Much of what I see in church institution these days seems to be focused more internally rather than outward. Our buildings have become holy shrines to the pride of men and the glory of business. These walls hold us in and filter our view of the beauty of the eklessia that is each and every one of us.

And it’s not just the buildings its the atmosphere and the things we teach and believe that have nothing to do with Gods church. Somewhere the church was separated from people and became its own entity.

The gospel has been watered down AND fired up to be nothing more than a simple prayer paragraph and a exit ticket from hell. If getting out of hell is the only reason Jesus died for humanity then it only leaves me to ask why? Why do it? I deeply believe it’s because of love.

God has been working at getting us back to the Garden of Eden and the cool of the day walks and the gentle conversations for a long time… Jesus died for love because he is love (there is a lot more to this I will write about in another day).

Some people would call me a heretic for this but I do not expect to get to heaven to simply join in with the angels and sing all day… and that be it. If that is all it is then I have to ask why (again)  would I be there… God made angels to praise him, not that we can’t or shouldn’t, but we were given something much greater than the angels were ever given and that is love. I am made to love Love (God is Love).

Love created love so that love could love Love and Love would love love.

(translation)

God created us so that we could love Him and He would love us.

So, it kills me when I hear the gospel presented in the form of a ticket out of hell because it has never been a ticket, never… it is love bold and naked, enduring and conquering the sins of the world for our sake because a commitment was made at the beginning and that commitment was love and because God.. is… Love… love… could… not… fail… even though we broke our commitment.

You see, it has never been about the experience. It’s about being God’s Eklessia (God’s church body… not the building or service or thing… the people is the eklessia)… His love… It’s about loving him and loving other (two greatest commandments)/

I don’t want to be content with a goose bump experience “of God” from a song, I don’t want to be content that I punched in my time card on Sunday, I don’t want to be content with what someone else has to say about God and how to experience Him….

My soul longs for more

I long for something interactive. I read Acts and scripture about the original church body and you can help but notice how much of a beautiful mess it is. They are drawing straws to pick the next disciple and it just looks like they are figuring this thing out… or maybe they are being led by the very spirit of God.

There is a beauty that is the church which hasn’t been seen for many years

How can we claim to please God with our watered down rituals? God is not after the ritual He’s after our heart.. our commitment to love Him and His people… Take a look at this:

¹The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ²If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, ⁴because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.- Hebrews 10:1-4

and

¹¹“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats. ¹²“When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
¹³Bring no more vain offerings; – Isaiah 1:11-13

God basically say’s, “Do you think I need the blood of bulls and goats, what is that to me? Do you think I need your sacrifices?” Basically what was happening is the people of this time were vainly and casually making sacrifices. Sinned… Oh, well just sacrifice… sinned again… no problem bub sacrifice and it will all be ok…

The ritual became watered down… diluted. The message was then lost with it. I’m afraid the church institution has fallen the same way today.

Do we really think God needs our Sunday services? Do we really think God is appeased with just our ritual songs, offerings, listening, showing up… is that really the heart of God? Is this really what he died for? Does God need us to remind Him He is Holy, did he forget? (not that I’m saying that telling him is wrong, I’m simply saying that He is Holy whether we tell him or not).

What is Gods Heart then? What is a real God Experience? I stand to believe if we look to the two greatest commandments we will find our answer.

Love God…. Love His People…

There’s His heart, there is how we experience God… by being Jesus to one another.

I love it all.  Its just something I don’t get tired of. Ok… maybe I don’t like Little Kitty to be scared all the time but it is funny when she gets spooked:)

Thunderstorms calm me… they also make me remember. They didn’t always, but now they do…

I was golfing with my Dad a few months back. We usually go golfing every Saturday as our father son hangout time. Saturdays are really one of my favorite days of the week because of this. Well, we were having a great time and just talking away when Dad told me a story about me as a baby that I never knew.

He went on to tell me that when I was just a few years old I used to be scared to death of thunderstorms. Every time one came I would cry and cry because I was so afraid. Well, one day a thunderstorm came, and me being the first child (aka test kid) Dad said he decided he was going to help me get over my fear of thunderstorms.

