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How quickly things change

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It's not even noon here and already today I have used 3 very different things that didn't exist 10 years ago. Claritin Eye - This product is absolutely the greatest.  There has never been a better product made for itchy eyes that are a result of pollen.  In May and in September I use it multiple times per week.

Amazon's Kindle - I have not yet written a review of the Kindle, but here it is in short.  It is great.  There is really nothing to dislike about the Kindle except for the price of books. It is superior to paper books in almost every way.

Dropbox - Dropbox is online file storage with a client that lives on all your devices.  If you use it, then you always have the same files on all your devices.  I rely on it so much that I wonder how I functioned before I started using it.  (If you want to use it, Click here.  I'll get some free extra space out of it.)

None of these things existed 10 years ago and now I would not want to do without them.  This got me thinking about the speed at which things change.  It is as if Moore's law affects every aspect of our lives.  The rate of technological change seems to speed up over time rather than slowing down.  It's effects are seen in every area of our lives.  Even my tackle box is full of things that weren't around 10 years ago.

I also realize that people find technology daunting after a certain age. It seems that nearly everyone has an age after which new technology is useless to them.  For my grandparents, the DVR built in to their cable box is really a bridge too far.  (After seeing me do it a time or two they may occasionally rewind something they missed,but they are not going to time shift any program.)  For some people technological advancements are not just too difficult to learn, they are actually frightening. This phenomenon is nothing new.  People once believed that if you travel too fast in a car, you would suffocate.  I have to admit that sometimes theories of technology in the future frighten me, but overall I welcome it.

How about you?  Are you afraid of the technology of the future?  Does the rate of change brought to our lives by technology scare you at all?  What products do you use regularly that didn't exist a short while ago?    Do you think there will be an age where learning anything new technologically is just not worth the effort?

It is the National Day of Prayer...

...and I'm feeling generous I spend a lot of time writing lessons and preparing to teach my youth group.  I rarely use a lesson that anyone else has written.  However, it is not unheard of.  So today I am sharing something with you.

Our association had a NDOP youth service last night.  It was a good service, although very simple.  we sang worship songs, and then divided into groups for prayer.  We had 20 prayer stations and the students divided into groups of 5 or less and moved through the stations.  Some had simple exercises for illustration purposes.

Click here to download the prayer prompts.  Obviously if you use them yourself they will require customizing. They include prompts for all of our local middle & high schools as well as local officials.

I spent quite a while making these all the same format and wrote many of them, however I cannot take all the credit.  Chuck, Joey, and David are responsible as well.

I hope you find these useful.

Should I Celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden?

More than anything else, I am a Christian. And although I do not usually go by the title, I am also a pastor. One of the functions of a pastor is to answer questions. The question at hand, “Should Christians celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden?” is one that is laden (laden, not Laden) with emotion. The emotions that go along with an event like this make it much harder to dig out the answer. I am not even slightly qualified to speak about all the political ramifications of this announcement, so I am not taking that into consideration. With that as a preface, I offer my thoughts. First, I will say this. The execution of Bin Laden is the morally right thing to do. Have no fear the by killing him we have sinned as a nation or by getting vengeance we are somehow all tainted by immorality as Americans. The state has the God-granted right to kill and it was the right thing to do. He was, after all, a self-admitted killer of thousands.

Second, Osama Bin Laden was a man committed to violence and evil. His actions and his ideology were evil and he got no less than what he deserved. In fact, the judgment he will now face, will offer substantially more penalty.

I believe that relief that he is dead is a proper reaction.

I believe that pride in our country that we were able to exact earthly justice is a proper reaction.

I believe it is right to credit our military, our intelligence organizations, and our president for a job well-done

I believe it is right to be hopeful that the reaction to his death will be fear by the rest of the terrorists. Fear that if Bin Laden could not get away with his strategy, they should not attempt the same.

I believe that celebration is the wrong reaction. The Bible makes it clear that God does not take pleasure in the death of a wicked person. If Osama Bin Laden had announced that he read the Bible, was convinced of his sin and need of a savior, and was putting his faith in Jesus, that would be something to celebrate. (Though he would still deserve death for his actions.)

