the game of tag, blog style

The rules:
1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Ponder it for meaning, subtext or hidden agendas…
5. Tag five people to do the same.

my 23rd post was a post concerning the parables of Jesus. i had been listening to rob bell's sermons that i got from his church's web site, and they made me think of the parables of Jesus, and how He took everyday situations and used them to teach about amazing things concerning His Father and His love for us:

you may be wondering why i have been stuck on writing about the parables of Jesus the last few posts, but i like how He took an everyday situation and used to teach.

well, i'm not a great teacher. my daughter, God love her, tells me that she really enjoys my classes "even though nobody else listens." well, then i think i have done my job. if she grows up and shares what she gets out of the lessons later on in life, or if she applies those lessons to her life, then i will be totally pleased.

i was "tagged" for this little adventure that i am doing by one of the greatest "discussion leaders" of my time. i am glad to call him, and be called by him, as friend. thanks greg.

bet you didn't know this ... i didn't

Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, the majority belonged to protestant denominations. It was on this day, October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the door of Wittenberg Church, thus beginning protestantism. He was summoned to stand trial before the twenty-one year old Emperor Charles V and declared an outlaw. Frederick of Saxony hid him in the Wartburg castle where he translated the New Testament into German. Martin Luther later wrote: "I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth."

come and join us

you may think that this post looks a lot like a post that i put up earlier in the week. well, .... it mostly is, but i have made some changes to it. i am adding a line at the end of this post, and this little bit after having read a little of a blog that comments about the author of the book we are using as a conversation agent. it was said that the author, rob, is basically making up what he is preaching. from what i have heard and read, that comment seems unfounded. i like rob, and think you will too.

last night we started a conversation and coffee get together thing at beaner's on airport here in mobile. we are talking about rob bell's book velvet elvis and whatever else comes up. we are meeting at 7:pm on tuesdays. you are all welcome to join us.


bring your laptop, too, if you wish. beaner's has wi-fi available.

well this is what i was talking about up there at the beginning of this re-posted post. i found an interview that was done with rob. check it out.

more imitation

i got these from danny's blog. this is your mission if you choose to accept it. ok, this is what i would do. copy the questions and delete what is not your answer in the comments section, or type out your answers in the comments section. make sense? good!

Choose your favorite of the ones I’ve listed or name another person for the category...

1. Author: David McCullough, Danielle Steel, or Stephen King
2. Director: Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen Spielberg, or Francis Ford Coppolla
3. Quarterback: Roger Staubauch, Tom Brady, or Terry Bradshaw
4. First Lady: Eleanor Roosevelt, Hilary Clinton, or Laura Bush
5. TV Pitchman: Ron Popeil, John Cameron Swayze, or Orville Redenbacher
6. Funny Character: Napoleon, Kip, or Uncle Rico
7. Comedian: Jerry Seinfeld, Jonathan Winters, or Chris Rock
8. Track star: Roger Bannister, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, or Carl Lewis
9. Kid’s TV show host: Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rodgers, or Bozo

choose one of three

1. If you had to have one: Bad sunburn, huge fever blister, or a pulled muscle?
2. Best beverage: Iced tea, hot chocolate, or coke float?
3. Fun pet: Kitten, puppy, or bunny?
4. Which ride: Roller coaster, carousel, or Ferris Wheel?
5. Best for worship: Classic hymn, praise song, or Gregorian chant?
6. Favorite sound: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, or banjo?
7. Footgear: Sandals, tennis shoes, or barefoot?
8. Best drive: Major highway, back road, or off road?
9. Vacation: African safari, European city, or South American jungle?
10. Spend a day with: Apostle Paul, Moses, or Elijah?

Choose one or more

1 Look up a number in the phone book or internet?
2 From an old friend you haven't heard from in years, get a letter or get a phone call?
3 Pancakes or waffles?
4 Watch a horse race or go horseback riding?
5 A week of no TV or a week of no music?
6 Hot oatmeal or cold cereal?
7 Find a $100 bill or get a free hour-long massage?
8 Sweater or light jacket?
9 Fall or winter?
10 Spring or summer?

