Reflections after the long weeked

So, I don't know about you, but we had a good time of unplugging for this last long weekend. Nothing beats hanging with the family and friends. However, in Sunday we continued our walk through Genesis and stopped at chapter 38 with the story of Judah and Tamar.

I have never heard the story of Judah and Tamar preached or taught, although I have heard portions of it mentioned from time to time in other settings. Now, there were a few practical elements that we walked away with, but I will throw this one out there:

Was Tamar right to do what she did? This is one of those ethical questions. If Tamar is right to do what she did, the question for us today is would we encourage people today to engage in a sin in order to achieve the greater good?

Thoughts?

Shake the Dust

Love this poem by Anis Mojgani! What do you think?

"Shake the Dust" by Anis Mojgani

This one is for the fat girls.
This one is for the little brothers.
This is for the school-yard wimps, this is for the childhood bullies who tormented them.
This is for the former prom queen, this is for the milk-crate ball players.
This is for the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired, elderly Wal-Mart store front door greeters.

Shake the dust.

This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them, for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns,
for the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children,
for the nighttime schoolers and the midnight bike riders who are trying to fly.

Shake the dust.

This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half-English and half-god.

Shake the dust.

For the boys with the beautiful, beautiful sister

Shake the dust.

For the girls with the brothers who are going crazy,
for those gym class wall flowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers,
for the kid who's always late to class because he forgets the combination to his lockers,
for the girl who loves somebody else.

Shake the dust.

This is for the hard men, the hard men who want to love but know that is won't come.
For the ones who are forgotten, the ones the amendments do not stand up for.
For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to.

Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.
Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 100,000 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.
Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.

This is for the celibate pedophile who keeps on struggling,
for the poetry teachers and for the people who go on vacations alone.
For the sweat that drips off of Mick Jaggers' singing lips and for the shaking skirt on Tina Turner's shaking hips, for the heavens and for the hells through which Tina has lived.
This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver.
This is for the biggots,
this is for the sexists,
this is for the killers.
This is for the big house, jail-sentenced cats becoming redeemers and for the springtime that always shows up after every single winter.

This? This is for you.

Make sure that by the time fisherman returns you are gone.
Because just like the days, I burn both ends and every time I write, every time I open my eyes I am cutting out a part of myself to give to you.

So shake the dust and take me with you when you do for none of this has never been for me.
All that pushes and pulls, pushes and pulls for you.
So grab this world by its clothespins and shake it out again and again and jump on top and take it for a spin and when you hop off shake it again for this is yours.
Make my words worth something, make this not just another poem that I write, not just another poem like just another night that sits heavy above us all.

Walk into it, breathe it in, let is crash through the halls of your arms at the millions of years of millions of poets coursing like blood pumping and pushing making you live, shaking the dust.

So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob tightly and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be.

Facebook concerns and thoughts?

So EVERYONE, please check out the follow two links.....
The High Price of Facebook: Your Privacy: http://is.gd/caSrm
Why I left FB this week: http://is.gd/c9kiz

I have always said that people disclose too much personal info on Facebook.
What are your thoughts?

May Sunday Reflection

We are back in Genesis and looking at chapter 37. Here we see that our main character is named Joseph. Joseph is a teen and appears mature and responsible for his age. Without question there is something special about this kid and we know by the story that it is that he has God’s hand on his life! I would go so far as to say, that this is a godly young man. This demonstrates that it’s possible to be 17 and ngodly. Joseph Unfortunately, in our culture we don’t give teens a half of chance. I am convinced that age is not the determining factor when it comes to godliness. The reality is there are only two classes of people in the church: mature and immature. Teenagers who have a great love and passion for the Lord are putting many adults who have been “saved” for decades to shame. The problem that I have seen is that many times we as adults pour water on the spiritual fire of our youth and young adults. I would say that in a nutshell, older people in the congregation/community must be cheerleaders of our youth and encourage them to take risks and live their dreams to make a difference in this world.

Joseph was a teen, a dreamer and his story teaches us firsthand what it takes to pursue and achieve your dreams. I am of the mind that God puts dreams in our hearts and minds. I believe that Joseph knew that in some way GOD was revealing Himself to Joseph.

What say Ye?

Sunday Morning After Reflections

This past Sunday we had a special speaker named Paul Fraser.

Paul shared on 1 Samuel 4. He talked about how Israel went into battle against the Philistines and initially is soundly beaten. Then, Israel decides that they will take the Ark of the Covenant with them into the next battle with the Philistines. They are thinking that the Ark will be to them like a lucky charm and guarantee their success.

The Ark was the place where the Lord was to dwell in Israel, and the Israelites in a sense thought that they had God in a box and that if they brought the Ark into their battles that the Lord would go with them. However, just having the Ark didn’t mean that the Lord would be with them.

So, the Lord did not go with Israel into the battle, and thus they are soundly defeated and the Philistines capture the Ark and take it back to one of their cities to place it proudly on display in one of their shrines to their god Dagon.

One thing I walked away with was that many “christians” think that they can have God in a box. They think that they can go and live their life however they want to live it, walking outside of the guidelines of scriptures for their lives, yet if they just pray that God will act like a Genie in a bottle and grant their wishes. Or, they think that if they just wear a cross, just make the sign of the cross, just recite the Lord’s prayer, just get baptized, just join a church, etc., that they are going to have God’s favor. And when God does not show up and deliver them, they are choked at God. However, a person will never have “God’s favor” unless they come to the place in life of surrender to God, repentance of sin in our life, and then trust in the promises of God’s word.

Paul had a number of thoughts on this passage, I would be interested to hear what you would have to think!