So despite my pride in my country, you will not see me celebrating in the streets.  Though I might just watch Navy Seals in the next few days

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The most important issue for youth today

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Two weeks ago I tried an interactive question on this blog I asked a question and for your feedback.  I was busy last week though and forgot to post my response.  So with an apology I offer my answer. The question I asked you to respond to is What is the most important issue that our teenagers are facing today?

The way I laid out this question was in the context of a church youth minister search committee.  If they asked you this question, how would you respond?  With apologies to Chap Clark, I do not believe that there is a fundamental change in teenagers over the years.  Technology has brought about many changes in culture and to our society, but essentially here are no new sins, only new ways to get involved with them.

When I asked this question my answer is that the problem for teenagers is the same as for every other person; not knowing Christ.  The biggest problem any person can have is being lost and having to deal with judgment and eternity.  I know, however, that this not really the answer a committee is looking for.  They want to know what unique problem is there today that teenagers deal with that was formerly not a problem.

To that question my answer is that there is such a proliferation of media that it can be impossible to hear the voice of God over all the other screaming voices.  A Twitter stream, and a Facebook feed, and dealing with text messages from 9 people all at once, while wearing earbuds makes it very hard to have quiet time.  In fact, this constant stream can make it hard to hear any voice.  And eventually it can rob teenagers of the ability to be around the people they are around.  I believe that this is the greatest problem facing our students today because it hinders the ability to have real relationships.  Or maybe it just changes what the word "relationship" means.

On another note: I really enjoyed the feedback I got on this one.  Everyone wrote well-thought-out answers and I can’t disagree with anyone.  I am inspired to do this on a regular basis.  Ask a youth ministry question on a Wednesday give my reply the following week.  Would you be willing to keep participating if I did that?

A Short Rant

Dear people of the world, When you are finished checking out at Wal-mart or at the grocery, I get it, you need to square away your money, ID, checkbook, whatever.  I also understand that it takes some of you a long time.  You were, after all, not prepared to have to put away your stuff. All I ask is that you move away from in front of the register to complete this process.  Just take 3 steps, then spend as long as you need to put up your whatever. You are slowing down the entire line.

Respectfully (sort of), Someone who is very annoyed by this

 

Last week I had so much fun writing my snarky book review that I decided to turn up the snark again this week.  I don't plan to make a regular habit out of this.  I think it reflects a bad attitude.  But ranting is fun occasionally.

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A Question for my Readers

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I'd like to try an experiment.  I realize that this blog is not the most interactive place on the internet, but I am going to ask a question and ask for your input.  I think the more answers I get, the better, so let's try this out.  Here goes. It is no secret that I have been looking for a full-time youth ministry position for quite a long time.  In this period I have spoken to a host of search committees.  You can get a feel for what a committee is looking for by the questions they ask, but there is one question they all ask.

What is the most important issue that our teenagers are facing today?

I know I have a few youth minsters who read this blog regularly, please give an opinion.  This question is not limited to youth minsters though.  How would you answer this question?  If you were on a committee, what would you be looking for. I look forward to reading your responses, then next Wednesday I'll post my answer

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Book Review: Love Wins

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I think it might be an internet rule that if you are a Christian and a blogger you must write a review of Rob Bell's latest book, Love Wins.  I don't want to run afoul of the internet so here is my review.  I know that many of my readers have not read other reviews but I should say, there's probably nothing too original here. Much ink has already been spilled in reviewing Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell, so I will not be offering a traditional review here.  Rather I will be answering some of the questions that people have heard about the book.

What is the thesis of Love Wins?

Rob Bell’s writing style doesn’t lend itself to clarity.  Any time he is getting close to a conclusion, instead of saying what he believes or even what he means, he asks leading questions.  But it seems that the thesis is as follows:

God gets what He wants. Because he is loving, God wants everyone to be saved. Love wins.

Again, he never comes out and says that everyone will be saved, but he makes that implication strongly.  Apparently they will be saved even if they desire nothing of God.  Although he doesn’t reconcile this tension.

Is Love Wins at least careful with the scriptures.  Does he come to his conclusions Biblically?