Would You Rather...

I found this on a cool blog, and thought I would put it on mine. I hope to think of some cool "WYR" stuff of my own in the future.

Here's what you do: Either cut and paste the questions and delete what you wouldn't do in the comments section (which was easiest for me), or just type in your answers in the comments section. (you can see my answers on the above mentioned blog)

Would you rather sit in the back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle with no air conditioning and drive all the way to Los Angeles from Dallas (or to Dallas, if you live in LA), or go to an amusement park for three consecutive days with someone who really irritates you?

Would you rather go bungee jumping, or hang gliding?

Would you rather eat nothing but hotdogs for an entire month, or have to watch Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman for a month?

Would you rather go to a church with great praise but dull preaching, or great preaching but dull praise?

Would you rather have tickets to your favorite performer but have to sit on the far back row, or sit on the front row but have to leave at intermission with a bad case of stomach cramps?

Would you rather be mistakenly arrested and on the local news, or be audited by the IRS for three consecutive years?

Would you rather have to wear a rainbow Afro wig and carry a John 3:16 sign to a sold out sporting event, or go to a golf tournament and have Tiger Woods think you’re the one who clicked a camera right in the middle of his back swing?

Would you rather be in Bill Gates' will to receive.001% of his assets, or have free gasoline for the next ten years?

Would you rather ride a bike in a pouring rainstorm, or a motorcycle in rush-hour traffic?

Would you rather do "Would You Rather" on my Blog, or have an angry chicken with large talons attack you?

i thought this was funny

read the link here to a blog that may offend some, but i know that it is only "a funny".

a blogging query

does anybody know how to make your links go across the blog page without going to the next line? ya' know so they look like this:

link link link link link

instead of this:

link
link
link
link
link

what i'm asking for is the html code, ya' know? i know i'm weird, but i have seen it on brandon scott thomas' blog. i want to be like bst!

Food for the Journey

the following is a great post about communion. to me the communion that we take each week is the center point for all the worship service is about. this post was adapted from another
blog, that i linked to from another blog. i wouldn't be re-posting this if i didn't like it. i hope you like it. (if you attend port city, you may hear this again in the future.)

In 1 Kings 19 we read about Elijah, the prophet of God, as he's running scared from queen Jezebel. Figuring he's about out of time, he plops down under a tree and asks God to take his life. "Kill me now, Lord, I'm as good as dead anyways. And it’ll hurt less coming from you…" Exhausted, he falls asleep under the tree until a messenger from God wakes him, offering him a meal. Picking up the story in verse 5:

⁵Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, "Get up and eat!" ⁶He looked around and saw some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.

⁷Then the angel of the LORD came again and touched him and said, "Get up and eat some more, for there is a long journey ahead of you."

⁸So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai,^[a] the mountain of God. ⁹There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. (NLT)

Elijah could not have known what he was about to go through to meet with God. I mean, who wakes up in the morning and decides to walk 200 miles (the approximate distance from Beersheba to Horeb) without stopping to eat or drink for 40 days? But God knew, and God provided Elijah with the food and drink he would need to make the journey to meet with Him.

Why does it matter? Well, because He does the same for us.

In John 6, Jesus teaches a hungry crowd. He breaks five loaves and two fish, and from them He makes a meal for maybe as many as 10,000 men, women and children. Their bellies were full, but their hearts still missed the point. So Jesus begins teaching them (starting in verse 49):

⁴⁹Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. ⁵⁰But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

⁵²Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

⁵³Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (NLT)

Well, the crowd was understandably upset at this teaching, for even beyond the human taboo of cannibalism, they had been taught from times ancient that they were never to partake of human flesh or of blood. "…for the blood is the life," says God in Deuteronomy 12:23.

