Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Big Brother 8 - The Dick & Danielle Show

I watched Big Brother this season. Unfortunately, Dick and Danielle were the final two house guests, and Dick won the half million dollar prize.

Some may say that Dick's methods worked brilliantly. While this is true, I don't think that he and Danielle played the game fairly, or for that matter, maturely. Dick reminds me of an 8 year old schoolyard bully. He's a bit sad, honestly.

But that's just par for the course on these "reality" shows where people compete for large sums of money. There is lots of that sort of thing to be had.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Stop!

Click on it to download a larger version!

Friday, September 07, 2007

Praise

I am somewhat ADD/random, so unlike most people I know of who study the Bible, I study it like I surf the Internet, by searching for something that I'm thinking about at a particular moment in time.

Last night we had a worship committee meeting at church, and after what we talked about, it's got me wanting to delve into the topic of praising God--what that really is, and how to do it because it is genuine, and what God wants, and not just something to do or some feeling that I want.

Praise is more than just prayers of thanksgiving and songs we sing in church. Praise is a lifestyle. Praise is our becoming Christlike; meeting people where they are at, and meeting their needs because they need to be met. It's sharing the Gospel through our acts of kindness and words of encouragement in our daily lives.

God wants so much more from us than just singing along to some songs and praying the Lord's Prayer on Sunday mornings. He wants our whole lives.

I think that perhaps in my congregation we've been stuck in the mode of sing songs, take an offering, sing the Doxology, sing some more songs, hear a sermon, go home. Instead of being a place where I felt like I could go to be refueled each week, I felt like it was a place, like much of the rest of my life of late, that was spiritually draining. I wrestled with that feeling, and have had a deep, deep longing to go to the well, dip my bucket in, and not come out empty.

I do feel encouraged, though, that things are going to move in a direction where we do things with purpose...not just because we "need" to do it or have always done it; and that God will really be present and working through all of us in a harmonious way, so that our house of worship will be truly that--a house of worship--and through us God can do great things.