betterthanblank

Another day home sick, just can’t shake this cold/cough. I’m still checking email, answering the phone every once in a while, instant messaging, and of course blogging.

What do you do when all you’re supposed to do is nothing? Well I decided to catch up on a show that I’ve never watched: Heroes. We have Netflicks, which allows you to watch shows over the internet - so I am about half way through season 1. Pretty cool show.

I had to run one errand today and while I was in the truck I was listening to an LA AM talk station. Started with Rush Limbaugh spouting off about how great he was for urging conservative republicans in Iowa and Texas to vote for Hillary; how much of a big shot he is for being such an influence. I mean come on. look at this guy:

Does anybody take this guy seriously?

In the middle of his rant we have “breaking news”: GW officially endorsing John McCain. Then I endured ten minutes of the most ridiculous hyping up session I’ve ever heard. Things like, I’ve always admired this man, he’s the right man for the job, he will be the next president, he’s got so much integrity and character. And, thank you Mr. President, you’ve always been such a great supporter and friend, blah, blah, blah. Ugh, I think I barfed in my mouth. Does anybody take these guys seriously?

Maybe this got me in a foul mood, but I started thinking about how ugly politics can be in the church. How sometimes there are unwritten rules. How some pastors/leaders get raised up on pedestals & turn into tyrants. They talk out of both sides of their mouths, preaching Gods love and grace, yet leaving a wake of damaged and hurt people in their path. Ripping on other churches/ministries/people that don’t agree with them, or are more popular/successful than them. Usually they blame everyone else for any of their personality flaws, and there’s usually a standard list of “sins” that parishoners or other leaders are labeled with: gossip, disloyalty, spiritual warfare, venomous words, poison. You’d be surprised at just how angry and vengeful people can become - within the church. And sometimes Sundays might even sound like a Rush Limbaugh show, with a little music added.

Here’s a little positive quote to wrap up my rant.

A leader should model love and servanthood and not simply preach it so that he might be loved and served.

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So I’ve been telling the story over and over of what happened on Sunday after church. I thought I’d give y’all a little visual help answer some of the questions. Here goes…

So here’s where the story begins. I was walking to my truck which was parked at the farthest east parking space, across the parking lot from LifeChurch. As you can see in Diagram 1 I had a solid plan - head right to my drivers door, throw my gear in, go pick up our babysitter, drop her off at the house & pick up Jen, and head out for an afternoon without the kids.

Little did I realize that a vehicle parked close to mine was about to have an abrupt meeting with my body.

And here’s the money shot. As you can see in Diagram 3, vehicle A (A 2 Ton Truck) backed up and hit me, sending me and my belongings flying. Pretty simple. The trucks bumper hit the side of my left thigh and I landed squarely on my right wrist. Interestingly enough, I didn’t feel hurt at all - so I got up, grabbed my stuff, and continued on with my day.

Well today is the day after and there’s no breaks, scratches, or even bruises. Weird, I know. I am extremely sore, I just kind of feel sore and tired. That’s pretty much it, no real drama - but I was literally “hit” and tossed by a truck - walking out of church on Sunday.

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Our church is about 1 mile from French Valley Airport - we’re actually in what is called a “crash zone” (nice huh?). Anyway, this happened this past Tuesday - read the whole story here. This plane crash landed about a couple hundred yards away from our building! And no one heard/saw a thing! Scary.

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 Saw this on the news tonight. In theory, it sounded like a good idea - find out about your neighborhood before you move there. So I went to check out the site. I checked my surrounding neighborhoods and found just a few “reviews” on neighbors - our valley isn’t too internet hip. Sadly, all I found was smearing, nasty, foul comments left anonymously completely bashing their neighbors. Yay, now you can hear about all the neighborhood gossip at high-speed.

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I never watch Nightline, usually we’re watching Jay Leno or playing Guitar Hero. But tonight something caught our eyes as we flipped past ABC. It was Creflo Dollar defending his mega-prosperity ministry & church. He, along with others (Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Texas, David and Joyce Meyer of Missouri, Randy and Paula White - who are divorcing by the way, of Florida and Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga.), are being investigated by Senator Grassley (apparently) for their mega-money lifestyles that include private jets, Rolls Royce’s, mansions, etc. During the interview Dollar gets blasted for not turning over his personal financial records, to which he (Dollar), says that he is making a stand for all ministries because it’s their constitutional right… ugh yeah, thanks dude. To me it sounded a lot like spin, as he explained away all the money and prosperity teaching. On the other hand, his church has done a lot of great charity work, and he has personally as well. So what to think?

Now I’ve spent a fair amount of time watching TBN - there’s not much on there that makes me proud to be a Christian. And I honestly don’t know how I feel about people like Creflo Dollar. But as we were watching this TV special, my wife asked the question, “How do you feel about that?”. And it really got me thinking.

First off, I always think: who am I? I mean here’s a guy who has a church of almost 40,000 people! And I always believe that God is in control and can take someone out whenever he wants to, so obviously, this pastor is still in leadership. But as we were watching the interview one thing that really shot up some red flags were his comments on Jesus being a rich man - which is his belief. That one really threw me for a spin. I don’t know what Bible he reads, but in my Bible Jesus was definitely not rich according to the world’s standards, and in his time the majority of the population were poor. And we haven’t even cracked the lid on the whole “Prosperity Teaching” of these types of ministries.

Anyway, what I think, for what it’s worth is that God’s purposes are accomplished despite of man. This man may be the leader of a church and a mega-ministry, but it’s God who does the work in people’s hearts, and it’s Gods church - not any mans. So I’m not worried tonight, although I do have a bad taste in my mouth. I just don’t like giving people more reasons to lose faith in God’s church… (not that I do much better).

What do you think?

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Sitting here watching Pink promote her cause on Conan O’brien. Apparently she’s all hot to trot about banning horse drawn carriages because they are outdated, inhumane, and the horses are mistreated. You can check out more here. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would be an issue - but I guess anything is possible these days.

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That’s right it’s U2 in 3d (quite a clever marketing scheme). I’ve never been a big fan of 3d (gives me headaches), but I would endure it for a u2 movie. And, I’m not sure exactly how/where to catch this, but I sure want to! Here’s the U2 site info, and I am still researching more info. If you know anything about this, let me know please.

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Our Family enjoyed a night of fun and candy in our local neighborhood, yup we celebrated Halloween. Jen’s dad was out from Alabama and he got a kick out of seeing the kids. Miles was a Power Ranger and Macy was a Pink Poodle. There some better pics from a previous post here.

Here’s some great Halloween posts from around the blogoshpere:

• My buddy John who did one of the coolest things ever for Halloween
• Another friend Vince has a great post on the Church and Halloween
• Chris had an awesome post dealing with the Church and Halloween
• Steve from San Diego had the coolest costume for his kid
• For What it’s Worth - another Church and Halloween post

How was your Halloween?

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The “Mighty Mars” from Canada arrived today in our very own Lake Elsinore to help fight these fires. Watch a video here.

Some info on the plane:

During the fire season, the aircraft are kept in a state of readiness to meet the existing fire hazard conditions. They can be in the air in ten minutes and, based on historical data, each can make a drop every fifteen minutes. Working in tandem, this equates to 7,200 US gallons (27,276 litres) every seven minutes and each drop can cover an area of up to 4 acres (1.6 hectares). It has often been said that the Mars, with a 60,000 pound (27,216 kilogram) payload of foam, is like “”a huge wet blanket”. The highly experienced Mars pilots, working closely with the Incident Commander, deliver the water or foam right where it is needed.

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My mom reports for the Press Enterprise and she took these pics this morning:

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