Owning Up to Myself

I really miss comics.

I know it's just stuff, but it's still some of my favorite stuff. I haven't read Daredevil in so long it hurts. I try to keep up on at least some of the must-read favorites. I don't let too much of The Goon, Hellboy, or Invincible slip by without trying to at least read a copy at some point soon, even if that means pretending to drink coffee at Borders. And of course there's still all the online comics I read, like The Adventures of Dr. McNinja and Garfield Minus Garfield, both of which I am of course strongly recommending to you - it's why those words changed colors.

Of course, I realize that not everybody is into comics... for some reason quite unknown to me, at least.

I still get some sideways looks and curious remarks when I talk about certain comics around people. Sometimes it's not so bad, like when I mention the Scott Pilgrim series that inspired the movie that just came out a few months ago. Lots of folks don't know that's a comic, so they're just surprised to learn it. Sometimes it's a little worse, like when I get jittery and kinda agitated talking about the 1966 Adam West "Batman" TV show.

I'd say it's not too much of a stretch to say that comics were my idol at a few points in my life... Especially for a few years in college. And it's not that I loved comics more than I loved God, but I definitely loved comics more than I loved people. Not ALL people. There were some people I loved more than comics. There were a few I loved a LOT more than comics. But comics were the priority. (Still are, in a lot of ways - I just have no money.)

There's no way around it - I am a nerd.

And it's not just comics, although comics are definitely what push me over the edge into "nerdiest dude in the room" territory 90% of the time. I'm a nerd about movies, music, food... It's a pretty big deal.

For a long time, I tried to be more like the world was telling me I should be like - because trust me, if there's anything the world likes making fun of more than a fat nerdy guy, I sure haven't found out what it is.

It only took me 27 years to get here, but I think I'm actually to a point where I'm kinda OK with who I am.

I think I finally understand that maybe God has a reason for me to be the guy I am. I don't know if God inspired my dad to hand me that copy of Wolverine #21 all those years ago that started me on the path to undeniable nerdosity, but what if He did? What if there was a divine reason for me growing up soaked in superheroes and sci-fi? What if God purposefully directed my life so I would find hours of entertainment in Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering?

What if God made me a nerd on purpose?

What if I'm the way I am because it helps me reach out to the people who don't get reached out to very often?

What if, in order to better spread the Gospel, I've not only been blessed with Biblical understanding, but also a deep understanding of the Avengers?

It's not impossible. I've definitely found myself in situations where the only reason I could talk to somebody was because we both liked the same comics. I've found myself in situations where I could talk to somebody because we didn't like any of the same comics. And I'm not saying it's an easy jump from Batman to Jesus Christ, but it's not too much of a stretch to go from talking about Batman to actually being friends and then actually connecting on a personal level deep enough that the work of Christ can begin in earnest in someone's life because I took the time to get to know them and show them God's Love for them the same way He's shown His Love for me.

We are all different parts of the body. The hand cannot say to the foot, "I have no need of you." But so, too, the hand cannot say to itself, "Well, I'm not a foot, so what good am I?"

There are a lot of things about me that are just weird. And for a long time I tried to change that. I tried to fit in more. I tried to be more charming. I tried to be more focused on the same things that everybody else was focused on....

And then I realized all of those things are very boring.

God put me where I am for a reason, and that reason is to bring others around me closer to Him. I've been paying a bit of attention to it lately, and I've come to realize that most of the people God puts in my path have a lot in common with me in at least one way - they've had a hard time fitting in with the mainstream, too. And that's why I can talk to them. I've been there. I am there. I know what it's like to be laughed at because of my hobbies. I know what it's like to get mad about it. But I also know what it's like to finally be OK with who I am and realize that even though I may not be the shiniest car on the lot, I can definitely go some places that others just can't.

And that's pretty awesome.

I've finally realized that I'm a nerd FOR GOD. From here, can I reach the whole world? Maybe not. But can I reach the guy in the park reading the latest issue of Daredevil? Well, it can't hurt to try.

