Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Honestly, I cannot mourn nor celebrate the end of Osama bin Laden's life. His life was marked with the suffering he caused and the chaos he brought into so many places and lives. At one time he accepted the hand of cooperation from the United States to conduct his war against infidels, committing the same acts of violence and destruction with our sanction and blessing because he was the enemy of our enemy. At that time his efforts were hailed by U.S. political leaders as inspiring and worthy of praise. But he was perpetrating the same deeds he later committed against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. I cannot mourn for a man whose life was so centered on evil. But I don't mean evil in relation to human quality of good or evil. bin Laden was proclaimed as a hero 30 years ago by the United States when he led the Mujahideen. At that time he was fighting the good fight. But our opinion turned in the completely opposite direction when he began the jihad against the American intrusion into...

Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom Stovall Weems What makes fasting easier? How can you make fasting more effective? Is it necessary? Stovall Weems provides a pattern for bringing people into the discipline of fasting without making it a burden. He also proposes that following a fast can be effective in producing spiritual awakening. And he stresses the necessity of it if you desire a fresher, more passionate relationship with God. Awakening has two parts. The first two thirds of the book is the foundational teaching regarding Weems’ approach to fasting. The last one thirds of the book sets out a pattern for implementing fasting into your life. Early in the book, Weems makes a decent argument for the need of believers to re-emphasize prayer and fasting in our lives. He also makes a passing mention of the role of giving. And he is right on. Believers in the current generations of the church have left the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving ...

It is making waves in the talk show circuits. It is on the best sellers list. Wal-Mart has a whole pile of the book. It is a smash hit. Heaven Is For Real tells the story of a little boy, Colton Burpo, who undergoes a serious surgical procedure. While under the anesthetic Colton experiences the wonders of heaven, the very throne room of God. The story is told from Colton's dad's perspective. Todd Burpo is a Wesleyan minister. Colton begins to divulge little pieces of what he experienced long after the surgery. The book tells of the little pieces of Colton's experiences that he shared over the course of a couple of years. This is a sweet book. The innocence Colton portrays makes you want to follow in his dad's footsteps, "Tell me more." It is a very quick read. I got through it in just a few hours. But I can't say that I liked the book. I'm probably too much of a cynic. Maybe I'm ingrained in my own beliefs too much. But as I read through the ...

Who goes to heaven? Who goes to hell? And who gets to choose? These are the questions that Rob Bell sets out to answer. To cut to the chase, Bell believes that God chooses everyone going to heaven. He argues that God is interested in a good story. And a god who allows people to live for approximately 72 years and then potentially spend eternity in hell does not make for a good story. For Bell, God allowing everyone to spend eternity with God makes a better story. And it does. It makes for a good story. And I agree with Bell on a good percentage of what he says early in the book. In general I believe that traditions and opinions of contemporary believers have strayed quite a bit from early beliefs. It is also interesting what biblical gymnastics are employed to argue for beliefs about the afterlife. Bell challenges the comfy armchair pictures and opinions about heaven and hell that we most commonly run into in today's churches. He draws out the many biblical approaches to heav...

I am reviewing Gabe Lyons' *The Next Christians* that I received free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for this review. I wanted to read this book based on the title. What could the next generation of followers be like that would require this writing? I have watched the Postmodern flash and the emerging movement fade and wondered if this was the next passing claim. The first thing that I noticed is that it is not original in the emotion behind the writing. This is a restoration ideology - "let's get back to how Jesus did it". And Lyons gives a couple of passing references to the earlier moves in church history. But he does not give a full nod to what he sees as an original shift. Church history is marked by a large number of efforts to get back to the original message of the Gospel,the marks of those efforts in the lives of followers, and the impact those followers have on the world. The second thing that I noticed was the categories of chu...

I got a really, really cool Christmas present. Probably the greatest thing since sharp thingy's to slice bread. My beautiful and really smart wife got me a Kindle for Christmas. For those who don't spend most of their time connected to technological doo-hickeys, a Kindle is an electronic/digital book reader. You download books into the device and then read the book. I've gone through a few books so far. Most of them have been science fiction (because who else would think up a device to store and read thousands of books). But I just finished a book that really deserved a comment or two. Amazon offers some Kindle books for free. And as someone always looking for something for free, I download a few each week. This week I downloaded Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos. I typically do not read Christian fiction. I wasn't even sure this one was Christian. When I scanned the description, I wasn't sure what I was getting. But very early in the book I was finding it to be en...

