The Blind Leading The Blind (Over A Cliff)

This is why Oprah is a cult leader.

Look, I know Oprah does a lot of good and helps people, but she's also leading people straight to hell with this nonsense. I like how one person described it in the story:

In a commentary posted on The Morning Call, one pastor likened Oprah's multi-way approach to God to telling a blind man standing at the edge of a cliff that whichever way he chooses to walk is equally safe.

The Good That Can Be

You know the more I live in this world the more I realize people as a whole have not changed a lot. Yes times, styles and means change but the heart of people has always been flawed. Some people look at our fledging moral society and think it has really went down hill. While it’s true that western culture has slipped down the moral scale, in its totality the human race has always clung to evil. The Bible says there is no one good and that all fall short of the glory of God.

So how does all that correlate with my mentality since I was a young child that say, “There is good in everyone?” I mean if we are totally lost because of our sin, then how is there good. Was I completely wrong? Well I think in my study last week I finally figured out how to marry those seemingly opposite ideas. Since we are created in God’s image then we have the potential with Christ in us to be a new creation. Think about it; Jesus always seems to look at who someone could be in Christ rather then who they were at the time. He looked at people for what they could become rather than what they were or what they had.

Who would ever have guessed that reactionary Simon Peter would become a rock-like leader, that the persecutor Saul would become the preacher Paul, the demon possessed Mary Magdalene would be the first to see the resurrected Jesus, the proud intellectual Nicodemus would be humbly born again, or the cheating tax collector Zaccheaus would host Jesus for dinner? Jesus saw the potential in all of them and He looks at us the same way. So maybe my child silly thoughts were not that far off after all. We should look to the potential good in everyone.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

National Day of Prayer, This Thursday, 7 p.m.

Join us for the National Day of Prayer at the Dubois County Courthouse at 7 p.m.

Narrow Path, CCJ's band, will be leading song worship and ministers from various churches (including Darrel from CCJ) in the county will be leading times of prayer.

Answered Prayers

My brother, Stephen, made it back to Tennessee from Iraq Saturday night. Many prayers were answered with his safe return from his second tour of the sandbox. He has been on the prayer list for months so, if you took time to pray for him, thank you from the bottom of my family's hearts.

Also, my dad, pictured to the right, completely shaved his head in honor of my brother's return (my dad has been bald since I can remember but he shaved the rest of it the other day).

"The Burner" on Sunday Night

"The Burner" held on Sunday evening/night was AWESOME!!! The dance troupe was outstanding!!! I liked all of the acts they did but my children loved the one with the white gloves and the two puppet people dancing. The music was movin'--get out of your seat music.
Thank you Karen and Dan!!

The coffee house ladies, men, and youth hustled to fill the drink orders for everyone. It is great when they try something new--tonight a CCJ (orange julius drink ) and a Black Cherry.

Thanks for all of the hard work to make this come together.

It was another great experience. Many people (young and wiser) were opened with open arms tonight.

Special Request

This was left in the comments of an old post and I wanted to make sure everyone saw it:

Special note: My Mother Margie Rottet, will be 87 May 3rd, Can you please help me by giving her a B'day card shower? She is a member of our church. She has a health problems that keeps her from attending services. Thank you. God Bless you all.

Marie Bradley
Address 1621 Reservoir Ave.
Jasper, IN. 47546

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Earthquake Edition)

The Ryman Auditorium next to Broadway in Nash-Vegas (not where we saw the show BTW, but close by)

The Good:
- A day off tomorrow.
- Bon Jovi/Daughtry Tonight in Nashville (my favorite band, my favorite city).
- Staying in swank hotel with my bride.
- Friends willing to keep our kids.
- Meeting up with a friend of 20+ years for above concert.
- Found jobs.
- Jesus conquered the grave.
- My brother's return home (he's in the US again but still not HOME-home).


The Bad:
- Dave P. leaving The Herald, Dave K. leaving The Herald
- Gas prices
- Food prices
- Pride & Idolatry
- Deaths that I don't understand.
- Waiting on the military.


The Ugly:
- Our living room.
- One tank of gas = $50 (?!?!?!?!)
- The Braves inability to be consistent so far this year.
- EARTHQUAKE!!!!
- AFTERSHOCK!!!!

