Which One Is And Isn't In The Bible?

One of six quotations in this post is from the Bible and one is not mentioned in any of four other books considered holy by adherents of their religious group. Can you match them up?

If Kumar ever sends me my $25 Best Buy gift card [ I won it as a prize on his blog May 4], I will re-gift it mailing it to the one lucky winner who gets the most right. If there are more than one of you who get all 6 answers correct, I'll have Jackie randomly draw the winner from my Baltimore Orioles cap and post the answers and winner next week. Good luck!

A. The Bible
B. The Bhagavad Gita, [Hindu]
C. The Book of Mormon
D. The Quran
E. The Tipitaka [Buddhist]
F. Not mentioned

1. For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted
2. It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should...give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the ophans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (the emancipation of) the captives, and keep up prayer.
3. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
4. Few are those people in the world who, when acquiring lavish wealth, don't become intoxicated and heedless, don't become greedy for sensual pleasures, and don't mistreat other beings.
5. To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
6. God helps those who help themselves.

Graduation And A Proposal?

Sunday May 27, 2007
Great Lakes Adventist Academy ● Maegan's graduation
Matt, Carla, Colin, Jenna, and Kaitlyn were there. As were mom and dad. And Mark, Paula, Conner, and 10 month old Jessica. Who apparently partied all Saturday night forcing Mark to
skip the graduation and this sibling photo op.

Tuesday May 29, 2007
Toledo First Seventh-day Adventist Church
James Meade Learning Center PreSchool Graduation
Lydia had a cap and gown like "Aunt Meggie." But unlike her aunt, Lydia received a marriage proposal. She told me not to worry though because she turned him down...even after he tried
to seal it with a kiss...THAT'S my girl!!!

What's More Expensive Than Gas?

So we're driving off this weekend to Great Lakes Adventist Academy to see my sister Maegan graduate from high school.  Which is where Jackie and I graduated what seems like fourscore years ago...
Which got me thinking...what's more expensive than gas these daze?
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19————$9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59——————$10.17 per gallon
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29————$10.32 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15————$33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35———$178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85————$123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39———————$25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99—————————$84.48 per gallon
Evian bottled water 9 oz $1.49—————$21.19 per gallon!

Going Too Fast For A Media Fast?

According to the latest Nielsen Media Research, the number of television channels that the average U.S. home receives has now reached a record high of 104.

82% of U.S homes have more than one television set at home. 23% have satellite. 28% of U.S. TV homes have digital cable. 64% of homes have analog cable (down from 68% in 2000)

In Mark 9:29, Jesus said some things can only happen through prayer and fasting. Maybe the fasting we should be focused on has nothing to do with food...What would a media fast look like to you?

What Was That Sound?

That sound you just heard was the collective sigh of relief emanating from DC after 7'2" center Roy Hibbert decided to stay in school for his senior year at Georgetown University.
Which allows him to get his degree, be the likely #1 pick in next year's NBA draft, and play college basketball for one more year.

With Greg Oden and Kevin Durant gone, who's gonna stop Gtown?!! There's no WAY I could media fast the madness of March 2008!!! [Or maybe some sports is the very thing some of us should fast from...]

Times Of Trouble, Gifts Of Grace?

Some people say we can learn in peace what God seems best able to convey in conflict. But if gold could be refined without fire, someone would have figured out a way to do that by now. It cannot be done with precious metals, and it cannot be done with precious people, either.

So if times of trouble can become gifts of God’s grace, we have to be open to the possibility of encountering either one at any time. But sometimes it takes a time of trouble for us to acknowledge and accept His gift of grace. This is what Jacob learned.

Click the graphic above to read the rest of the article I wrote recently published in the May 10, 2007 edition of my church's magazine called the Adventist Review.

You Like Big Bibles?

For 5 weeks in the summer of 1992, Sir Mix-a-Lot's best known song reached number 1 on the United States' Billboard chart and later won a 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Pastor Dan Smith made a parody of the song a few years ago called "Baby Got Book." Check it out at www.whiteboydj.com

How Do We Know What's On God's iPod?

Too many Christians assume that the music they like is the music God likes. By forbidding the music they don't like, they make it harder for those far from God to come a little closer. They put God in a box. Claim to know the rhythms of His heart. And what's on God's iPod [as if He really needs one!!! Take that Steve Jobs!!!]