Take the time to understand who you are FOR GOD. Look around yourself, understand yourself, and - with prayer and diligent study - try to see where God is asking you to be your brightest and best to show others His Glory. Let's all stop trying to be the same person and just focus on following the same Christ and bringing others with us.

Yield Not to Temptation (that means "don't buy the cigarettes")

So in my quest to be permanently quit of smoking (yes, I know it's bad, that's why I'm quitting, thank you for your concern), there is one simple rule that has actually worked pretty well for me as far as helping me quit. So if you're trying to quit, too, here's the biggest thing that has worked for me:

QUIT BUYING CIGARETTES.

I hate to admit it, but that one took me a while.

Now, it's important that you know that I am not yet permanently quit. I'm way, way, way slowed down on smoking, but that doesn't count for stop signs, so why would it count for cigarettes? But I am actually doing pretty great on just not buying cigarettes anymore. Not a perfect record... But a lot better.

I'll go ahead and be perfectly honest with you. At my absolute smoking-est, I was at roughly a pack a day. Some days were more, some days were less. There are people out there - possibly some of you reading - who may be shocked by that figure, thinking, "My goodness, that's a lot of cigarettes in a day." There are also people out there - maybe another one of you reading - who can remember their days of "casual" smoking before stepping into the nicotine big leagues at 2+ packs a day.

I definitely know what it is to be addicted to smoking. It's not a mystery to me. Every serious smoker that I've ever talked to about it has had the same revelation at some point: I'm not doing this because I actually want to anymore... It's because I have to.

And let me tell you - that was just a straight up unpleasant realization.

And I want you to know that because I want you to understand something: I had a part of my own free will taken away from me by an action that I had fallen into farther than I wanted to be, but it was still entirely my own choice.

When I got to the point where I realized, "Oh, man, I am not even smoking this because I wanted it, I am smoking it just to smoke..." That was rough. But what eventually crept into my head is that I could actually stop that.

I understand the nature of addiction. I also understand the nature of "Oh, no, I'm not addicted, I can quit whenever I want, I just don't want to quit." But more than that, I understand that wanting to quit means something entirely different from actually trying to quit.

I wanted to quit for a long time - even as I had cigarette after cigarette dangling from my lips. The desire was there, but the decision itself was a long while coming. Once I actually made the decision was when things actually started improving. And again, I haven't been completely smoke-free since I decided "OK, I'm quitting", but I've been doing pretty well - or at least, a lot better than I had been doing.

And I say that to say that I would really like to see a similar understanding come out in people's lives in relation to sin.

Everybody knows that their own sin is bad. It's not like I was surprised when I started getting that rattly smoker's cough. I knew what I was doing to myself. I knew what I was getting into. I knew it was stupid, but I did it anyway because... reasons? I don't know. Whatever. Doesn't matter. Point is... Most folks generally understand that they do things that they shouldn't, and that they do those things more than just every once in a while. There are some sins that people hang on to with the force of a bad habit, quite possibly even to the point of an addiction. (I mean, if sin wasn't at least some fun, how would temptation even be tempting?)

But what I've seen - like, a lot - is that while people generally understand that their sin is bad and that they really should cut it out, often times there's not actually a whole lot of impetus to exorcise the problem.

When you find yourself in a dark room, stumbling over pets lying underfoot, stubbing your toes on furniture, and generally causing enough racket that surely everybody else in the house is awake by now, doesn't it make sense to at least turn on the light? With just a little bit of effort - the minimal effort it takes to make a light switch go "click" - you can avoid a whole lot of problems.

Why can't people recognize that about sin?

If you know you're sinning, if you know you're doing something you shouldn't be doing... how about you stop that?

If you can't drink without losing your self-control, how about you don't drink?

If you can't go on a date without having sex, how about you don't go on dates?

