Nine New Years Resolutions for 2009

1. Be a better christian
I really hope this always stays on my new years resolutions because this is what its all about.  If I can't be a christian (in the Biblical sense) then being a preacher doesn't matter. 
2. Be a better teacher
I work a lot on being a better preacher and better at other parts of my ministry.  But honestly, I don't work hard enough on being a teacher, and that is really important because it is what I do most often.  If I put as much effort into my science class as I do into a sunday school lesson, l would be a much better teacher. 
3. Improve my posture (more)
This was on my list last year.  When I was in college and then throughout my time in New Hampshire I let my posture go to pot.  Lately it's been getting much better though, and on my last trip home many people commented positively on my posture, but I need to keep working on it.
4. Stop biting my fingernails (for good)
I actually managed to quit biting my fingernails this year.  I bought some Don't Bite It, a kind of clear nail polish that tastes as nasty as anything I have ever put in my mouth and it really worked, but what guy wants to wear nail polish, so I stopped using it and eventually started biting again, this year I do want to stop though and really stop.
5. Gain weight
I haven't gained a pound since I was in high school.  When I was in college they called me Auswich because I was so skinny, its time to start changing that.
6. Be more of a people person
I am really good with a computer and can hold my own with a group of people, but one on one I need some work.  I am really going to try to open up this year, smooth out a few more of my New England rough edges and be more social.
7. Read my Bible more
I actually opened Explore the Book the other day for the first time since college and I loved it.  I want to try to study a New Testament book and Old Testament book every month this year, I did this in December and November and I loved it.
8. Learn patience
I am probably the most impatient person I know and I really need to change that.
9. Be less cranky
Enough said I bite off more heads than the people who work at the peeps factory and it is not good.

Chillin (literally) with my family in NH

I am currently doing something that I am not good at . . . I am taking a vacation and spending time with my family.  Amanda and I decided to rent a car and drive up to New Hampshire for Christmas this year and spend some time with our family and our old church.

For those of you who don't know, I come from a large family, I have four brothers and three sisters, most of which are in college right now (poor mom).  Because we are all grown up, most of the time its hard for us to get together, so coming home is something special.

We drove up through the teeth of a snowstorm, from Connecticut to New Hampshire, we didn't drive faster than 40 miles per hour.  As soon as we got here, it started snowing even more, and I have spent at least four hours shoveling snow with my brothers in the two days since we have been here. 

I am so grateful to come from a Christian family.  I have two brothers and a sister preparing for the ministry, and my parents are busy with church work all of the time.  We really are a close family.

Well, currently I am in Panera bread and need to get back to the fam, so I am snapping a picture of me in full "vacation mode" and going back to catchin up.

My Latest Site

Over Thanksgiving break, I finally got around to changing and updating our school's web site over at www.fairviewchristianacademy.org.  I did it using something that would have been anathema to me when I was doing this sort of thing all the time.  I used wordpress.  I have to say, the program has come a long way since the last time that I used it.  I love the new gallery function, and several people are developing themes now that are more than just themes or style sheets, they are high powered frameworks that make the web site work.  

After using these new themes, particularly Justin Tadlock's excellent and highly customizable options theme (which will soon power both our school and camp website but you'll never know) I can't in good faith go back to modx or textpattern, and I have a mind to go back to my old websites and redo them in wordpress.

What is worldliness anyways?

Is it just me or have the christians in America just completely abandoned the idea of being separated from the world?  I mean, what do you have to do these days to be considered worldly?  Is there any doubt that popular christianity has been defining worldliness down now for so long that it doesn't seem to exist anymore.  

I get all kinds of mail from youth ministry magazines and I am always appalled at what the "worship leaders" look like.  I have seen tattoos, punk jewelry, all forms of outrageous hair styles, every hair color (except for those normal people are born with),  long hair on men, no hair on women, and the list goes on and on.  How do these people reconcile there looks, music styles, and ministry methods with the Bible's command to be in the world but not of the world.

Here is how they do it: 

1)They change the definition of the word "world" every time it comes close to forcing them to alter their actions.  It seems that christianity has taken a page from the playbook of Bill Clinton (define "is") and are using it every chance that they can get.  By changing the definition of the word "world" they can make "worldliness" a moving target impossible to prosecute.  

To me it's just not that hard to understand.  The world is defined as "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" in I John 2:15, these verses refer to anything that we want to do, have or be that God doesn't want us to do, have or be.  We can see the world pretty easily when we look through the lens of this verse: we can see it in movies where fornication is almost always seen in a positive light, in TV shows glorifying adultery, in billboards advertising everything from hooters (lust) to high dollar luxury cars (greed) to a glorification of the human body through work out centers (pride).  We can see it through fashion which consistently seeks to either draw attention to the sexual zones of the body, or display rebellion for all to see.  We can see it at the mall as we watch poor ignorant teenagers living for the approval of their peers.  Modern christians need to stand apart from these things, but instead, we are emulating them and wearing our worldliness as a badge of pride.    

