thanks to justin for the time waster.

HERE ARE THE RULES:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, Rhapsody, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie

OPENING CREDITS: “Die Buying” Blindside
WAKING UP: “My Way” Ace Troubleshooter
FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL: “My Enemies Are Men Like Me” Derek Webb
FALLING IN LOVE: “Do You Believe Me” The Juliana Theory
FIGHT SONG: “Kissing The Lipless” The Shins
BREAKING UP: “Get You Out Alive” Fair
PROM: “Make Everyone Happy/Mechanical Birds” Modest Mouse
LIFE: “The Closest Thing” The Juliana Theory
MENTAL BREAKDOWN: “I’m Not Angry” Elvis Costello
DRIVING: “Jumper” Third Eye Blind
FLASHBACK: “Prove My Hypothesis” Death Cab For Cutie
GETTING BACK TOGETHER: “Queen Bitch” David Bowie
WEDDING: “Summer of ’98″ The Secret Handshake
BIRTH OF A CHILD: “Back To You” John Mayer
FINAL BATTLE: “Bigger Stronger” Coldplay
DEATH SCENE: “File Me Away” Badly Drawn Boy
FUNERAL SONG: “So Easy” Royksopp
ENDING CREDITS: “Summer Skin” Death Cab For Cutie

i am watching the family feud right now. don’t ask.

the survey question was:”Though it is impossible, what would you take with you when you die?”

the first answer given was “spouse.” endearing.

it was number 2! what!?

only 14 of 100 people surveyed answered this. and the answer on the board actually read “family/loved ones.” that means that “spouse” wasn’t even mentioned by name by the 14% of people. it’s been lumped together with people that said “family” or “friends.”

then the other team had a chance to steal and they answered “money.”

NUMBER 1! 34 people! that 34% of people surveyed for this said “money!”

so this says to me:
if we want one thing for eternity, we want money. not friends, not family, not our spouse. money.

excuse me, i just threw up in my mouth.

Those who love one another, or acquire strong attachments to persons and to forms of life, at the same time become liable to ruin: their love makes them hostages to misfortune and the injustice of others. Friends and lovers take great chances to help each other; and members of families willingly do the same. Once we love we are vulnerable.

– John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

Technorati Tags: love, John Rawls

[this is a long one]

understanding our faith is hard. but understanding a simple foundation can bring it all into perspective and assist us in the day-to-day. i have a mathematical mind (ref. the song by spoon, “mathematical mind”). i tend to look at things in formulas and do a lot of cross-referencing. we know that God is our Creator. but where did He go? is He still here? how does He work now? puppetry?

GOD
read genesis 1

in the beginning, there was God. nothing else. God spoke (ruah = breath/wind) and there was. there was no building or putting together. he simply spoke…and there was. God’s words/breath has the ability to create, change and influence. when God breathed into man, his words came alive in [us]. therefore, our lives are full of the potential to create, change and influence because God’s very nature lives within us. great. so how do i do that? street corner evangelism? feed the hungry? i’m small…what can i do?

LOVE
read 1 john 4:7-8
read 1 corinthians 13:4-7
read genesis 1

1 john says that “God is Love.” not, “God is loving,” or “God is lovely. “GOD IS LOVE.”

GOD = LOVE.

they are the same thing. God is Love. Love is God. so…if God is Love, and we are created in the image of God…

1 corinthians gives us a definition…a picture, if you will, of love.

Love is…
patient
kind
not envious
not proud (or on parade)
not rude
not self-seeking (it IS self-LESS)
not easily angered (not provoked)

Love does not think evil thoughts, nor does it rejoice in them, but it rejoices in truth. Love BEARS ALL things, BELIEVES ALL things, HOPES ALL things and ENDURES ALL things. Love never fails. so what we have here is not a definition of some abstract feeling. it’s not just a cliche scripture set aside for weddings, though that’s what it seems like sometimes. it’s a description of the very God that we were created in the image of. God is Love, we are created in the image of God, therefore, we are THE IMAGE OF LOVE.

JESUS
read mark 12:28-34

Jesus tells us exactly what to do: Love God, Love others. He is the One that did that perfectly. He was the image of Love…the image of God. wholly. easy right.

here’s our problem: TRUST.

do you [i] trust God? do you [i] trust Love? or is it just a good idea? love sounds good in theory…but does it work? Jesus was proof that living a life composed completely of Love is the best possible way to live. He proved that Love never fails. He knew that. He believed that. He trusted that.

do you?

we are the image of love. and when we embrace that image…that lifestyle that Jesus showed us…when we trust God [Love], we have the power to create, change and influence.

LOVE WINS.

now go listen to “needle & thread” by sleeping at last.

Technorati Tags: christianity, God, love, theology

i received an email today from someone on our staff with a link to this video. she wrote in the email that:

if we stop trying to fish for followers to our church with a hook and show them the light perhaps we’ll catch more…

now…as much as i hate these kinds of emails, she’s right. and the video is incredible! but i noticed in the video that the fish in the boat were left to flop around and suffocate. slow painful deaths. i wonder where the sermon is in that?

only when we abandon our expectations and set no limitations are we truly free to explore God in worship.

Accepting God’s gift of beauty and life, without planned reaction, is pleasing to Him. What we do in response to that gift is our worship.

here’s a quote that i heard on a video at a dreadful “sexual harassment prevention training” i attended last thursday. i think that most people misunderstood the meaning. i know this because a lot people made fun of how ridiculous this lady sounded (it didn’t help that she was a buddhist monk on a video being shown to a bunch of methodist who were barely listening).

“our greatest desire is to be naked before someone; being yourself with another person is true intimacy.”

john ortberg wrote a terrific, yet convicting, article and is definitely worth a read. thanks to zach for the link.

there is a self-righteousness in me that does not want to die. there is something inside me that is not bothered when others are excluded, that wants others to be excluded, that feels more special when i’m on the inside and somebody else is not. there was something in me — even when i was young — that enjoyed looking at the flannelgraph and thinking about how much wiser and more loved by God i was than those foolish, exclusive pharisees.

it is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury, it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death. Slow and elderly as i am, i have been caught by the slower pursuer, whereas my accusers, being clever and sharp, have been caught by the quicker, wickedness. i leave you now, condemned to death by you, but they are condemned by truth to wickedness and injustice.

- socrates