I was told about this video by this guy. I knew it had to be funny. It was too funny not to share. A whole post could be written about some of the sad truths displayed in this video. However, that will be saved for later. But for now, enjoy a good laugh!
What was your favorite line?
~Peter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLGLBVSpBzY&playnext=1&list=PLB826F6F1539E15BE]
Let’s play a game. Here’s the game. You tell me if this is a verse from the Bible or a quote from a newspaper.
The next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offeings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Hopefully that was not hard to figure out. I think if you wanted to, you could easily fit that into the sports section of a newspaper somewhere. It could make total sense. It sounds just like a giant tailgating party. Honestly, listen to the wording here: Burnt offerings… That’s what men are cooking over some greasy grill they strapped to the back of their truck. Peace offerings are the contents of your cooler that are given to those parked next to you who have the opposing teams jersey on. Sitting down to eat and drink, well, I don’t need to explain that one. Rising up to play happens in every major football stadium parking lot almost every week of the season.
Simple game huh? Did you guess right? Well, let’s go one step further… where is that quote from?
Here’s the problem. The game that was on last night, and the game that we just played are not the only games being played. I wonder if you and I play games more than we think we do. I wanted to write a big ‘schpeel’ about ‘who received more worship yesterday’ but I was afraid that in asking that question I would not fairly address the issue. I wanted to write some catchy lines about “tonight being a good good night”, and about Christina’s remix of the national anthem. See, for me I don’t care who wins or looses that game. In fact I don’t care enough about sports to get upset over the winner or loser of any game. Before you go calling me a nerd for not liking sports hear me out: I LIKE SPORTS, I LIKE PLAYING SPORTS. However, I’m not a phanatic. I know a lot of people that love sports. They’re good people! So, to keep from being hypocritical and to put myself on the scales as well, it can’t be a question about who recieved more worship yesterday. The question should be who or what received more worship today. What about two days ago? What about a week ago? What does your worship forecast for tomorrow look like?
Let’s get back to the game. Each one of us can easily become players in this game. The game is called, choose your own God and worship it. The super bowl is only the thing that caught my attention and made me think about it. But, it is not limited to football. Football may be your game. Yet, for others your game is creating a fiscal empire where you reign. Some people’s game is to please people no matter what the cost is. Others game is to win the love of that man or woman. Some of you your game requires premium gas and has five speeds.
I don’t know what your version of the game is. I do know that the rules are universal for this game.
Rule #1: “You shall have no other God’s before Me.” ~Exodus 20:3
Rule #2: “You shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” ~Exodus 34:14
For some help on what this may look like check out Romans 11:33-36 through 12:2.
Whew. I’ll tell you what, I was getting ready to roast some sports fanatics on here(in love of course) and I’ve ended up roasting myself.
How about you? Have you set any one or thing before God? How do you keep yourself from breaking the rules?
~A Game Player
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Yesterday morning I jumped online and was greeted by CNN’s headline “World Food Prices Hit Record High“. This quote from the article keeps running through my mind.
“High global food prices risk hunger for millions of people. Poor people in developing countries spend up to 80% of their income on food. For them high food prices mean selling off their land or sacrificing their child’s education simply to put food on the table.”
I haven’t been able to get this article out of my head. I keep wondering, what is going to happen to all those people who live on less than a dollar a day. What happens now when that dollar doesn’t go as far? What happens when you sit there and watch your family begin to hunger beyond what they normally do? I think about my sister and brother-in-law over in Bangladesh and wonder what the people they meet will experience with this rise in the food cost?
Most of all, I wonder what difference this is going to make in the lives and minds of us in the west? Will we lift a finger to do anything about it? Will it actually matter?
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9
What do you think?
~Peter
One of the reasons why I have decided to keep blogging (read more about that here) is because I want to share with you some of the things that I am learning in my classes at Biblical Theological Seminary. For my most recent class, Reading the Old Testament Missionally, I wrote a paper on God in the Old Testament and how it relates to me. We were reading the book The Mission of God, by Christopher Wright. I came across this quote and wanted to interact with it;
The purpose of the exodus was to bring Israel out of slavery to Pharaoh so that they could properly enter the service/worship of YHWH. Israel’s problem was not just that they were slaves and ought to be free. It was that they were slaves to the wrong master and needed to be reclaimed and restored to their proper Lord. (pg 284)
Here is an excerpt from my paper. We were allowed some stylistic freedoms, I choose to write as if it were a journal entry. I would love your thoughts.