Gardening

Things have been slow on the blog the last few days. I know we've been busy working in the yard and garden. We planted tomatoes and peppers today. Hopefully a late freeze won't get them. I may have been gone or just missed the details but I was wondering about CCJ's garden club that was mentioned a few weeks ago. Who knows what that was about? Is anyone else planning a garden this spring?

Lessons from TV

As some of you know I really like movies and television. One of my reasons to watch movies and shows is to find biblical theology parallels to build a bridge of conversation to our culture. There is a church in Seattle that spends a lot of time doing this and it can really reach people.

Well one of my favorite new television shows for that is Eli Stone. It is not only one of the most creatively entertaining shows but it delves deep into theological truths. Now keep in mind it is not a quote “Christian show” and you might find some things objectionable. That being said however it has a great message about purpose and meaning from our creator. The season ended Thursday but its hopes of getting picked up for a second season look good. So the next time it is re-run or if you get the chance online or on DVD, check it out. Later I plan on blogging about some specific lessons from Season 1. If you have watched the show please let me know what you think.

Blog "Priceless"

All of us who went to Haiti this month want to say a big THANK YOU to those who commented on our post while we were away. It meant a lot to us to stay in touch and read emails. This new age of electronics is helping the missionaries feel not so isolated. We all need a support team and you guys were one of ours. Thanks for your prayers also. We always felt the Lord’s presence.

Daniel, we can’t thank you enough for all you do to make this blog possible. We may take it for granted here…but like Master Card’s commercials…staying in touch from a foreign country….. “priceless”!

Oh! Gravity.

"I am terrified of writing a book about God. And I think this idea applies to a lot of the other things we do in God's name. It's OK to be a little scared. It's OK to have a sense of gravity surround you when you sing on stage for the Lord."

From a 'Stuff Christians Like' post.

Haiti: Day 5 (Friday)

From Glenda:
"It's been a great week, ending with an afternoon at the beach ... .including an "exciting" trip there. Ask one of us about the driving habits here!
We're excited about finishing the wall and coming home tommorrow (Saturday). We leave the hotel at 6:15 am. We'll call family when we get to Miami."

Haiti: Day 4 (Thursday)

More photos from Glenda this morning. She also says this::
"It was a great day. Praise the Lord.
We have only a liitle bit of wall left to do the morning...then we're off to the beach.
Darrel and Leon just stood back and looked at it like proud parents seeing a newborn baby! Tomorrow we'll get lots of video."

Haiti: Day 3 (Wednesday)

More photos from Glenda:



This next one is a close up Kurt took of of Pastor Leon's truck..

Haiti Protests

From the Miami Herald:

President's speech calms Haiti protests, for now.

The unrest in Haiti is fairly complicated (but not really). Basically, people are hungry, and hungry people don't stay hungry for long, political philosophers will tell you.

In case you do not get the CCJ E-News, this was sent out today regarding our crew that is in Haiti:

Church,
We wanted to take a minute to address any concerns you may have about the safety of our Haiti team. Darrel called me this morning to ensure that we were aware they are safe and sound. While their work has been disrupted somewhat, they are planning to resume work on the wall this morning and will continue on to accomplish as much as possible prior to their scheduled departure.
Please be sure to keep this team in your prayers as well as the political situation in Haiti at this time.

The Last Lecture

Hello everyone!

I was told by a good friend last night to watch a show on tv. It was called "The Last Lecture: A Love Story for your Life". It was a great show....blew me away.

Here is a few lines from the online post about the show:

"What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you? That's the hypothetical question posed to the annual speaker of a lecture series commonly known as "The Last Lecture." But for Randy Pausch, the charismatic young professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, the question wasn't hypothetical.
The 47-year-old father of three small children had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer -- and given six months to live. Friends and colleagues flew in from all around the country to attend his last lecture. And -- almost as an afterthought -- the lecture was videotaped and put on the Internet for the few people who couldn't get there that day.
That was all it took.
Somehow amid the vast clamor of the Web and the bling-bling of million-dollar budgets, savvy marketing campaigns and millions of strange and bizarre videos, the voice of one earnest professor standing at a podium and talking about his childhood dreams cut through the noise.
The lecture was so uplifting, so funny, so inspirational that it went viral. So far, 10 million people have downloaded it.
And thousands have written in to say that his lecture changed their lives. " courtesy of www.abcnews.com

Here is the link for the story and video of the interview w/Diane Sawyer.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4614281&page=1&GMA=true

I can't wait to buy the book and read it. It is definitely a keeper for my personal library at home

Haiti: Day 2 (Tuesday)

More photos from Glenda (and one sent to Jill - just guess which one that is):

Haiti: Day 1 (Monday, Part II)

Glenda sent the following photos tonight from Haiti. Remember to pray for the CCJ crew there.

