Everyone is talking about the death of Osama Bin Laden this morning. That I am also makes me mildly sick. I could pretty happily Gibb-smack myself right now for writing this post but here I am, and I’m going to put a finger on something that is going to make a lot of people squirm but here it is.
Osama Bin Laden was not inherently evil.
Read carefully now – A man was not born, he was not created simply for the sake of evil. Did he do evil things? Uh, yeah. That one’s kind of obvious. Did he die an evil man? Yes, I’m afraid he did. But even then, at that moment when he was probably cursing the west and struggling to breathe, do I believe that Jesus was by his side saying “I’m sorry you had to go through this. I’m sorry you have to receive judgement.”?
Yes. Read more…
A friend of mine who is atheist and whom I dearly love once said to me “I envy you your faith.”
That struck me as an odd thing to hear from an atheist in general but this person in particular so I asked her “What do you mean?” (on a side note, it usually isn’t that easy for me to hide my snide sarcasm and include something like “how do you envy something you think is ridiculous, but she’s a dear friend so it was easier.)
So I asked her what she meant and she replied “When you know you don’t have it together, you can trust in God. I wish I could do that.”
I wish I hadn’t been a moron back then because I just sat there with my mouth open thinking “I should say something. This is a great moment. I don’t know what to say!” I ended up just lamely deflecting the compliment and missing the moment. If I could do it over, or if a similar situation ever comes up again, I’ve thought of what to say in that moment. Read more…
Larry, Moe and Curly are praying one day (just go with me) when they are snatched by the authorities, arrested, and thrown into a furnace that is designed for smelting. Smelting, just so you know, is the process of melting and mixing metals at extremely high temperatures so that the molecules bond to form new metals. So this is a HOT fire they got going, not only that but the King, because he’s a jealous and crazy kind of guy, decides that the thing isn’t hot enough. It needs to be SEVEN TIMES hotter than normal.
It is so incredibly hot that the soldiers who toss the terrible trio into the flames die in the process.
The king is pretty happy until he takes a look into the furnace (no idea how exactly he does this) and is really confused. “You guys messed up!” the King said. “Not only are the three stooges alive, but they’re a four man rock band now! And that front man is just…I mean…. He’s just….”
Ok so that may not be exactly what happened according to Daniel, but I think of my Jesus as a rock star so that he shows up as the front man to a BC band called “Playing with Fire”- that makes total sense to me.
Read more…
You ever heard a knock at the door or the phone ring and then ignore it? I have. A number of times. I’d say that the overwhelming majority of these cases occur when I know who it is on the other side and I am desperate to not deal with it. By “it” I mean that person’s problems or the problems they represent.
You know the people. The guy who is always trying to get one more favor out of you. The girl who just broke up with her latest boyfriend and is crushed. The girl you’re trying to break up with and just don’t have the guts to actually do it. A billing department reminding you that your last check bounced and they haven’t received the new one (that you haven’t sent in yet). How about the call from Mom asking why you don’t call more often?
How about the guy you know you wronged and are afraid to face? Read more…
Generally I don’t pay attention to numbers. I mean, the mystical significance of numbers is often the result of the human desire to assert pattern and semblance of order to otherwise random distributions and occurrences. Don’t believe me? Check out the crazy conspiracy theories around the number 23 if you want to see what I mean.
This time however, for some reason I don’t really understand, I got caught up in the significance of sequential numbers. Is Genesis 2:3 significant for example? 1st book of the bible, 2nd chapter, 3rd verse? I like Gen 2:3 but it didn’t really speak to me so I decided to look at the beginning of the bible and was amazed that right off the bat, we are given an incredible revelation of God’s character. I don’t mean the revelation of God as Creator. That’s incredible, but we talk about that a lot and we see His hand constantly creating and guiding creation and we tend not to forget the part about God as Creator.
"Storm Warning" by Katrin Blumenschein
So I guess this is the second revelation of God’s character which is presented in Genesis 1:2. Read more…
