:A Christian Blog

A lot has went on since my last entry. First, two of my relatives were diagnosed with and lost the fight to cancer. One was my step-grandfather who was over 70, the other was an aunt that was in her 40’s. Both smoked. Both died within a week of each other right after Thanksgiving. With cancer, the diagnosis is the tough part, watching a person try to fight through it is even more tough. After all of that, the death seems to finally bring some peace. It was a very sad time for both families, but brought people together in a very good way. I’m glad it’s over, and I hope they are both enjoying heaven at this moment.
On a lighter note, as my regular readers can probably tell, I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.0. I’m really liking it so far, with the exception that plugins will be sparse for a while, and a new template will have to be designed since the other one seems to be broken. Other than that, I plan to write a post on faith this week. I’ve been planning to do it for months, but never can get the right words in my head. I’m just going to sit down this week and do it. Thank you for continuing to read A Christian Blog.

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As any Southern Baptist probably knows, once saved, always saved. Those that go back to their sinful ways are just “backsliding”. I guess that can somewhat define my blog for moment (not the sinning part, just the backsliding). I have been rather sick for a few days and even though I was able to post, I just couldn’t muster anything new or innovative to put on the site. My point here is quality, not quantity, and I hope that most of my readers use an RSS feed reader to keep up-to-date since you don’t have to visit the site directly. You just visit one central location each day and it tells you when this blog has been updated. Most blogs that put up internet ads to try to make a profit don’t really like this method, but since I never intend to try to make a profit from A Christian Blog, I don’t mind and even encourage it.

One note, however, is Casting Crowns. Being sick leaves you plenty of time to listen to music and watch television. The self-titled album, Casting Crowns, is one of the most inspirational I have ever heard. Every time my CD changer makes it around to that CD, I automatically want to go out and save the world. I’d highly recommend it to anyone that likes contemporary Christian music. Even if you don’t, just reading the words to the songs are worth the price of the CD. Their second CD, Lifesong, is a little slow for my tastes. I love upbeat music that has deep meaning and gets you going in the morning. I can’t define it, but Casting Crowns strikes a chord within me.

Being on a budget, I don’t exactly have the funds to just buy every Christian CD on the top 10 list. If anyone has any suggestions on music that is a lot like Casting Crowns, I’d love to hear it.

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What really got me thinking about this was a daily devotional email I received a couple of days ago and it mentioned Hezekiah.

2 Kings 20:1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘ Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’”

2Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

3″ Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight ” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

5″Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.

6″I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”‘”

This is interesting to me, because Hezekiah wasn’t just sick, he was dying. He looked up to God after speaking to him and then Hezekiah wept bitterly. Bitterly? Sounds to me like Hezekiah was disappointed at God. Can this be? Can someone be disappointed with the creator of the Heavens and Earth? I think so. I think God wants this kind of interaction with his followers. He created us in his image, and so we have feelings like anger, resentment, and disappointment. When we get behind God like Hezekiah did, “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight “, then are we are a follower of the one true God. I think if you are truly in the path of righteousness, then you can get healed like Hezekiah did, if it’s within God’s will. It would be no different than asking a parent for something. God is going to take everything into account, including your faith and commitment to him, and come back with an answer. I don’t think that’s anything new, but I believe that answer can even be “Your healed”.

I don’t just conjure up these thoughts, I read the Bible and then try to apply it to today’s world. I’d love to hear your comments on this, maybe my thinking is way off, but I think a lot about my interaction with God and how in the Bible their interaction was totally different, I’ll be doing a second post this week along this same lines about faith in the 21st century.

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In case your wondering, yes, I will wrap up talking about this subject soon. This is probably my last post about it specifically. Here are some links I’ve found from around the internet on views about Catalyst 2005. Some I really agree with, and some only partly, but if you read them, it at least looks as though everyone was at the same conference and in sync for the most part with their opinions of it.

Church Marketing Sucks

Tony Morgan’s Blog (in depth posts about Catalyst also)

live… from new orleans

Bob Franquiz (seperate posts for different Catalyst speakers also)

I’m sure there are more, but that’s what I could find from the past few days of looking through the Christian blogs that popped up. It’s good to see that everyone had a good time, and I hope it’s even bigger and better next year.