Haiti: Day 1 (Monday)

Well we are off to a great start in Haiti. I cannot tell you how rewarding it has already been. Today was a very hard and a physical day but everyone worked hard and got a lot accomplished. It is really hot. We laid (us and the Haitians working with us) around 1200 blocks today. We are putting the block wall 10 foot tall all the way around the 3 acres of the orphanage property. We are now relaxing and sore at the hotel watching the NCCA game.

Hope for Haiti a Reality

Well we leave tomorrow on the mission trip. This is my 5th trip to Haiti and this may be the most exciting. To think about starting to build one of the most significant things I have ever been apart of is humbling. Plus it seems like this team that is going is so excited they can hardly wait. Thank God for this opportunity and thanks to all of you who generously helped make this dream a reality.

Please keep this trip and our families in your prayers.

The God Sandwich

Stuff Christian Like is turning out to be not only hilarious, but also sorta deep.

For instance, this post called "Booty. God. Booty," is rather spot-on. I hope the author doesn't mind, but I'll repost the whole thing here (just make sure to go visit his blog, too).

In Atlanta, my favorite radio station is V103, the “People’s Station.”
It's a hip hop station that plays mostly rap and R&B. The best part of V103 is their morning show. Everyday when I’m driving to work they do what they call an “Inspirational Vitamin.” They read a Bible verse and play a gospel song or a clip by a charismatic minister from Atlanta. I honestly find it to be an uplifting experience overall. The thing I find most interesting however is how they wedge the Inspirational Vitamin into their normal programming. What often happens is that right before they transition to the spiritual segment of the show they play some sort of booty song. Let’s say, “I’m in love wit a stripper.” Then they do the Bible verse and then they go back to booty music when it’s over. The essentially bookend the Inspirational Vitamin with booty, following a fairly simple formula – Booty, God, Booty.
It’s easy to laugh at how insincere that Inspirational Vitamin seems when it’s sandwiched between hardcore rap songs, but to do so misses the bigger point – we Christians often live our lives the same way. Maybe God is listening to the broadcast of my day and this is what he hears:
1. Quiet time in the morning. Read the Bible, prayer, give thanks.
2. Go into work and act completely different and disconnected from God.Come home.
3. Spend time with wife. Read the Bible, pray.
Chances are, that to many outside listeners, the format of my life is just as out of synch as the people station’s “booty, God, booty.” It might not be as graphic or as neon, but the juxtaposition between who I am when I’m in “God mode” and who I am when I’m in work mode is pretty substantial.
I know you’ve probably heard this a million times before from other Christian writers, but next time you transition between two parts of your day, think to yourself, “Did I just go booty, God, booty?”
If nothing else, it’s a fun phrase to say.

Excellent.

Change of Heart?

Ted Turner formed a $200 million partnership Tuesday with Lutherans and Methodists to fight malaria, apologizing for his past criticism of religion as he announced the effort.
Turner, 69, said he had only made a few disparaging comments a long time ago and that he is "always developing" his thinking as he grows older.
"I regret anything I said about religion that was negative," he said in a brief interview with The Associated Press.

The story went on to say that Turner now says he does not considering himself agnostic or atheist, as he had sometimes described himself previously. He prays for sick friends because "it doesn't hurt."

'Don't You Spend It On Whiskey'

Love God. Love Others. Even when they are trying to rob you.

Plus I LOVELOVELOVE her southern drawl - reminds me of my late grandmother). ;-)

Thanks to Bethany Vogts for the link.

April Fools

So today is April first, and across the world people will be playing pranks on each other in the name of good humor and fun. So here's my question, What's the best April fool's joke you've ever played? And if you've done a good one but it wasn't on April first...that's acceptable too :).

As always please be sensible about items that could be overly embarrassing...or sensative in nature. But if it was in good, clean fun...tell us about it :).