars. Last month we watched Karate Kid 1. The older boys were kinda bummed cuz they had already seen it. But man, our little ones had a blast. And wouldn’t you know, they were doing ‘The Crane’ afterwards!

All that to say, Aunty Erin agreed with the little ones today that they should get to see Karate Kid 2 because the older ones “always get their way”. And as we agreed on this, some kids started breaking into the moves.

Treehugging according to The Simpsons

My brother-in-law Brian and I took our nephew Jake to see The Simpsons movie last night. Funny stuff. I felt like maybe we were a little off or the humor was a little smarter than the rest of the audience (that’s what I want to think) as I felt like we were laughing at more of the sight gags and jokes than anyone else in the theater.
I thought it was smart (sometimes crude) satire/comedy that poked fun at the EPA and well, everyone else as the show typically does.
My favorite scene was a picture of the Springfield church next to Moe’s bar. When the folks discovered the end of Springfield was near, those in the bar and church ran out screaming and those in the bar ran into the church and those in the church ran into the bar.
Later in the movie as the “end of the world” was at hand, the church marquee was changed to say, “We told you so.”
Ha! Good stuff.
Slate has put together a video looking at the show’s history on environmentalism that’s quite good… take a look.