If you know that you have a specific weakness to a specific sin that comes up in a specific situation, maybe - and I know this idea is just nuts, but hear me out - just MAYBE it would help to avoid that situation altogether.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

- Matthew 5:29-30

Jesus is using a pretty hyperbolic example here to get a point across, but I think we've started missing the point altogether. We looked at the hyperbole and said, "Man, that Jesus sure knows how to turn a phrase," and then we went right on sinning with our right eyes, right hands, the entire right side of our bodies, and I'm sure that occasionally the left got involved as well.

What if we started taking Jesus seriously? Not literally, but seriously. What if we actually got rid of the things in our lives that lead us into sin? What if we actually tried to move towards holiness? What if we actually tried to quit instead of just wanting to quit?

I get it. I know the excuses. "It's not that easy, you don't understand..."

Hey, remember that thing earlier about how I said I was addicted to smoking?

ADD. ICT. ED. Chemical dependency. That means that my body actually developed not only a tolerance for nicotine, but a need for it in order for me to function "correctly." There's a ton of material out there saying that nicotine is on par with heroin when it comes to how addictive they both are. I wouldn't know that for sure, as I've never tried heroin, but I can for sure say that quitting smoking is not any fun.

So what, again, don't I understand?

That it's hard to deny my desires, especially when those desires are so hard-wired into me that my body is actually getting mad at me for saying no?

Or that there are so many situations where it's so hard to not give in, especially since that's exactly what I've grown so accustomed to doing every time I could?

Folks... I get it. Believe me. I know that quitting is hard. And not just quitting smoking. Frankly, if I had to choose between quitting smoking forever and quitting pornography forever, I would honestly take the pornography option. Lung cancer be damned - at least I wouldn't be.

Do I still mess up? Do I still have a cigarette every once in a while? Yeah. Do I still have several cigarettes every once in a while? Unfortunately, yeah. Is it still an incredible temptation every time I'm standing in a gas station to just break down and grab a pack? Ooooooooooooh, yeah.

But it's getting better. Once I made the step to avoid the one thing that I was doing that meant I definitely WOULD be smoking (buying cigarettes), I managed to cut down on a whole lot of my opportunities to smoke.

I understand that it's a drastic move for us to completely expunge someone or something from our lives that we've become so accustomed to that we think it's just a part of the way we're meant to live, but God is actively asking each one of us to give it up and focus on Him.

So what's it worth to you? Do you want to quit? Do you want to quit enough that you're willing to do something about it?

Or are you just going to sit there coughing?

How Led Zeppelin Taught Me Proper Reverence to God

Just in case you haven't picked up on it by now, I'm something of a music snob. I like what I like, I like it passionately, and I'm just as passionate about the stuff I don't like.

One of the greatest things about living in the technological age that we find ourselves in is the advent of portable music. For instance, my iPod. I have so much music on my iPod that if you pushed play when the ball drops on New Year's, you wouldn't be done until March 1st. And that's just the stuff I can fit on my iPod. So I can drive around in my truck with over 1,000 albums at my instant disposal and listen to just a ton of music whenever I want. Frankly, it's awesome.

But for all the music I've got, there's only one band that I am always, always, always in the mood for: Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin is my THING. They are IT. My goodness. Top of the list, no question, no hesitation, no competition.

The worst thing about having that iPod is that I'm kinda spoiled now. Recently, my sister and I made the five-hour drive to a family reunion in Arkansas without an iPod adapter... We had no choice but to listen to the radio. It was easily the worst thing to happen to me in months. Oh, the torture.

Not only am I accustomed to hearing music without commercials, I'm accustomed to hearing music that is only made up of things that meet my standards for "good." Foreigner does not meet my standard for "good." Neither do The Scorpions, Journey, Bruce Springsteen, or Def Leppard. And yet, for some reason, classic rock radio stations across the country consider all of these awful, awful, awful things worthy of being played alongside Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, and - most terrifyingly of all - the one and only Led Zeppelin.

As far as I'm concerned, there isn't a bad Zep song. They're all awesome. It's Led Zeppelin. How can it be anything less than amazing?