In short, no.  One would have to strive to mishandle the scriptures as much as Bell does in Love wins.  He is a pastor and one charged with preaching the word.  He should have a basic grasp of hermeneutics, but he is utterly irresponsible with God’s word.  One brief example is quoting John 12:47 [pg 160] to say that Jesus didn’t come to judge the world.  However, in that very same sentence Jesus says that His words will judge those “who reject me.”  There are so many examples of either terrible hermeneutics or outright mishandling of the scriptures that it would be hard to list them all.

What about the holiness of God, does he care about that?

The word Holy appears on page 182. That’s it.  And on page 182 he describes substitutionary atonement correctly and follows it by suggesting that it teaches a false message.  So yes he does deny the holiness of God.  The god of Love Wins is loving, but he is not holy.  That is not the God of the Bible!

I have to also say that Bell is very loose with the way he speaks of the Trinity.  He doesn’t deny the trinity, but he is not at all careful in the way he speaks.  It is extremely off-putting to hear somebody say Jesus and God.  It implies that Jesus is not God.

Does he really deny the atonement?

He does in fact describe the crucifixion as a powerful metaphor. And he says that “most of us do not understand sin, guilt, and atonement in those ways.”  He says the first Christians, “put the Jesus story in language their listeners would understand.”  I wonder if he has read the book of Hebrews?  I said at that outset that His style doesn’t lend itself to clarity.  Bell never actually says anything.  What he does is imply it in a way that only an idiot could deny what has been said.  So yes, he strongly implies that the atonement is just a metaphor.

Is there anything good about the book?

I will give him credit for understanding Heaven as a physical place.  Many times in many evangelical churches, heaven is seen as this ethereal place that neither seems heavenly or particularly real.

Also the book is quick to read.

Would you recommend the book?

No

A Snarky Book Review: Love Wins

What if somebody wrote a book that didn’t say anything?It just asked questions… loads of questions.

Love Wins book coverWhat if those questions were all leading? Could that count as actually saying anything? Does this post so far leave you with any doubt of what I am trying to communicate? It is, after all, almost all questions.

Can I deny that I said anything? All I really did was ask a bunch of questions. Is it a problem if the questions all have self-evident answers?

What if somebody used the word “story” in virtually every other paragraph? Would you find that annoying?

What if somebody wrote with no concern for how much paper they used? What if there were random line breaks everywhere? After commas, After ellipses... Even for no reason whatsoever?

And then followed that with like 4 blank lines also for no reason whatsoever.

How long could I write like this before it became incredibly annoying? Would 194 pages of this be more than you can stomach?

Also, what if this book cost 11 dollars but took under 2 hours to read, even while making notes in almost every page?  Would that affect your feelings toward the book?

If you enjoy this style of writing I recommend Love Wins by Rob Bell.  If you find it silly or annoying or you just wonder if this is what they call "emerging grammar" then I say skip it.

Thus ends the snarky portion of my book review  Read the next post if you want a serious review.

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The next 2 posts on this blog

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Last week I wrote a post about the holiness and love of God because I knew the pull that Rob Bell has and I knew more or less what the thesis of his new and very popular book was.  That post was not written as a review but as a theological critique to the picture of God the book paints.  I decided, however, that it is unfair to do so without reading the book.  So I bought it and read it.  I have decided to write the review in 2 parts and to make those parts 2 posts.  I don't want anyone to read the first one and take it too seriously. First there will be a snarky review because the style of the book annoyed me and it was fun to write.

Second, there will be a serious review of the book.  Read whichever one you prefer.

Holiness and Love Win

This title is obviously inspired by the title of Rob Bell’s newest book Love Wins, but I have not read that book.  I have however seen it reviewed in a handful of places.  So I will say a bit about it here then move on to my point in this post.  If the quote from Russell Moore’s blog, The Blood-Drained Gospel of Rob Bell, is accurate, (and it is) then Rob Bell is simply not a Christian.  One cannot claim to be a Christian and deny the necessity of the blood of Christ.  The cross is the center of Christianity.  If it is unnecessary, then we can toss out everything else the Bible has to say.  Let me put that a slightly different way.  Why would someone feel the need to call themselves a Christian if they deny the atoning work of Christ?  If the cross is merely “the  Jesus story in language listeners would understand.”  That is a denial of the atonement.  The person who says that is Christian in title only. In past generations Christian liberals abandoned the scriptures because they didn’t want to be embarrassed by academics.  Now it appears Christian liberals are denying the gospel because they don’t want to be embarrassed culturally. It’s the same story just a different generation, and it is sad.