When I look at my entire spiritual upbringing and a vast majority of my education I find that I have compartmentalized God. So when I read Exodus and the story of Israel’s freedom from Egyptian bondage I easily slip back into flannel graph mode and read God into the part that He has been playing in my head for years. God is the redeemer and liberator but not much more than that. I have read Exodus many times and have not once thought about what God was really doing. Mostly I would read that passage and my mind would see God as compassionate and understanding. These are conclusions that I arrive at fairly easily when I put myself in the shoes of the Israelites. If I were an Egyptian slave I would want God to free me too. It just makes sense to me. I would say that up until this point in time my understanding of God from this text was that He was compassionate. Although I think that my previous understanding of God and this passage also bred in me a thought that God loved Israel much more than anyone else. I arrived at that conclusion by thinking that God pulled Israel out of slavery most simply put because they were His favorite. Since reading and wrestling through this text again in my mind, my understanding of God has changed significantly. I now see that God had a much larger goal in the Exodus of Israel from captivity. I now understand that God was using Israel to show the nations who He was as well as to show His desire that all worship be directed to Him. I still believe that God is compassionate. I still believe that God pulled Israel out of captivity because it was wrong. However, I can no longer just leave it at that. God was at work doing far more than just those things.
Most importantly the story of Israel’s exodus from Egyptian slavery has formed a much greater understanding of the character of God and how it relates to me. One of the things that I see is that God was setting up an epic battle. It was going to be a battle between Himself and Pharaoh and his false gods of Egypt. God was getting ready to show the surrounding nations that one of the most powerful nations in the world was nothing in comparison to Himself. God was about to reveal that there is no one who compares to Him. It is God and God alone. That truth found in Exodus still applies today. In our culture and our lives we set up so many false gods and bow down at their feet. Many of us will try to worship idols made by the hands of our children, our spouses or even our employers. God is still in the process of showing us that He is more powerful than anything else we set up. I love how Wright puts it in that prior quote; they were slaves to the wrong master. God is a jealous God and He wants us to worship Him alone. God is not just satisfied with only Israel’s worship. In fact God wants more than just Israel’s worship. He wants all of the nations. This includes me. This includes my family and my neighbors and those people in Bangladesh that my sister and brother-in-law are trying to love on. God removed Israel from Egyptian Slavery so that I would know that He is God. In a weird way the Exodus story is for me.
I see God in this story taking His people out of this very unhealthy environment and bringing them into the desert for cleansing and letting them purge themselves of Egyptian culture and mindsets. There are so many times in my life when I need a good solid purging of this culture and all that I have become desensitized to. Maybe it is time for me to go back to the desert for a while.
God was in a process of wooing those He loved back to himself. I thank God for the fact that He woos, and waits. This is a point that draws me to my knees in prayer.
So, what do you think?
~Peter
FACT: Each one of us only has so much time in one day.
The other day I heard that over the course of an average lifetime an individual will spend six months waiting on red lights. That’s crazy! So, while we aren’t waiting on red lights lets make the most of each day, okay?
I figured that I would write a post on some of my favorite time saving/life altering websites/apps. So here goes.
Favorite Websites
Grooveshark: I love grooveshark. I can’t say that it has replaced my use of itunes, but it has come pretty close to it! Grooveshark is a website where you can search for and listen to music. When you create an account (which you don’t have to in order to use the site) you can save playlists. This is a key feature for me. I listen to music all the time. I listen to music according to what kind of mood I am in or what task is at hand. Creating playlists scratches my itch for mood/task oriented music. Another sweet deal with grooveshark is that you don’t have to pay for it! It’s free. So, if you are looking to check out an artist but don’t want to pay for the album yet, then this is the ticket for you. Jump on search for whoever and let the music play. I’ve found several new artists that I like through grooveshark. Since it is an internet based site I can be on my laptop at starbucks and listen to the playlists I’ve created, or on any other computer, so long as it has internet access, and listen to my playlists. I love it.
YouVersion: If you haven’t found YouVersion.com yet than shame on you! This is a fabulous site. There are tons of different Bible versions just a click away over at YouVersion.com. One of the things that I like is that I can copy and paste Biblical text right over from their either into blog posts, papers, or youth group lessons. It is quick, and I can change the version to check out parallel passages with the click of a button. The site has far more capabilities than I use right now, but it is a kickin site. Check it out!
DropBox: This is a sweet little run around to the always-annoying thumb drive. I probably own two or three of those little memory sticks, but to be honest I only know where one of them is, and it is never where I am. So, DropBox has solved my problems with that. It is a free service that allows you to sync files between computers. Right now I have dropbox installed on my laptop, my home desktop and my ipad. It allows you to access your files from where ever you are. It keeps the files synced and up to date. As being a guy that is on the run and grabbing stuff here and there, I am glad to know that I can keep it all in one place and not worry about it.
Evernote: I use evernote to gather and file ideas. If I have an idea flowing I need to write it down. If I don’t it will be gone! I can’t tell you how many of those “GREAT” ideas I’ve had that are now lost somewhere in my brain. Evernote easily grabs ideas, websites, images, and anything else you feed it and saves it into notebooks. This is also synced across platforms and kept online too. Check it out.
Favorite Apps
Budget: Okay, don’t judge the program by the website. I know the site may look cheesy, but this thing is a huge timesaver! Tiffany and I have been working the famous “Dave Ramsey Envelope System” for a while now and it has been helping us out incredibly. This is a little piece of software that has saved us time and effort. You don’t have to trick it to do anything. It is made for those of us who use the envelope system. All I can say is that it is worth the investment.