2) They ignore clear teaching of the scripture when it comes to how they act in our sin-sick culture. Here are a few ways:

• Does the Bible not say in Phillipians 4:5 "Let your moderation be known to all men"?  Then why are today's christian teenagers being encouraged to go to extremes in every area of fashion.  From christians with choker necklaces to christians in bikinis, where did "moderation" go?  
  
• The Bible clearly forbids the wearing of tattoos in Leviticus 19:28.  While it is true that that is in the law and christians are under grace does it not show where God stands on the issue?  A Christians body is the temple of the holy ghost, not the canvas to display its particular brand of the counter culture.  
• The Bible tells us we are to "not conform to the world" in Romans 12:2.  So why are so many christians trying so hard to look cool?  It would seem the the churches in america are going through an identity crisis similar to the one a kid goes through in sixth grade, they want so badly to be accepted by the world.  But God has said that the world will hate and persecute all christians who follow him (I John 3:13).  Is this not clearly worldliness.

3) They attack well meaning christians for trying to help them with their worldliness.  

If I had a dollar for every time a teenager has told me I was judging a saint in the last year I would have a lot of dollars.  What does the Bible say about judging other christians?  If you used the logic that the critics of this post would use, you could never have a problem with a single idea ever put forward by anyone who claimed to be a christian.   

Far from the minds of these people, though, is the fact that the Bible commands christians to "try the spirits to see if they are of God" (I John 4:1)  and that God commended different churches for not just accepting what the apostles had to say, but weighing it by the scriptures (the Berean church for one).  It is hard to come to any other conclusion that it is my christian duty to "judge" any new idea that comes down the pike.

So what is the "world" refer to in passages like 1 John?  I challenge any of you CCMers out there to come up with a logical definition that doesn't condemn your methods and behaviors.

Two Awesome Mac Programs

Every now and then, I find a program that makes me really happy that I am a mac user. I remember the day I first discovered CSSedit or the first time I used Quicksilver. These are programs that I use all of the time. Last week I found not one, but two of these programs.
The first is a free utility called Teleport. This program allows you to use one mouse and keyboard to control all of the macs on a given network. At first I thought, well this is cool. But when I started using it (I have a Macbook and an iMac that I use side by side all of the time) I thought this is awesome. It is like having a second screen only better. I can drag and drop files between computers and it really aides my multitasking. You can also use it to get around the whole "can't move files using leopard's screen sharing" thing. It is awesome.
The second program I found unfortunately isn't free. But it is no less awesome. It is a program for writers called Scrivener. This program has full screen distraction free text editing like writeroom. But the real awesome thing about this program is that it allows you to store and view all of your research files in the same file as what you are writing. I am a preacher and I often listen to other peoples sermons on a text before I attempt to preach from it so I have found myself getting several sermonaudio.com files, attaching them to my sermon file and I am able to listen and write at the same time.
Both of these programs are, unfortunately, Mac only. Mark them up as another reason to get a Mac.

!Gasp! I Think George Bush Was (and is) A Great President

The last six years will go down in history as the end of journalism.  The mainstream media in this company laid down their right to call themselves journalists, and took up the mantle of the propagandist, when they began a concentrated effort to discredit President Bush.

Now, as it stands today, we will have a President who shares Michael Moore's opinions of our current president.  He, and millions like him, think President Bush is an idiot, a liar, out of touch, a war-monger, and grossly incompetent.  They have (with the media's help) branded him as the cause of all of our economic woes, single handedly responsible for our current "recession".

This makes almost no sense to me.  The last eight years have been the most prosperous in the history of our country, period.  The average american has seen a great increase in his standards of wealth under the unholy Bush administration, Starbucks has replaced McDonalds, Target has replaced Wal-Mart, Panera Bread has replaced the local diner.  Even today, with our "recession", America is wealthier than it was back in 2000, and we were hardly paupers then.

It is my opinion that the current economic crisis has been brought about 1)because of the mismanagement of our nations oil reserves and unneeded dependence on foreign oil and 2)by the liberal congress' refusal to change the policies on Fannie May and Freddy Mac.  Neither of these two situations had anything to do with President Bush, and he made efforts to fix both problems years ago only to be trumped by a liberal congress.

The main beef that American's have with our president is over the war in Iraq.  This is where all of the anger came from in the first place.  The Iraq war has been fuel for the fire of the peacenick left wing fringe of the democratic party, and has pushed them to action.  But it needs to be remembered that the vote to go into this conflict was almost unanimously affirmed in congress, that it was voted on by prominent democrats, and that everyone (including the president) was working on bad intelligence.  The threat was their, and I am thankful that we have a president who was willing to do something about it.  

I am also thankful that our president has overseen the rebuilding of Iraq.  We have built schools and power grids, and for the average Iraqi, life is much better than it was.  The war is won and everything Bush is doing is working.

I wish I had time to write more on this and I may later, but I wanted to get on my little stump and support our president.

Where do these cooks come from?