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“Vintage Catalyst” was one of the best conferences that I’ve been to. All the speakers were right on target, as far as I’m concerned, on how to move forward with today’s church. There was even a special appearance by Rick Warren to proclaim that we need a second reformation in the church to move in a new direction which I would sum up as “Others, not self”. I ended up buying a book by almost every speaker at the conference after hearing their views on the role of the church and it’s leaders in today’s world. A lot of it was inline with some of the things I’ve been talking about. Outward, not inward, is the way that Jesus taught and that if you walked in any church today, your more likely to hear a sermon on “stress” than the needs of the poor in your community. I’m still taking in all the information that I’ve heard and have drastically stepped up my reading time this week to formulate some ideas in my own head about how to get this accomplished in my community. I would recommend that everyone that has a position or plans to take a position in Christian leadership attend Catalyst 2006 next year. I’m sure a lot of the blogs over the next couple of weeks will deal with the same subjects that Catalyst talked about.

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The blog will be void of posts this week. I’m attending a leadership conference called Catalyst. I have never attended this event, but those who have highly recommend it. Here’s a little more about it from the web site.

Catalyst’s Purpose:

To provide relevant solutions through training and resources which connect and develop next generation leaders.

I hope to return with new ways to motivate myself, as well as, other Christians to spread the gospel of Christ. I’m going to try to keep up with all the great Christian blogs that I read everyday through the hotel wireless internet, so keep posting away!

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Just a quick note, there’s a good discussion about intelligent design going on over at kuro5hin.org. It’s worth a read and even though the intelligent design theory is not as clear as Christians would want it to be, it at least gets our foot back in the door in an official sense in public schools. Does anyone have links to Christian authors talking about the same subject?

Warning: The site linked doesn’t filter profanity.

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I used to work out 3-4 times per week with a partner. At first, it’s fun and something new. Then you hit those days where you don’t really feel like going. My partner would always be there to say “Get up, it’s just a small bit of sacrifice and you’ll feel great”. He was always right and he got me to the gym. When he stopped going with me, I gradually stopped going myself, because there was no one there to tell me to get up on those days when I didn’t really feel like doing it or had a lot to do. After a while, my excuse was that I was just too out of shape to go to the gym!

This brings me to another important topic that I hinted on in a comment of the last post. Accountability. Should Christians have a partner that makes them accountable for things they have or haven’t done? As some of you may know, it’s been a few days since my last post and it really got me thinking about this. What if I had someone calling me or meeting me on a daily or weekly basis, asking me if I had met the goals we set last time we met? I think I’d be more apt to do the things I set out to do if I knew that someone was going to be asking me about them later. This person would have to be someone that you could bare your soul to, but at the same time, not let you off the hook when your getting lazy. This person would support you through mistakes, and work with you to get back on the right track. I like the idea, and will try my best to put it into practice this week. I always have big aspirations of what I’m going to do for God on Sunday, then Monday comes. Period. I think this will help me stay on track through the week to grow spiritually.

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I’ve just found out that this storm has been upgraded to a category 5. I and others will be praying for all those in the path of this storm. Having been through Katrina, I know it is an experience I will never forget. A lot of the evacuees from New Orleans fled to Houston to try to make a new home, which is now directly in the path of Rita. Please pray for our nation as we adjust to homeland disasters such as the ones we’ve experienced since 9/11. It’s something that a lot of American’s aren’t used to, but will survive.

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At Beliefnet.com, they have a poll running asking the question: Did God send the Hurricane? Some think this is God’s revenge. Some think that God doesn’t control the weather. Some think it’s a sign of the end of the world. One answer eludes all of them, that Katrina is a blessing to us. That’s correct, a blessing. Yes, lives were lost in this disaster, and my heart goes out to those families, but the numbers were so low, that was really a blessing in itself. Those who did, however, did not die for no reason. I see atleast three positive outcomes from this storm.

Fellowship. Millions of people have come together because of this disaster. They were brought together to clear roads, help out each other, and strive as friends to get through the hardship caused by the need for food, water, and shelter.

Faith. Many people had nothing left, except the clothes on their backs. They were forced to rely on God for the things that they needed. This is the way that God wants it.

Matthew 6:30″But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

31″Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’

God wants us to trust him, believe in him, and depend on him for everything we need. He created all of it, and can provide for us.

Humility. This hurricane taught us all how weak we are in the context of the universe. This natural disaster, much like the tsunami, has shown everyone that you cannot even rely on the entire human race to save you. We were all humbled by it’s power and size. A storm much like this arose while the disciples were out to sea with Jesus in Matthew 8:24-27. With faith in God, you have nothing to fear.

I may be wrong for thinking this storm did more good than it did bad, but as a Christian, I love how it has brought people together and the love that it has brought out in people that you didn’t even know existed. You can really see the truth in people’s hearts in times of a great disaster such as this.

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