There is, however, something about the character of God that all Christians struggle with.  This struggle is what starts someone like Rob Bell down the path toward universalism and it is the same thing that causes other Christians to feel as if God would never redeem certain “types” of people.

The Bible makes it clear that God is Love.  In fact, it directly says, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) The Bible also makes it clear that God is Holy and says so directly. (Leviticus 11:45)

The Holiness of God means that He hates our sin.  Has a hatred of it more than we can imagine.  And even the sins we think are cute, or the ones we are somehow proud of, God hates.

The love of God means that he is willing to forgive, and even forget, all of our sins. Through the Son He has justified us and does not see those sins.  He loves us more than we can imagine.

Here is where it gets difficult for every Christian I know.

We all tend to place the holiness and love of God on a continuum and we find that we view God far on either side of that continuum.  If we overemphasize the holiness of God we become legalists and think we are somehow righteous because we are able to keep God from squashing us.  If we overemphasize the love of God we become antinomians (or universalists) and think that we can behave however we wish because God will forgive.  (Apparently Rob Bell would say that God will forgive even if we desire to reject Him)

Neither of those views of God are true or fair.  God is perfectly holy AND perfectly loving. He hates our sin and he loves us enough to forgive it.  The hard part is understanding this and living accordingly.  I do not want to worship a god who is not loving, neither do I want to worship a god who is not holy.  Fortunately, I do not have to make this choice.  The God of the universe is both and all Christians will do well to remember this.

I hope I have been able to say this clearly.  I welcome your comments.

My opinion about something everybody has an opinion about

By now everybody is familiar with the Supreme Court ruling about the Westboro “Baptist” “church” and you all have an opinion.  I write a blog, so I thought I would share mine. A few months back I wrote a post regarding the religion portion of the first amendment in which I said “Politically speaking, I do not want to be involved in anything that tells other people how they can or cannot worship. Nor do I want someone telling me how I can or cannot worship.”

1st ammendmentI feel pretty much the same about the WBC.  What they are doing is reprehensible on a number of levels.  Their whole act is made worse by the fact that they have the audacity to call themselves a church.  Morally speaking, I could not be opposed more strongly.   However, what they are doing is guaranteed as a right by the first amendment.

Politically speaking , I do not want to be involved in telling any group what they can or cannot say, nor do I want to any group telling my church what it can or cannot say.

Ultimately this is my fear.  If the words of one group can be silenced then the words of another can be.  There are many who would equate a conservative Christian view toward homosexual behavior with those of Phelps’ group, even though that is not only unfair it is false. The Bible teaches that god loves everyone.  The Bible also teaches that God is holy and that He cannot tolerate sin.  The message of WBC is that God hates those involved in a particular sin.  That message is vastly different but there are some who see no difference.

I want the Westboro “Baptist” “church” to stop with their hatefulness. I certainly want them to stop picketing funerals of our soldiers and to just have some decency.  I believe that the message they teach is destructive and that it is designed to call attention to their group rather than to any issue or cause.  Even with all that, I believe that the Supreme Court ruled properly.

I know that a supreme court decision on this issue is news so it has to be covered.  I have a suggestion.  The news organizations of the world should vow not to cover this group again.  That would be the most deserved punishment and it would be most crushing to them.

An extra thought

I really want to write a whole post about the name Westboro Baptist Church.  They are certainly not a church; not by any definition.  They are also not Baptist in any way. I strongly suspect that the people of Westboro don’t want to be associated with this group either.  My suggestion is that the world adopt a new name for the group.  My suggestion is GHF.  That is what they are most associated with.  I’ll take your suggestions for a new name for this group in the comments.