Much against my Moms liking Dad picked me up, held me close to him, and he walked me outside in the front yard in the middle of this massive thunderstorm. He said I cried and cried… but then after about thirty minutes I stopped crying. The thunder didn’t scare me like it did, and the rain wasn’t as frightening as I once thought. We just stood there, soaked… and I can only imagine what a moment like this brings to a father as he stands in the rain holding his son.

Dad went on to tell me that I never once was afraid of thunderstorms after that. This story just floored me… I just couldn’t believe it, I love thunderstorms, it’s just hard to imagine not liking them. I’ve learned so much about God just from watching the rain and listening. Thunderstorms are special to me and are even more now.

This story taught me about God and His love for us. Sometimes in our lives we are hammered by storms that make us just want to curl up in a corner and pray it doesn’t last. All we feel we can do is cry and hope it just doesn’t get too bad. Many times it can even feel like God himself is not there with us… and we start to ask why?

Why God did you let this happen? Why God did I have to go through this? Where were you when I needed you most? Why?

Many times I think if we were able to peek around the fence of this world we would see that in the middle of our scariest times… in the middle of the claps of thunder that shake us… in the middle of the lighting that flashes across the skies of our memories… in the middle of our cries… we would see a drenched, soaking wet, father holding his drenched, soaking wet son in the middle of his storm.

We would see a father who see’s the fear that grips his son and loves him too much to let him remain that way… a father that loves him so much, that he walks through his sons storms… with him… and sometimes carrying him.

So, when you are afraid… remember…

may you see that you have never been alone but God has been there all along… and may you see the storms in the painting of your life in a new light… and know that there is nothing to fear.

Today, being Easter, every pastor is talking about the resurrection and God’s completion of salvation for his creation. As I was browsing around in Luke I ran across something interesting.

In Luke 22 we are told the story of Jesus’ arrest and how the disciples ran away in the heat of this moment. One disciple sticks out though, Peter. If you have been in the church for any period of time you already know this story I’m referring to. Peter disowns Jesus three times while hiding out in the court yard where Jesus is being accused; even though he told Jesus that very day that he would never disown him and would die for him; it’s at that point Jesus tells Peter he will disown him or reject him three times before the rooster crows (or the day is over).

Luke tells the story like this:

“54 Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.” 57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said. 58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. 59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” 60 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

Now, let’s pause here for a second and take a deeper look at the story we are reading here and the people involved, Peter for the most part. Try to picture this… Peter is this rough edged, straight forward, tough, tell it how it is fisherman guy. He has lived his life working hard and by the many stories we get from scripture we can tell he is also very passionate about what he believes. He has worked in the family business for a while simply because he did not make the cut in the schooling system of his time. The Rabbis of that day basically told him they knew he loved the scripture and torah but he just didn’t make the cut to go to the next level of teaching. Peter knew scripture, he loved God… but he wasn’t one of the elite’s in his day.

So, this young man, just like any other young man of his day, did what he only had left to do… work in the family trade. Every young man wanted to sit under a great Rabbi and be his disciple. They all wanted to hear those words “Come follow me” but the sad reality was only a few heard those words and Peter was not one of them. So, what we have left is a young man who, in societies eyes, didn’t make the cut.

What surprises me is Jesus chose his disciples from men like this… the one’s who didn’t make the cut. It’s no wonder then why Peter dropped everything when Jesus said to come follow him. Jesus said the words Peter had always wanted to hear. Now, from this point on, I’ve always found it funny the relationship between Jesus and Peter. To someone just reading by it could seem weird. One minute Jesus is telling Peter how he is going to build his church on this rock (referring to Peter) and then not even a few paragraphs away he’s telling Peter to get behind him satan.

Then there’s the whole scene when the soldiers show up to take Jesus in the garden and Peter goes for the sword and cuts the mans ear off. I can guarantee you he wasn’t going for just an ear, he just missed. But this shows us a deep picture into this man called Peter. He’s passionate but at the same time still trying to figure this whole thing out. He’s eager to learn, he’s quick to jump (remember the whole walking on water thing) he’s a rough around the edges man trying his best to be like his Rabbi… then when it all comes down to this one moment of denying Jesus… he fails… it’s safe to say Peter was crushed.

