The Simple Truth

Random Friday Thoughts

It's a Friday afternoon in August and I have number of random thoughts bouncing around in my head.  Read at your own risk...

• Why are we more tired when we return from vacation than before we go?
• I'm looking for a fresh supply of worship tunes. Who are you guys listening to?
• Do 13 year old boys PMS?
• I'm still totally jacked about what God is doing in the folks at PBC to raise money for Snehashrya.
• Blown away every time I pray the new PBC prayer of commitment - Where ever you want us to go, whatever you want us to do, however you want us to live; we give our lives to You to spend in making your gospel and your glory known to the ends of the earth.
• Had a blast at the GBC / DPBC high school camp this year. God did some really cool things! So awesome to reconnect with dear friends.
• Man it was hot in MO this year - surface of the sun hot.
• The financial state of the federal gov't is SCARY. I appreciate that there is no easy answer but come on fellas how about putting some sound economic practices in place before the house of cards comes tumbling down.
• Some people take themselves way too seriously!
• Every human being that has every graced this planet is a walking worship machine.
• My 25th high school reunion is this weekend. Wish I could be there to see everyone. I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time. Can't wait to see pictures of Facebook.
• I want to write more. What format would be the most useful to the most people? I don't want to add to the noise of written Christian materials.
• So glad the NFL resolved its labor issues. Excited to see what the Chiefs will do this year - continue to build upon last year or come back to reality. I say 9-7 with a really tough schedule.
• I count myself to be abundantly blessed. God is so good to me!

Haitian Adoption

A young lady my wife works with and her husband were in the process of adopting two little boys from Haiti when the earthquake hit a few weeks ago.  The adoption process was expedited after the earthquake and the boys were set to arrive in Florida last Friday.  Upon arriving at the airport in Port-au-Prince the escort for the boys and four other adoptive children was detained and accused of child trafficking.  They asked us to begin praying for the resolution of this matter as the children had been taken a Unicef tent city in Port-au-Prince.  We just got word that the boys flight has recently arrived in Florida.  Awesome!  I can't wait to meet these two little guys.

CNN got word of this situation and did a feature article on the escort and the children.  Here is a video produced by CNN.

Idol Worship

Here's a very good video from Nightline on ABC featuring Pastor Marc Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

American Idol Worship Shared via AddThis

From Islam to Christianity

Interesting article on FoxNews.com.  Check it out.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402483,00.html

A Spiritual Salad Bar

This morning I came across this article in USA Today which discuss a survey taken among religious people in the United States.  Much of the article simply confirms what I already thought to be true.  However a few things were interesting.  Here they are in no particular order.

• First of all, generally speaking the article reminded me of Judges 21:25


• Religions is a "salad bar" where we pick and choose what we like and ignore the rest.  The highest authority is now the "lowest common denominator".  So much for every word of God being pure.


• 79% percent of people believe in absolute right and wrong, but only 29% rely upon their religion to determine it.  Wow!


• "70%, including a majority of all major Christian and non-Christian religious groups except Mormons, say "many religions can lead to eternal life."  I guess Jesus was in the 30% (John 14:6) 


• "Americans believe in everything. It's a spiritual salad bar," says Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay. Rather than religious leaders setting the cultural agenda, today, it's Oprah Winfrey, he says.  "After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the national memorial service was at Washington's National Cathedral, conducted by Episcopal clergy. After the 9/11 attack, Oprah organized the official memorial service at Yankee Stadium, and while clergy participated, she was the master of ceremonies."  Our good friend Oprah stikes again!


• The article blames the church and it's lack of teaching doctrine for many of the current beliefs held by "believers" in America - I can't argue with this notion.

Interesting article - what do you think?

 

My Heart Goes Out!

This morning I came across this article on Foxnews.com about the 5 year old daughter of Christian recording artist, Steven Curtis Chapman, being killed when she was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother.  My heart truly breaks for the Chapman family.  Obviously I've never met SCC (I've seen him in concert), but I do feel a connection with him because of his heart for international adoption - he has three daughters adopted from China.  His youngest adopted daughter, Maria, was the one killed.