Nah. It seems that this has laid dormant so long that the cobwebs were becoming sentient. Nothing wrong with my desire to express my opinion or feelings. I'm just lazy. And have a small addiction to Lord of the Rings Online. I have been having someone post on my comments the last few days. I'm not sure how they found me or what drew them to a semi-abandoned blog, but they commented on a post the needed follow-up. In the blog Dog Days I was lamenting on the media attention that Michael Vick was getting. He was a villain. A monster. The lowest of low of humanity. He should have been thrown into the dog ring he was planning to hold between a Rottweiler with a toothache and a rabid, hungry, zombie Chihuahua with a pork chops tied to every conceivable appendage of his body. Vick was seen as deserving of all of the bad things that could be thrown at him. Now he's a hero. OH! That reminds me of something else. The elections. Everyone was saying that this was a wake up call to th...

Welcome back to my ongoing revival of posting. Yesterday I shared with you the report of a new study on spanking. I ended that conversation with the question of a problem in logic. Here is the article again. Study: Spanking Increases Aggression The problem that I identified with the article was in the final paragraph. Experts suggested that spanking might even be more dangerous to girls than boys because it trains them to be submissive. They said that can open women up to domestic abuse later in life. The issue I saw is this: - this article is about the study regarding an increase in aggressive behavior in children - this article refers to children without any distinction between male or female becoming more aggressive due to spanking - this article then claims that spanking is more dangerous to girls Logic demands that the next statement should be: there is an overwhelming increase in dangerous aggressiveness among females. But is that where they go? Nope. Girls become submissive. ...

A few weeks back I preached on the subject of “the unforgiveable sin”. Part of that sermon dealt with the question I received from a member of the congregation about suicide. I have heard in a number of places that suicide is an unforgiveable sin. After making a comment about suicide I stated that I would preach a series of sermons on the subject. I knew that the series would be soon but this became an immediate need in my opinion. I received so many responses to the comments I made about suicide in a sermon that I had to respond quickly. I have never had as many deep conversations in response to a sermon as I had after mentioning suicide. I believe that this has something do to with the history of suicides or attempted suicides in our community. In the two years that I have been here, I have heard of or known of more suicides or attempts than anywhere else in my ministry. Part of that has to do with being a part of emergency response. And I am not saying that it is more than anywhere ...

This is making the rounds on the news services and blogs ( this was from KOCO TV 5, OKC ) I had to remove the post due to copyright restrictions. But you can read it here . If you want to start a hot debate on a subject, open up the spanking vs. non-spanking conversation. It will get heated in a hurry. So if you want to jump on this and start something up, here is food for thought. I was spanked as a child and abused as a child. There was a very clear difference. Spanking resulted from wrongdoing on my part. Abuse resulted from loss of control on my father's part. I'm saying that without any judgment or condemnation. It is the past and I am well beyond that. But I make the point to say that there is a difference between the two. The spankings that I remember (and there were few) carried with them a deterrence factor. A spanking was something to be avoided, thus whatever resulted in a spanking was to be avoided. Abuse comes out of nowhere. It is completely at the whim of the per...

Mind if I rant a little. Actually I left off writing so long ago there probably isn't anyone checking on anything new. So I can rant if I want to. Here it goes. I'm listening to a radio preacher talk about the sin and the 10 commandments. And eventually he gets around to talking about Jesus Christ being our salvation. Then he throws out the phrase that Jesus died to offer a relationship, not a religion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the letter of that statement. But the spirit is all wrong. The implication when I hear statements to that effect (and it has really been a rallying cry the last 10 years or so) is that religion is a less meaningful connection that we have to Christ. Relationship is the better connection that we have with the living Christ. And I suppose that works. But the implication is that the old covenant was a religion, not a relationship. That the code of conduct was the means and the end. The relationship was just doing what God said. And that is whe...

Growing up, athletics was not my cup of tea. I'm just not athletically inclined. I stink at almost anything sportsy. Except volleyball. My 2 inch vertical leap is amazing. Part of me wonders why I wasn't given the athletic gene. But that part is relatively small. I really don't have a passion about athletics. But Nick loves sports. Basketball is his favorite. And he got to play on a team this year. Right now he is running track. He gets excited about playing on the teams. The deal is that he got my genetic (lack of) ability when it comes to athletics. Except swimming. He is a natural in the water. That is a sport in which he would excel. But his lack of natural ability in other sports does not slow him down. (Pun intended) He gets out on the court and chases that ball with joy. He runs and jumps with a love for the activity. And even if he isn't the first place (today he coined the phrase "first to last" to define his position in his heat), I still love to see...