He was devastated by what he did. This is the same man who when Jesus asked “who do you say that I am” nailed it, saying You are the Christ. “The Christ” is the greek equivalent of saying the Messiah or the Hebrew equivalent of saying “The Anointed One”. Basically, Peter nailed the big question gold star style and Jesus commends him saying that man had not revealed this to him but only Jesus’ father. Peter realizes that Jesus is this Messiah they have all been waiting for for so long. He realizes Jesus is the Messiah he heard stories about as a kid, he’s the Messiah his grandparents talked about and he’s the Messiah he read about so much in the scriptures. This same man who realized such a great thing, has just denied the very one that he put so much faith in.

This is all about to come together, I promise… so bear with me

Think about this, Peter has spent the last 3 years of his life learning, living, and experiencing life with Jesus. He has seen the dead raised, blind see, broken walk and countless other things we don’t even know about in the scriptures. He has put all his stamina and passion and life into the faith that this man is who he says he is. For three years he has seen Jesus do great things and now he is seeing this king, this Messiah about to die… and he knows that he could be right there with him. He’s scarred, confused, and like many of us when we feel backed into a corner, just wants to get out and make everything stop just so he can think, so he can process all this madness. But, he doesn’t get that chance people keep saying he is one of the followers of Jesus and Peter in this state of confusing and fear denies him… and then Jesus looks right at him when he did it for the third time… This would crush me. It would be like having a parent or anyone really important to me watch me deny a sacrifice they had made for me or watch me deny them as my family.

Now why have I gone through this long drawn out explanation of Peter and what does it have to do with faith. You see, faith is not just one directional… God has faith is us. If I was God and I was going to save humanity and I needed 12 people to trust my teaching to, and trust this task to, and to trust to tell others about it… I would probably go for the elite, the best of the best, the smartest of the smart. the best spoken, best presenter, best personality, best of the best student…. But that is not what Jesus did. He chose the low… the rejects… the one’s that everyone else said were not good enough.

You see, Jesus could have chosen anyone but he chose these 12 guys who didn’t make the cut; just like he has chosen us. When you sign up for this Christian gig it’s much more than just being about heaven and hell and which one are you going to. No, it’s about keeping the story going… keeping the movement moving… it’s about faith and knowing that the God of the universe has placed faith in you and me to fulfill this task he has given us… to share his story, his love and his journey to restore mankind. That’s great faith put in small people. Our faith in God is important but it’s also comforting to see how he has given faith in us to share his story with others. Not that he can’t but that he has chosen to allow us to do it.

God doesn’t have to put faith into us to complete his task. No, for that much he could just do it himself, he is not going to be any less of God if we failed. But the neat thing is he lets us see his faith in us… even though he already knows the outcome… so for him its not so much faith… he knows the end… but for us, it give us value. It’s like having someone believe in you to accomplish a task even though they know you can do it…. you don’t know though…. but that belief empowers you and enriches you to do better because you have someone bigger, smarter, and more able telling you that they believe you can do a fine job at this task. It’s something that makes us feel valuable. It’s something that when we think about it reminds us that we have someone cheering for us in our corner, even if the rest of the world isn’t. And, it’s something that causes us to do better than we ever thought we could simply because the one who is putting faith in us… believes we can do it.

So this easter, remember that you are a work of faith and love. Remember that your imperfections are not bigger than God and remember that God has given faith to you to be active in sharing his story. Remember that God doesn’t have to put faith in you, but chooses to and that you have someone rooting for you in your corner knowing that if you just get up and try you will surprise yourself… because He knows you can do it… it’s just getting you to a place where you can see what he has seen all along, even when the rest of the world doesn’t.

Technorati Tags: devotional, faith, teachings

Now, where I live if we see a snow flake or even feel like one could form, school is canceled and everyone runs to Wal-Mart to stock up on the essentials (toilet paper and milk – I think one may be a little more essential than the other, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one that is:)

As the years have gone by it seems like we get fewer and fewer snows. Whenever it happens it makes me start remembering my childhood and how I would anxiously watch the local news station in the morning hoping I would see a glimpse of my schools name under the canceled list. I think this is something we all, as kids, have been through a few times. For that much, I sometimes wish it was the same for work. Pop on the tv to see if work was cancelled or not. Unfortunately that never happens.