Foremost in my prayers is the son that was driving the car that struck the little girl.  I can't imagine the emotions he is sorting through right now.  May God comfort and heal this family from this horrible accident. 

It's ironic that SCC current hit song is called Cinderella, which is about his two youngest daughters.  In the song he laments how fast life goes by and how we should enjoy the time we have with our kids while they are young.  Oh man, my heart hurts for them!  Please join me in praying for this family.

The World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire

I came across this article today in USA Today.  I was fascinated to read about Mark Zuckerberg, the world's youngest self-made billionaire - he's 23 years old.  Mr. Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook and is worth $1.5 billion.  Not bad for a college drop out.  He launched Facebook about 4 years ago and now he's a billionaire.  I'm always amazed at how people make money!

I haven't yet taken the Facebook plunge - not even sure what it's all about.  What are the benefits?  Anyone out there a Facebooker?  Share with me the pros and cons of Facebook.  I'd like to know if I should contribute to Mr. Zuckerberg's billionaire status.

GodTube.com

I came across the linked article in today's USAToday.  It talks about a new website called www.GodTube.com.  I haven't had a lot of time to check out the site but I thought it sounded like an interesting idea.  Generally, I love the idea of using technology to further God's kingdom.  The site has a virtual Bible, prayer wall, videos galore, among other things.  Maybe I'll post some additional thoughts once I've had time to puruse the site a little more.

Let me know what you think if you have time to check it out.

God and Sports

Most of you know that I'm a huge sports nut.  While I myself was a basketball player, I now primarily enjoy watching football.  This past weekend was the selection of the Heisman Trophy which is an annual award that goes to college football's best player as voted on by sports journalist from around the country.  This year's winner was Tim Tebow, quarterback from the University of Florida.  Tim Tebow is the first sophmore to ever win the award - a very big deal.  He's also the first player to ever throw for over 20 touchdown passes and run for more than 20 touchdowns as well.  The guy is a stud - he had 51 touchdowns this year (throwing and running).

Here's my favorite part - the guy is an unashamed believer in Jesus Christ.  I watched his speech on Youtube.com (click here to check it out).  The speech wasn't all that eloquent - he was obviously overwhelmed and nervous, speaking a million miles an hour.  But the first words out of his mouth were, "I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!" - he even thanked him again in the middle of his speech.  I love it when athletes, who are believers, take advantage of their forum to praise their Lord and Savior.  I especially like it when they are bold enough to give credit to "Jesus Christ" as opposed to the generic "God/god" reference.  When I see these types of things on TV or live I always want to jump out of my chair a shout for joy.  Athletics are so huge in America and I love it when God, and Jesus Christ, are praised in that setting.  Think about it, millions of people heard Tim Tebow give praise to his Lord and Savior.  Think about all the impressionable youngsters that heard their hero give thanks to Jesus and show them that it's about more than football.

God Bless Tim Tebow for having enough guts to give glory to the one who is truly worthy!

Evel is Dead, But Lives Forever More!

Last week one of my childhood heroes, Evel Knievel, died at the age of 69.  I remember watching him perform some of his unbelievable motorcycle jumps as a kid.  A few stand out - the crash landing at the Caesar's Palace jump in Las Vegas (almost grusome to watch), and the failed attempt to jump the Snake Canyon in a rocket (what a flop that turned out to be).

I still remember one of my favorite Christmas presents as a kid was the Evel Knievel Super Stunt Cycle.  Does anyone else remember these?  I had hours and hours of fun jumping this over things and down stairs.  You would put the Evel action figure on the motorcycle, attach it to a base which you cranked as fast as you could until you released and Evel sped off to perform the death defying stunt you had setup.

After I heard about Evel's passing I went to Youtube.com to see if I could find some old video footage of his jumps.  I did - there are plenty out there.  But what I also found was a video of a testimony that Evel gave about his salvation later in life.  What a blessing to hear he finally placed his trust in Christ.  Here's a link to the video if you want to check it out.