Cramberry: This is a neat little app for the ipad or iphone. It is a note card study tool. I like it because I can create different sets of cards and review them in different ways. It brings the cards up and allows you to tell you if you got the answer right or wrong. The cards that you have gotten wrong show up more consistently than the ones that you already know. It is a fun little timesaver.
Flipboard: This is a sweet little app that combines all of your feeds into a magazine format. When you fire up the app you are presented with a few different options. You have your facebook feed, twitter feed, and any other feed you may choose to subscribe to. It is a fun format and pretty well done. I keep my facebook, twitter feeds, usa today, and culture feeds right here in this app.
Mindnode: I’m not a huge fan of mind mapping, but when I do want to map out some thoughts and ideas this is a pretty easy mind mapping app. It is free, so don’t expect a ton of bells and whistles. However, that is one of the reasons why I like this program. It is simple and clean. It does what it is supposed to.
Like I said, we each only have a certain amount of time in our lives. Make the most of it! I hope that maybe something here will help you do that. I’d love to know what some of your favorite sites/apps are!
~Peter
I would not be a good friend if I didn’t take the time to share this with you. I promise it is worth the watch. As you know we are up at camp this weekend and on the first night you have the obligatory “go over the rules talk”. This year we did it a bit different. Check this out. Hilarity is included for free.
Your Welcome.
~Peter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQ5QAvcgDs]
Over the last four months, there has been a wrestling match going on in my mind: To blog or not to blog. I asked myself questions like, “Do I have enough thoughts in my head to share with people?” or “does anyone even care what I think about ______?” The question that I really had to figure out was, “Do I have anything to add to the conversation?”
I have stopped blogging all together largely due to four reasons.
Time Pressure. There is only so much time in one day. We are all responsible for the same 86,400 seconds that are given to us each and everyday. Those seconds will fly by if you are not careful!
Started Seminary. Life took an interesting twist for my family and I this fall. I have started taking classes at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield PA. I am pursuing my Master’s of Divinity. I will be the first to admit that the last four months have been stressful ones. It has been a time for me to readjust my life, time and priorities. It has been incredible, yet it has been a time of adjustments too.
Feeling Uncreative. No one wants to read a boring blog. I don’t, and I’m sure you don’t either. I was feeling boring. The creative elements were lacking! I did not want to bore you.
Adding to the Noise. Even more than just being uncreative, I did not want to add to the noise in the lives of people. If by un-creatively blogging all I was doing was adding 500 words of jargon and nonsense then I’d rather not do it. There is plenty of noise, plenty of blogs, and books out there that can distract you from your relationship with God/your family/productivity. I don’t need to be one more distraction.
As I started to say, over the last four months I have been wrestling with the idea of what do I have to add right now? Is it time to pick up and start writing again? I have three reasons why I have decided to get back into the discipline of blogging.
A Desire to be Creative. I love being creative. I enjoy creativity of all kinds. However, one of the ways I most enjoy being creative is in the expression and transference of truth. I enjoy expressing truth in non-traditional ways. Blogging often times give me the opportunity to be creative in expressing God’s truth. I share with people frequently, view life through the lens of a parable. When you see life through the lens of a parable all of a sudden truth pops out creatively! I want to be a creator not just a consumer.
A Desire to share what I’m learning. Every week I read tons of pages of information, and I sit through a minimum of 5 hours of class. I write papers, turn them in and about three people read them. Each and every month I pay a huge price tag to do all of this. Believe me I know that my education is a privilege! However, it doesn’t sit right with me to not share what I am learning. It would be an incredible waste of resources if I did not share what I am learning and thinking about.
A Desire to Start Conversations (around the other two points). One of the things that I have enjoyed most in my classes are the conversations that inevitably crop up with other classmates. I love hearing their perspective, life experiences, and thoughts on whatever issue or topic we are discussing. I see this blog as a platform to allow conversations like that to happen. It is not just about the 500 words. It’s the words after the 500.
With these things in mind I invite you to join me in a conversation here. Let’s see where we go!
~Peter
This past Sunday I had an opportunity to sit in on our Kingdom Kids program. It is our program here at FBC for our elementary school aged kids. I had the honor to answer some of their questions that they had about God! It was a lot of fun. I’m telling you they had some unbelievable questions. It was cool. So, I thought I would share a few of them with you. Let’s see how well you would do. How would you answer some of the following. Maybe you could pick one and answer it below.
Here they are:
WOW! HAVE FUN! Let’s see what you’ve got!
~Peter
Everyone of us is made up of certain habits and practices… We allow these habits and practices to define who we are and the make up of our personality, character, etc. As this is true in life, the same is true in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We simply cannot pin our mediocrity on the fact that Jesus does not want to know us or be known by us. It comes down to what do we do in order to be connected to the living Christ? Each one of us have some spiritual discipline or another. Today I want to know, what are yours?
~Peter
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