It seems like as kids knowing how to anticipate and get excited over the simplest of things came natural. Snow brought excitement because, well first off no school, but also because it meant sledding and snow ball fights, friends and forts, all to end by telling our stories of the day while drinking hot chocolate. These were all things that we just couldn’t do any time we wanted… we had to wait for them. Sometimes it would only happen once a year but when it did we were ready… at least I know I was.

I think a lesson can be learned out of remembering. The snow reminds me to take time to stop and enjoy the change going on around me. Just to take a minute or two to watch green turn to white and the air become thick with flakes. It reminds me to remember… remember stories of times with family and friends of the last snow; because I know eventually the snow will be gone.

The same thing can be seen at work in our spiritual life. God wants us to remember… and take time to stop and watch how things around us are being changed. To remember that He is in control and just because our day may not look sunny that doesn’t mean it still isn’t be beautiful. Things change in our lives, jobs change, hobbies change, tasks change, minds change, things change… it’s what we do when things change that matters. Do we stress out and beat our heads against the wall trying to fix everything or do we take time to watch the snow, and remember… knowing that this change could very well be one of those changes, just like the snow, that may only come every once in a while, providing us with opportunities that we normally would never have.

Technorati Tags: christianity, devotional, teachings

This means that in the Greek culture, when sin was talked about they instantly gained a mental picture of missing the mark with an arrow. Really interesting. I have always loved metaphors and parables, because they help you really grasp the full meaning of a teaching and continue to remember it long after it has been spoken. So, hopefully this helps you understand another viewpoint of what “sin” was seen as.

Well, I pull into my local Wal-Mart and much to my surprise I see one of the local radio station vans with a guy holding a sign saying “Free Hugs” No more had I seen the sign did this lady driving a HUGE black truck in my direction, Stop in the middle of driving… bolt out of her truck (or I should say fall out of her truck) and ran over to give the radio guy a hug. I of course was stopped in my car… watching… sniffling… not from tears though… completely the flu.

I started thinking about the “Free Hugs” idea. It seems kind of silly. The radio guy giving the free hugs was even doing it because he lost a bet on the Super Bowl at the radio station. But if you do a google search on Free Hugs, you will see there is one site impeticular, www.free-hugs.com that has a national campaign for giving away Free Hugs.. Why??? Just because they want to make sure everyone knows they are special. I kind of like that idea.

I think it is easy at times to let life run past us… we somehow miss it while at the same time we think we are getting closer to experiencing it. What does any of this have to do with church software? Well, really not much.. but simple things like letting people know they are meaningful have everything to do with the church community.

We did a survey of our youth a few months back, asking various questions about their life, what they thought of themselves, and so on. The most common answers we got led to the youth feeling at times like they were meaningless. I do not think this is just affecting our youth either, their responses match some more national surveys that have been done. As a Christian, I want to make sure the people around me know that they have meaning and worth. Especially my kids in the youth group and family and friends. Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to say in certain circumstances or know how to relate.

One of the people I admired the most when I was growing up in the youth group was a wonderful lady we called Mrs. Debbie. She was like the youth group Grandma. It didn’t matter who came in our doors or how they appeared, Mrs. Debbie made it her priority to make sure they knew they were special and valuable. Many of the times she would just walk up and give them a hug and start telling them how special they were. Yeah, at times it could have seemed a little akward, but if you ask anyone that has met Mrs. Debbie, they have only good things to say about her and how special she makes people feel. I’m not trying to be cheesy but maybe there are times when a free hug is all that is needed; especially with your family. Maybe it’s not a hug but just some encouragement that is given. Free hugs or not, I think I’m going to try harder to make sure the people around me know they are special and of worth. How about you?

My fiance’ has this cat, that we so creatively named “lil kitty”, who is one of those pretty cats. Everything she does is pretty. She sits pretty, walks pretty, she is even a pretty cat!!!! To mess with her sometimes I will rub her hair toward her head… she doesn’t like that…. why I do it, I don’t know… but it is fun. I would have never considered myself a cat person but lil kitty has made me different. I really like that cat. The only thing that I don’t like is how much she sheds.