The Blogpost with the Dragon Tattoo: In Praise of Fiction

I have been a reader as long as I can remember.  I was reading Choose Your Own Adventure books in the 4th grade and it seems like I have always loved reading.  When I started Seminary, I learned quickly that I would not be doing any “pleasure reading.”  The workload in seminary was such that I learned to always be reading.  I could find time to watch a basketball game as long as I had a text in hand and would read during commercials.  This reading, however, was not for fun.  It was classwork and it was necessary for my progress as a student.  Somewhere along the way I began to enjoy reading non-fiction and the learning it provided.  I especially developed a love for reading apologetic works.  And a quick look at my reading list over the past few years will show you that I rarely read anything other than non-fiction. The one exception to this has been audio books.  I had a 10+ hour trip between my hometown and where I lived for the last few years.  And I found that audio books that are well-read are perfect for passing time.  I also found that fiction works much better for passing time than non-fiction.

Then, 2 years ago I began systematically trying to read books that are considered great works of fiction. Only two of those books really captured my imagination; Les Miserables, and Jude the Obscure.  Otherwise I read those books out of a sort of sense of duty.  I still had not recaptured my love of reading fiction.

For Christmas this year I got a Kindle.  (I know I wrote a whole post about how I wouldn’t, but it was a gift.  I’ll probably write a review of it before long.) I used the occasion of getting a kindle as a catalyst for re-reading the The Wheel of Time Series.  I read books 1-9 back in college, then I quit reading them for fear that they would never end.  Now that Robert Jordan has died and Brandon Sanderson is finishing the series I know that there is only 1 book remaining and it appears that it is on pace to be finished in 2011.  So I began at book 2 and have read those books every day for two months.

There really is nothing like reading fiction for both relaxing and for entertainment.  I wonder if there is a word for the phenomenon that is reading.  Because at some point you stop processing words and begin to see the story in your mind’s eye.  It is the reason no movie ever lives up to the book, because so much of the drama, certainly all the images from a work of fiction occur in the imagination.  Images on a screen have no choice but to look like the images on the screen.  Every person who reads a book sees a different face on the characters and every person sees a different mental picture of the events.

Adults are limited in the realm of imagination.  I’m not sure why imagination fades with age, but clearly it does.  Fiction allows that imagination to return.  It is typically confined to the story, but still it is imagination and it can only be good for the reader.

I’m sure that I have just written an entire post that had no need to be written.  Stories are not going anywhere, I know that.  But I am somebody who had nearly gotten completely away from reading fiction.  I thought I might encourage others of you in the same boat to return.  Reading fiction is a great escape

(BTW if you know if there is a word that describes the way a story occurs in your mind rather than on a page, let me know in the comments.)

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The Life and Times of a Tiny Snowman: A Documentary

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The tiny snowman, Bobby Drake, was born, or created as most snowmen are, on Tuesday February 8, 2011.

He had golf tees for eyes and a mouth, a couple of twigs for his arms and a cap from a 2-liter bottle for a hat.

Bobby's task was an important one.  he stood vigil over the back porch and protected it from marauders of any sort.  He was wonderful at his job.  During his few days on duty there were no threats against the back porch.  He was not affected in the slightest by the coldest temperatures of the year, and it is said, though it may only be legend, that he never blinked.

But the life of a tiny snowman is ephemeral, and early in life, disaster struck...

During the late-afternoon on the day of his birth, Bobby lost an arm in a tragic solar incident.  Doomed to be forever maimed at the hands of the evil-if-you-are-a-snowman Sun, Bobby became deeply mired in melancholy.  It is said he considered launching himself from the ledge of the very porch he was set to guard.

Soon, however, the Sun relented its attack. It disappeared behind the horizon and remained hidden behind thick clouds for nearly 48 hours.  During second day of his life, Bobby was strengthened by an additional 4 inches of powdery snow.  It piled around his base and even atop his head it covered his hat.  The additional snow added to Bobby's fierceness and he guarded the porch with more vigor.

Wednesday night the temperature fell to 4.3°. Bobby Persevered

On Thursday, the temperatures remained in the 20s with the Sun hidden behind a thick bank of clouds.  He persevered.

On Thursday night the temperature fell to -4°. He persevered

 

On Friday, the evil sun once again made an appearance.  But Bobby's ally, low temperatures, protected him. The day's temperature never rose above 15 degrees and Bobby bravely guarded the porch.  Little did he know, this would be his last day on earth. Snowmen are not very good communicators and he asked no one what the next day would bring.