Ed Christian argues in his book Joyful Noise that music should be judged not by personal tastes, but by its spiritual fruits. God approves of music that leads people closer to Him whether we like it or not.

This is a must read for any parent or pastor [Buy a box and share the love!!!] because there is much misinformation being sincerely shared inside and outside the church. This is the best book I've read sorting through the folklore while simultaneously encouraging church unity and highlighting the Biblical principles involved.

You owe it to yourself and emerging generations to carefully think through the issues music raise because Jesus said in Mark 9:42 [KJV], "42And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea."

Ed Christian teaches Bible and English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and edits the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society. He has written dozens of popular and scholarly articles on biblical literature and has presented seminars in many countries.

How Many Fortunes Fit On A Slide?

May 5, 2007
Millenium Park, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Joshua, Lydia, Colin, and Jenna

Not pictured: My newest niece Kaitlyn

Do You Still Do Too?

May 4, 2007
Traverse City, Michigan
Andrea marries my brother-in-law Frank

The light streaming through the cross was beauuutiful. As was the bride. The groom cried. And at this wedding, I didn't have to do a thing!

God was there too.

Just A Gimmick?

May 7, 2007, Toledo, Ohio. A couple days ago, 30 volunteers from Toledo First welcomed 830 youth into Whitmer High School auditorium to watch a group of brick breaking body builders talk about the life changing strength and power of Jesus in their lives.

In response, 190 [23% of the crowd] came forward at the conclusion of the event publicly deciding in front of their peers to follow Jesus. Local Links were there to pray with them and take their contact info. Those names will be returned to participating local churches like ours allowing continued discipleship training and mentoring.
Does that sound like just a gimmick to you?

Can Just One Voice Be Heard?

"What if your feet were literally shackled together all day long as you sit on a dirt floor rolling cigarettes? What if you had to dive down to the bottom of the river to untangle your masters’ fishing nets, after your best friend had just drowned the day before doing the same thing? What if your father had a drug addiction so he sold you into slavery to get his next high? What if you crushed boulders into gravel with a heavy hammer all day long until you were breathless, sun burnt and bleeding? This is the case for many men, women, and children around the world today."

These are the challenging words of a teenager named Zach Hunter. He is leading a revolution called Loose Change to Loosen Chains whose primary goal is to find the estimated millions dollars of pocket change hiding inside our couches at home using that money to mobilize his generation to end slavery. Not just sweatshop labor, but actual slavery that is every bit as sick and ugly as it was in our country two hundred years ago.

Can just one voice be heard? His is.

What's A Local Link?

Last week, six friends joined me in a room full of teenagers willing to surrender 2.5 hours of their time on a weekend to become trained as "Local Links."

Local Links are Christians from the crowd who stand up and go forward in one of three waves in response to the speaker's invitations to accept Christ. Once they're at the front, at the right time, they slap their name tag on, greet, pray, congratulate those nearest them making decisions for Jesus. Then they furiously write down on a card all the necessary contact info they can which is used to follow up and invite the teens making decisions to a small group, youth group, church group so they can be linked up with you or another Christian closest.

Please consider being trained as a Local Link!!! Get partnered up with a teen in our neighborhood who sincerely wants to know more about Jesus!!! Click here or the graphic above for more info about the training.

Are We Transforming Toledo?

The message is sacred, the method in which we preach it, is not.

In an age where the suit and the evangelist is no longer reaching the emerging generation, we must find new ways to relate to today’s youth. Using their own elements of sports, music, dance and culture, the four teams of the Impact World Tour share just one thing in common: a passion to reach the lost with the love of Jesus.

Is it working? I'd say so. In 3 nights, through 5 events 650 people came to Christ!!! More than 10% of the audience make a response to the Gospel. And our church is one the groups helping out.
Our church is in fact the location providing the last opportunity for all other Christians in the Toledo area to be trained to become Local Links. Pastor Nathan will be leading this ordinary outreach after church May 5 @ 3 pm. Come support him and help transform Toledo! For a schedule of events, click here or the graphic above.