The LIFE is in the blood…

This passage, to me, because of the straightforward promise it makes: those who partake have LIFE., has so much meaning. We will be sustained in our journey to meet God. Not just physically, mind you -- this isn't about nutrition. It's about putting the Risen One into us, into our hearts, with all of His power and glory.

Please understand that I'm not talking about transubstantiation here. I'm fully aware that the emblems -- the bread and the wine -- are just that, emblems. Symbols. But symbols with great substance, with enormous significance. In a spiritual sense, when I partake of them I believe that in a very real way, I am putting Jesus into me, filling myself with His LIFE. Like Elijah, it is this food, this drink that sustains me on my journey to meet God. I need it desperately, because I have no idea where that journey is going to take me.

But God does.

"Get up and eat some more,” he says to us “for there is a long journey ahead of you."

i'm so confused

i'm watching the news this morning, something i should stop doing, and comments were made that make the president is out to reshape lousiana's political structure. that is, he is trying to get "the black population" out of lousiana, because they vote democratic, usually. well, if the president is as crazy as they say, then why would he be taking them to "his state" of texas, that to me is not what someone who is politically driven would do. i mean, why would you want to bring in more democrats to vote against the republicans that you have already established in "your state"?

i just have to laugh. it cracks me up.

jessie jackson wanted to bring in some bus loads of people to new orleans that the mayor says is ready for repopulation. however, jessie had about 600 people, but the mayor said he could only accomodate about 200. now what kind of message does this send? the mayor says that the city is ready for repopulation, and then he says that there is not enough room for people who want to come in?

who is wrong here? is anybody wrong? is it only perception? why do we do this?

i've got to vent

this may not be appropriate, but i can't shake this.

i was asked to teach the teens at my church. our youth minister was going out of town to attend the zoe worship conference in nashville (i wish i had to cash for this, by the way, or i would be there, too). i love to teach, so i said sure.

i prepared a great lesson. i showed the rob bell dvd bullhorn to them. they said they had never heard of a guy that stood on a street corner and preached, ya know, a bible thumper. i explained the concept to them. i asked the questions from the booklet that comes with the dvd, and they just looked at me like i was talking in another language.

to get answers was like, you've heard the cliche, pulling teeth.

then after the lesson and questions, i asked a by the way question, "do people tell you that port city is wrong in what they are doing?" their answer is a resounding, "yes." i ask them to expound on that and they say, "what do you mean?" ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

so we're done, and ask them to pu the chairs away and we will play a game (we have class in our gym). they put the chairs away while i put away the projector and my laptop. i turn around and there are like 5 or 7 of the 30 something kids left to play a game. they have fallen in love with dodge ball, and i thought that was why we have so many visitors. they come to have fun at church. nothing wrong with that.

i just can't shake the way i feel. i vented with the youth minister, cl, but i still can't shake it.

will you pray for me to have the Holy Spirit to comfort me, and have God soften my heart toward the teens? thanks.

imitation is the greatest form of flattery

i got the body of this, my latest post, from another blog. so if you can just play along and answer the following questions, i would appreciate it. if you do not wish to give specifics, give as much info as you feel comfortable with. i personally will not put anything that is too, well, personal, like phone numbers, or addresses.

in the following paragraph it tells you about his blog, but i, too, am very curious about you the readers of this blog. thanks in advance!

This is probably the most blatant rip-off in the history of blogging, but when you see a good idea you have to go with it. Adam at Pomomusings asked “who are you?” to get to know his readers, especially those who do not comment. Who are they? Where are they from? What are their professions? Since then I have been very curious about you, the beloved readership of RadicalCongruency.com. So it is my hope that each person who visits this blog will leave a comment with the following information so Justin and I can know you better and you will have a better sense of camaraderie (Harding word) with your blogging peers.

Name:
Location:
Age:
Profession:
Something awesome about you:
Why do you read fixin' to (his read, Radical Congruency)?
Do you have a favorite post?

p.s. sorry it has taken so long for me to blog lately. i have been busy with other stuff.