-Saturday-

Saturday was a tragic day for the back porch.  The Sun once again made an appearance.  This time the sun was strengthened and quickly defeated Bobby's ally low temperatures.  As the temp soared, bobby's weaknesses were unveiled.  The first weakness that the sun conquered was that Bobby was made of snow.   Snow really stands no chance against the vastly superior foe that is the Sun.  Bobby's second weakness is that he was tiny.  A larger snowman may have survived the day with only some wounds.  Probably a lost limb or two, but the day would have been survivable.

 

By the time the Bobby could be observed again nothing remained except for a pile of golf tees and some snow.  The porch was left unprotected.  An unprotected porch allowed wild animals to roam free.

Bobby Drake the tiny snowman lived a brief but valiant life.  He deserves to be remembered by generations of snowmen to come

(BTW, The name Bobby Drake is totally clever if you are the right kind of nerd)

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The 10 Worst Things About the Internet

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I love the internet, obviously. It is great for a multitude of things, and I make use of it for a multitude of things.  This post is about the stuff that the internet could do without.  Just to be clear, I’m not talking about content in this post.  There will always be content that is objectionable, and for the most part it is up to the user to decide whether to be exposed to that content or not.  This post is about annoyances and things that are largely unavoidable.  All these things make the internet worse regardless of the content you seek. Before the list I should say that advertizing appears on this list multiple times.  I do not have a problem with advertizing.  I have a problem with obtrusive advertizing.  I know that the internet runs on ads.  I know that they are necessary and that they make everything cheap.  I listen to many podcasts with ads and they don't bother me  in the slightest.

Now the list

1.       Trolls – This one is number 1 for good reason.  Trolls ruin every comment thread on the internet.  Trolls are why I never read message boards, or youtube comments, or turn on the mic on X-box live, or, well, read anything popular that allows comments.  This is extra annoying because I am bewildered by why people would act like this.  What enjoyment would anybody get from making other people hate them either by being obnoxious beyond words, or by being so profane that Howard Stern would be embarrassed to listen?

2.       Fragmentation of content – This is a problem that I don’t have any hope will go away any time soon.  If I were a content creator, I would want it seen by as many people as possible.  However, the people who pay the bills want to force us all over the internet to find things.  I am not suggesting that every TV show should be on Hulu.  I am saying that every TV show should be on Hulu, and Netflix, and TV.com, and everywhere.  Then the factor deciding where I watch it would be the quality of the site where I chose to watch it.  Music has almost figured this out.  Pretty much every label can be found on iTunes and on Amazon.  So when I am looking for a song I go to the site I prefer and know it will be there.  Why can’t the makers of other content figure this out?

3.       Every search result that goes to about.com, or ehow, or any site of that type – Those sites are never helpful, they have an obscene amount of ads and they trick you by making you click through.  I wish those types of sites would go away.

4.       Interstitial ads that cover up content.  I never want to wait 30 seconds to read a page. Ever.  It makes me hate the product advertized and makes me never want to come back to the site.  AOL, I’m especially saying this to you and your family of blogs with great content.  Stop it!

5.       Any short video (under 5 minutes) that has a pre-roll ad – Again, I have no problem with ads.  But watching  30 second ad before a 50 second video guarantees I’m never watching one of your videos again.  The worst offender of this rule is failblog, consequentially I have not watched a video from their site in months

6.       Any story that is spread over multiple pages.  This is just a trick to make traffic numbers higher and to make more ads load.  Stick the story all on one page and just space the ads throughout.  Somebody worked hard on writing that story.  Why would the site ensure that nobody ever sees the end of it by hiding it behind 3 page loads?

7.       Any website that plays music automatically.  Auto-playing music is the bane of the interwebs.

8.       Any status update on Facebook ever that includes the phrase “Copy and paste if you agree” (I admit that I copied one of these one time.  It was about dragons and it made me laugh uproariously.  But that is the only one.)

9.       Spam – Everything that can be spammed will be spammed.  What can I say? It’s frustrating and makes the experience all across the web worse

10.   The way so many sites say “this site requires to be linked to Facebook.”  No it doesn’t require linking to facebook.  If it did it would be on facebook.  You just want to advertize to my friends. Facebook has certainly proven repeatedly that it cannot be trusted with all my info so I never want to give it any info from any other site.