I am honestly surprised that lil kitty is not bald based on how much she sheds. We always keep lint rollers around so we can get the hair off of us after we play with lil kitty. Well, this day we did not have any lint rollers. We had used the last one and the replacements were in the car, which was not in town. I usually sit on the couch to work and lil kitty likes to jump up on my lap and work with me on my laptop. I’m usually ok with this because after I’m done I can go grab the handy dandy lint roller to get all the “pretty” cat hair off of me. I couldn’t do that on this day and of all the days lil kitty could pick it was this day that she was overly persistent that she wanted my attention.

She would jump up on me, and I would put her right back down on the floor. It didn’t seem to make sense to her, so she would jump right back up on me again. We went through this routine for a few minutes until it hit me… this was one of those God moments and I was about to miss it. I don’t want to be one of those cat lovers that is talking about their pet like it is their kid but this moment hit me.

Lil kitty wanted my attention desperately. I didn’t want her to get on me because she would shed hair all over me and I didn’t have anything to clean it off… but she still wanted my attention. She didn’t understand why I didn’t want her to sit with me like she always had.. she’s a cat.. she understands mouse toy and food. But this started to make me think about God and me. I know there have been so many times I have shed my junk on him… but he always welcomes me back. He evens tells me to caste my burdens on him…

God knows we shed a lot… but like the prodigal son He waits for us to come to him as we are. The thing I learned from this little cat was persistence. Jesus taught us to knock and keep on knocking, ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking and we will find what we need, the doors will be opened to us. God likes us to be persistent with him… not arrogant… but lovingly persistent in coming to him with our needs… just how we are. Max Lucado I think said it best when he wrote “God loves us exactly how we are but he is unwilling to leave us there.” I’m glad that God is not worried about having a lint roller to show his love to me. He took care of all that already, all he wants from me is persistence in coming to him.

It took a small cat to remind me about pursuing God.

So, what did I do in all this? I picked up lil kitty and we worked on the computer like we always do… except this time I did not have a lint roller. I had hair all over me, but that was ok…. Lint roller… I didn’t need no stinking link roller.

I wrote a blog entry a while back about finding God hidden stories this Christmas, you can read it here. I have been saving this story for a few weeks now. I wanted to give it to you all on Christmas. This is not my story but another persons story that I have claimed as my own… it was hard not to cry when I heard it. A person in the church community I go to told us this story… it was the Sunday after I wrote the stories of Christmas post. For the sake of her identity I will refer to her as Sue.

Sue got up in front of the church to tell us about what had happened. The pastor had just mentioned how Sue’s story had touched him and he wanted us all to hear it. Sue began to tell us how she was going to Wal-Mart over the weekend to try to finish up her Christmas shopping (Just like every other person in the US) She fought the crowds all the way back to the lay-away section where she was going to pick up some presents that she had been paying on. In front of her was this man who was holding on to a five dollar bill tightly and he was talking to the sales clerk. Sue could not help but over hear the conversation and apparently the man was trying to buy some shoes out of lay-away for his child. Sue heard the sales clerk tell the man, “Sir, I’m sorry but I told you when you first brought these shoes here for lay-away that it was going to cost more than five dollars to get them out… you don’t have enough.” Sue could tell the man was having a hard time accepting what the sales clerk was saying. Five dollars was all that he had… and his child really needed these new shoes. Sue silently prayed thanking God for this opportunity that was just given to her. She had the opportunity to help someone in the middle of all this shopping chaos.

Sue spoke up and said, “Sir, I would like to buy those shoes for you if you will let me.” The man quickly agreed and was very thankful. Sue handed over the $6 to $10 dollars to pay out the shoes and gave the man his child’s gift and wished him a Merry Christmas. He was of course very thankful and took the shoes and left. Sue paid out her lay-away items and left to go home, thankful that God would let her small amount of money help someone so much.