For more info about Impact World Tour, read the Toledo Blade article "Toledo Area Churches Going To Extremes For Youth"

Is The Devil A Real Liar?

According to 2006 data from the Barna Research Group [click here or graphic to the left for more info], more than half of adults (55%) say that the devil, or Satan, is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.

Even more sobering is that 45% of born again Christians deny Satan's existence.

While slightly more than two-thirds of Catholics (68%) say the devil is non-existent and only a symbol of evil.

Jesus disagreed. He asked the religious people of his day "Why can't you understand one word I say? Here's why: You can't handle it. You're from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him.

He was a killer from the very start. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a shred of truth in him.

When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies." Taken from John 8:43-44 [MSG]

What's A Cyber Church?

So I joined another church this week. It's called echurch7. It's a cyber church.

echruch7s' mission statement is to create a community of faith that is modeled after the words of Jesus found in John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

echurch7 is empowered by the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and wants to be:

• A seeking church, open to God's self disclosure in His word and through the ministry of His Spirit. [They've got a great message board for all kinds of questions and dialogue]
  
• A spiritual church that worships the Triune God as Creator and knows Christ as Savior, Friend, and soon-coming Lord
• A mission-oriented church that proclaims the gospel in ways relevant to people everywhere
• A united church that values the richness of diversities within the body of Christ
• A discipling church that equips believers for service and leadership
• Want to join too? Click here or the graphic above for more info.

How Long Lord?

1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. 3 My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?

4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. 5 No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave? 6 I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.

8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer. 10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

Psalm 6 [NIV]

Do We Have A Healthy Message?

It's hard to share a life worth living if the one we've got isn't all that. Looking at the Adventist churches I've seen in my life, I'm not convinced we have a health message. What we have is a vegetarian or vegan message that sometimes translates to health and wellness. But sometimes [more often?] does not. If it did, there wouldn't be critical people running around pointing fingers at those who eat meat and there wouldn't be apathetic people walking around wishing they weren't. Whatever people ate, for the glory of God, they would be active and fit and obviously healthy and happy.

Assuming that can happen [and I believe it can], I'm looking for 8 individuals not too busy running the church [or away from it] to be coordinators of our Life Worth Living Ordinary Outreach. You do not have to be a member of the church to participate. But you do have to commit to becoming a resource specialist in one aspect of NEWSTART [Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance, Air, Rest, and Trust in Divine Power].

These folks will be in charge of scouring the newspaper, internet, and journals to collect info, stories, pictures, and articles to share so they can give a short update/report on developments in their field of health and wellness once every 8 weeks in a small class offered to the community.

We could set TUE nite, for example, as health and wellness nite at church where the church and community will be informed that there will be something happening promoting a life worth living. Each class focuses on only one of the 8 aspects of wellness per week in an informal roundtable discussion/presentation. It could include an "Ask the Doctor" section assuming we have a willing one or better yet we can recruit one from the community to donate an hour of his/her time fielding random medical questions. It could include healthy snacks. A simple closing prayer. And an invitation to return. And could continue nonstop year round without any leader burning out because they're responsible for leading only once every 8 weeks. You think this might work?

The Church vs. The Flea Circus?

Sony created an ad a few years ago for their Play Station 2. Here's what it says:

"Training fleas requires a glass jar with a lid. The fleas are placed inside the jar and the lid is then sealed. They are left undisturbed for three days. Then, when the jar is opened, the fleas will not jump out. In fact, the fleas will never jump higher than the level set by the lid. Their behavior is now set for the rest of their lives. And when these fleas reproduce, their offspring will automatically follow their example. Escape the circus and live beyond the limits of the imaginary lid."

See any similarities between the church and the flea circus?

Once Married, Always Married, As Long As You Stay Married?

The world’s tallest man has married a woman who is more than 2 feet shorter than him. Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia, married 5-foot-6 saleswoman Xia Shujian recently the Beijing News reported.

Bao’s 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world, it said.“After a long and careful selection, the effort has been finally paid off,” the newspaper said.

Bao was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest person. And while their marriage will undoubtedly have its "highs" and "lows", as long as they stay together, they will stay married.

Matthew 24:12-13 [NLT] says that before Jesus returns, "12 Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the LOVE of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who ENDURES to the end will be saved."