When I was in college, doing some visiting at UT, I remember knocking on the door of this apartment to only to be drug in (literally) by an irate man who appeared to be in his fifties. This man (who never gave us his name) went on to describe to us in bitter tones how we were responsible for all of the evils in the world. He literally told us that we were murderers of millions who were in some way personally responsible for all of the poverty of Africa. That through ignorance we had weaned all of the evils in the world. At the time I was working with underprivileged kids at the Boys & Girl's Club, when I asked him what he did for a living, he just told me "I sell roses."
Fortunately, I haven't personally run into any more rose-sellers since then. I have, however, run across slews of them on the Internet. Do a search on 911, the Iraq war, or many other political hot topics and you will find a slew of them. The conspiracy theorists, the hate-mongers, the bitter, those who refuse to see America as anything positive. I have to scratch my head sometimes and wonder, where do these people come from?
I wasn't alive in the fifties, but everything I have read about it suggests that the left in America was unabashedly socialist and pro-communist. I wasn't alive in the sixties, but everything I have read about it seems to suggest that the left, or at least the student led left, were violently anti-war to the point where they claimed that Americans were responsible for the deaths of "millions" of Vietnamese.
I think the scariest thing about the situation is that these are the people who are now running the democratic party. Not their middle leaning base, those who represent the common people who believe in the system of government laid down by our founders, but the people who think America needs to be radically changed. Make no mistake about it, Barack Obama is as left leaning as ever a political candidate was. Not even Wallace, the secretary of state under Truman who ran under a "progressive" banner at the beginning of Mcarthy's reign, was as openly liberal as Mr. Obama has been.
When normal Americans here opinions like that of the rose-seller, they scratch their head and ponder. When Mr. Obama hears these opinions, I can't help but think he sees supporters.

Amazing Technology - Time to look away

I am an admitted geek.  I love technology, love what it can do for me -furthermore, I love technology done right.  My Macbook is almost always on and is one of the few pieces of technology that I can honestly say has changed my life for the better.  My iPod touch holds my lesson plans, about a thousand contacts, my calendar, a GTD system, my budget, a dozen books, and solitaire in my pocket all the time.  My iMac makes my office look good - and is an amazing computer to boot.  

So you can imagine that I was a little interested in Apple's unavailing of the new MacBook's the other day.  I have read the blogs and watched the videos and even lusted a little bit.  They really are beautiful machines, and they address so many of the flaws of the current model.  It was want at first sight.

Then I thought about it.  I have a perfectly functional laptop, it is no slower today than when I purchased it almost three years ago.  Even with my 1gb of ram it breezes through my photoshop work.  I even keep Photoshop and Indesign open at the same time with no problem.  

Which brings me to another recently released piece of technology that I won't even be looking at, and that is the new Creative Suite from Adobe.  When Adobe came out with CS3 I had a copy of (slow) CS2 on my computer.  Using CS3 felt so, good.  I was extremely pleased when my church bought a copy and I got it on my computer.  

But I have no desire to even look at CS4.  I still can't get over how well CS3 works for me, why would I want CS4.  I am determined not to even download the free demo.

That being said there is a piece of software I can see myself getting.  That is the new Bento 2 from Apple.  I love iWork and it has totally met (exceeded) my pretty basic needs, but the one thing it left out was a database.  The $299 filemaker pro would be nice, but the price tag made it a non-option.  I downloaded the trial of the first Bento and liked it, but couldn't justify spending $50 on it.  Bento2 on the other hand will fulfill quite a few needs that my ever changing job creates; like how to keep track of all of the people visiting my sunday school class, or how to plan the events I have coming up.  I really like what they have done with this new version of the program, and can justify spending some money on it.

But as far as all other things coming out, I am completely content with what I have, and that just may be more beautiful then even the new MacBooks.

Looking to the future

Amanda and I have a lot to look forward to.  One of those things is that we will be (Lord willing) moving out of our current apartment to the Camp that we run in the summer time.  Here is a link to some pictures of the horse barn being turned into a house.  

Blessed

For those of you who don't know me, I am kind of a goofball.  I was allowed to play sports in High School mainly for sympathy (not that I am physically impaired or anything I just have the coordination of a two year old).  I eased through high school and college, caring little for my grades.  I have made a lot of mistakes.

But beyond all of those mistakes, God is still blessing and using me, and for that I am truly grateful.  Out of what seemed a terrible situation God has led my beautiful wife and I to work at a wonderful church for a wonderful pastor and has given us more than we could ask for.  He has let me work in different church roles I didn't seem ready for, let me teach a wonderful group of teenagers and sixth graders, and let me run a great camp.

I think the coolest thing is that I am getting paid to do what I would pay to do.  I get to preach every day, I get to attempt to help a bunch of teenagers through the problems that I faced not too long ago, I get to learn new things all the time.  I love my job. I love my church.  I love my friends, and I really love my life.

So I just wanted thank God with this first post for all he's given me, and remind Him that I still know I don't deserve it.