Rewritten and Rebuilt

* This is an older, pre-Jesus post about Memorial day. This is still something a struggle quite a bit with. The commercialization of this holiday is not easy for me to handle at times. Anyways I thought this was a pretty low profanity post so I thought I would repost. Enjoy!* I made it thru at least half the month before I saw the first commercial. Big huge letters and bright patriotic backgrounds telling me what a bundle I can save on Memorial Day weekend. But let me start from the beginning. I dislike May. Maybe one of the few nice things my Iraqi vacation did for me was mash the most shittiest of my experiences into to one approximate 40 day period, starting in May and ending after the first 10 days of June. I don't know if giving pauses in between each thing would have helped or not, so I will choose to look on the positive side and say at least it all kind of happened at once. For one, the riots were unending, the detainees knew that soon it would be too hot for them to r...

   I once had this meme posted as my profile picture for a while, so now it comes up every year as a reminder. This year as it popped up yet again, I was struck at how accurate and yet inaccurate this picture is. Are there Christians who cause harm to others by using parts of the Bible to condemn others? Absolutely true, I won’t try to deny or defend that. We are all guilty of this and not just to the LGBTQ community but to everyone. We have spoken words of anger, hate, condemnation, and judgement to almost everyone at some point, even to God. We’ve delightfully called it “love” while we actively tore people apart.    On the flip side, is it love to overlook something we know will cause pain and heartache? Jesus loved everyone but He never said, “It’s OK, just be who you feel you should be.” He called people who weren’t anything and showed them the someone they could be. His love extended beyond their sin but didn’t let them stay in it. Isn’t that how we are supp...

   King Shishak had waited for this moment; hundreds of years had passed since the Israelites had destroyed the entire Egyptian army. Egypt had never forgotten this shameful disgrace, instead they had waited for the right time to strike back. It had finally arrived. King Rehoboam of Israel arrogantly ignored the God of his people; the very same God who was their protection from Egypt he now regarded as worthless. The time had come; Shishak, with an army too large to count, swept into Israel intent on Jerusalem’s destruction and the final defeat of the Hebrews and their infernal God.    Can you imagine Rehoboam’s fear at realizing that Egypt had come to claim their vengeance and God was not going to stop them? He grew up hearing the stories of Moses, the desolation of Egypt, and the triumphant protection of God. He was no stranger to God’s grace; his father was Solomon, the wisest man ever born. His grandfather David, the man after God’s own heart, had surely told hi...

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. Luke 8:42-43    She struggled through the crowd, terrified and yet determined to get to her objective. People jostled her, pushed against her; they all wanted to get to Him too. Every shove and bump sent chills of fear through her, just one jostle too hard and she would start bleeding again. Then they all would know that she was in their midst; an unclean woman who had dared to break the law. If that happened then it was almost certain a stoning would follow for she had defied the law and possibly infected the town. But desperation drove her forward towards the Man she had heard about. Desperation, her constant companion, thrust her past the crowds and into the reach of His hem. And her desperation met the healing power of God and she was made whole.      The story of the woman with the blood issue is ...

John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Recently I’ve been going back to the gym and I’ve noticed a lot about the gym that I think we Christians could use in terms of presenting Jesus to non-Christians. Yes, I know what I just said, the weightlifting and water drinking hasn’t made me delusional. If we showed non-Christians Jesus the same way a fitness trainer shows you weights, we might make some progress in evangelizing; at the very least people wouldn’t dislike the topic of God nearly as much. What’s the first thing that happens when you walk into a gym looking at membership options? If it’s a decent one, you’ll be greeted nicely, someone will very quickly come over and begin to explain the benefits of a gym membership. They’ll probably ask questions like what are you looking to improve, any past injuries, or if there is some physical ailment that might stop you from working out. Then you’ll be taken on a tour of the facility and shown all the perks o...

 Sodom and Gomorrah. Three words that cause more hate than almost any other in our language. What was it about these cities that so angered God that He decided to destroy them? He had already decimated humanity in a world-wide flood and then said He wouldn’t do that again; therefore these people must have done some pretty terrible things to push Him to this point. I realize that almost everyone has very set ideas about why God decided to get rid of them, and arguing about them won’t bring either side together. Instead I want to understand the heart of God about Sodom and Gomorrah.    Was He stirred in anger towards a sick town of filthy sinners, or was it something more? What is God’s heart towards sin? God’s heart is to destroy sin, but to restore the sinner. He desires reconciliation over wrath. God desires to reestablish people, not watch them die in sin. Sin is what separates us from God and He loathes that division! God knows what sin does; ultimately it destroys ...