This is where we thought the story ended…. but it didn’t…

Sue went on to tell us that a few weeks went by and she received a phone call out of nowhere. She answered it and on the other side was a woman’s voice. The woman asked if this was Sue. Sue was wondering what this was all about. The woman proceeded to tell her that she was the sales clerk at the lay-away counter a few weeks ago where Sue had helped the man purchase shoes for his child. She told Sue that she wanted to call her to tell her something. Sue asked what it was and this is what the sales clerk told her. She said: “Sue, no one knew but that day when you helped that man buy those shoes for his child I was planning on taking my life when I clocked out from work. I had already planned the entire thing and was prepared to do it. I had decided that the world was just too bad and I was not happy with life. When you paid for that man’s shoes, it shocked me. It showed me that there were still good people in this world and maybe the world was not as bad as it might have seemed. I decided then that I was not going to end my life but instead was going to keep on and I wanted to call you to tell you myself… Thank you.” Sue was speechless.

You see… stories are everywhere… opportunities are everywhere… waiting for us to find them. Sue thought that all she had done was help a man provide his child shoes. She was completely unaware of what God was really doing. Sue had no idea that by being Jesus to someone, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST FASHION, she played a part in showing a third party sales clerk that life was worth living.

So, this Christmas… may you be Jesus…. may you find that even the little things can be so big…. may you see that the true spirit of Christmas is not just on one day… but everyday… may you look past the crowds and chaos… and reach out a hand to help someone… may you find the God hidden stories that wait for you everyday…. and respond… and may you find that God uses shoes of all sizes for more than just walking.

I woke up this morning and was suddenly hit with the reality that November just passed under my nose… I was left wondering where it went. This made me start thinking about how fast Christmas went by last year. It seems that culture builds up to the idea of Christmas and before we know it, Christmas is over, the presents are done, and it off to the next best thing. I know last year I was left wondering the same thing I was wondering this morning at the end of December. Where did Christmas go?

Now I could do the whole talk about we need to remember what Christmas is all about so we don’t forget it, but I’m not. We have all heard that trumpet and we all know it. I want to enjoy the Christmas time and the time leading up to it. I don’t want to lose it because I was too concerned about getting all the right gifts and just getting to Dec. 25. I want to try to see past that. The December month can be one of the most stressful ever, deadlines are trying to be met, sales goals are trying to be reached, and all familiy is to be fit in. I don’t want to miss the month again… it’s too important… too much fun.

I love Christmas! I really enjoy the season and what values it holds; it’s exciting to me. I asked myself yesterday night as I was driving, “What is going to be different about this year?” I heard a really good quote a month ago, “Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting.” We could substitue our names in there and it would work. We get the results we get because we do what we have always done. I am looking for that special Christmas story that is sitting out there in the month of December… waiting for me to find it… waiting to see if I will change a little to accomplish it. I want to be talking about this Christmas 10 years from now… because I didn’t miss it… I found it somehow and found a hidden story that was valuable and could only have been placed there by God… just to see if I would find it.

May this Christmas be a memorable one to you and may you find the God hidden stories, that are waiting to become your story for this Christmas.

This day has made me think… what is the value of time.

Now don’t get me wrong… we all have things to do… like work… I enjoy work (my boss is going to be reading this from being at home sick in bed, so I just wanted to throw that in there… hope ya get better Bart)

No… what I’m talking about is what do we spend our time on? I have been trying to teach my kids in youth group that being Christian is more than just Sunday service and doing something halfway good every once in a while. No… it’s a life… and your life should speak louder than words of what kind of Christian you are.

I started by asking my kids, "how much time do you spend thinking about God, reading your Bible, or just talking to God?" The answer… not much. I then asked them about movies, video games, tv, music, blah blah blah… and you could see their face light up and immediately they started talking about the latest and greatest things going on in media world…. I had them right where I wanted them…. ha ha ha (dramatic effect)

So I laid out the question, if Jesus were sitting here now, looking through the past year… week… in a book of your life (maybe a picture book) what would he see. Now, I could keep going with my whole teaching and how I equated all of this with tornado’s and hurricanes… but if you want that part you can contact me. I got to the point of, time is valuable. It is worth a lot… a whole lot.

In economics they teach time as a commodity that work pays for, or you spend on things. I agree to work "x" amount of hours (X in my case is infinite…. just joking) for a certain amount of pay. People trade their time for movies, friends, stuff… we are constantly spending the currency of our time… How much does God get….

It’s something to think about… I’ve been thinking about it… you should too. How do you $pend your time???