My love for Led Zeppelin is no secret. When I get to hang out with the guys and we're exposing each other to new music, they all know to soften my expectations for a band by prefacing it with, "Well... It's not Zeppelin or anything, but it's good."

I don't let people make comparisons to Led Zeppelin lightly, because I take Led Zeppelin way seriously. They're IT. They are THE BEST THING. They're Led Zeppelin, man... So you'd better believe that I don't bring them up unless I'm actually talking about "bands that are so awesome that I am a completely different person for the simple reason of knowing that they exist."

And I think I'm finally there with God, too.

For a long time, I didn't really have any problem taking liberties with mentioning God. It wasn't always reverential. Sometimes it was just downright blasphemous. Taking the Lord's name in vain never seemed like it was that big of a deal until I realized just how much I actually care about God.

Now, I don't say "God" unless I'm talking TO God or ABOUT God. I just take God way too seriously. He's become real to me in a way that honestly blows my mind. He's become THE BEST THING.

And yeah, I've spent my whole life knowing God was the most important thing, but that doesn't necessarily mean I did anything about it.

But over the past days, weeks, months, years... God has been showing me more and more of Himself in such a way that I can't help but make Him the topmost priority in my life, and quite frankly, it is an unbelievably fantastic experience to be going through, I gotta say.

I don't really have much to say this week except that I want to encourage you to take God seriously. Take Him seriously enough that you understand just how important He is. Take Him seriously enough that you understand why He deserves a reverence that everything else is just not worthy of. Give God the first place in your life and SEE what happens.

(And listen to more Led Zeppelin.)

A Thought for Wes

I didn't know Wes very well - for most of my summer in Birmingham as his youth minister, he had been away from home, working as a camp counselor - but I knew him well enough to know that he was a good kid.

I don't know what led him to take his own life, and I probably never will. There's no doubt that he was dealing with things beyond my comprehension - Crohn's disease, for starters - but within the space of the commonalities of human existence, I know that he couldn't have been that far beyond somebody's reach, even if he was well out of my own.

I'm not here to debate the ethical or eternal questions of suicide. What I want to talk about - well, what I really wish I didn't have to talk about in the first place but at least want to address - is the kind of lifestyle that we're living that still allows seniors in high school to get to a point where they feel that the only way out is to take their own lives.

Please understand here that I am not blaming anyone for Wes's choice - that choice was his own. But maybe we're all kind of at fault for letting the world get to a point where that choice seems like a good one.

We've become so caught up in this sort of sterile approach to Christ's teaching where we insist that we Love everyone around us as much as we Love ourselves, but we refuse to show that Love in the most important way possible - by actually encountering them in a way that changes their lives.

For whatever reason, we're scared of opening ourselves up too much to those around us. We're absolutely terrified of letting them see our own pain, our own mistakes, our own fears, our own weaknesses, our own hesitations, our own doubts, our own unbearable horrors of existence... We can't let people know that we're every bit as screwed up as they are, because when they see that, our shine starts to dim, our lustre starts to fade, our untarnished reputation becomes stained...

Look, I ain't gonna lie to you - I've been in some pretty dark holes, and I've certainly contemplated suicide more than once. Stuff sucked! Sorry if that makes me out to be some horrible person in your mind because I've entertained the thought of killing myself, but hey, I've been considered worse for less, so I guess I can take it.

But having been in that hole, having experienced that darkness, having spent the late nights crying my eyes out until there just weren't any tears left, I can tell you this - the thing that saved my life, the reason I'm still here with you today, was the presence of a friend.

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

- Proverbs 18:24

I'm sorry if this is gonna wreck your theology or something, but that verse ain't talkin' about Jesus. It's talking about Robin, Matt, Corwin, Jessie, Megan, Jeremy, Kelsey, Ben, Will, Angela, and all of the other friends I've been blessed with throughout my life who have made such a huge impact on me that I can without question say that my life is not the same since having met them. I can honestly say that I am a better man for knowing them. I can honestly say that I am alive today because those friends gave me the strength and encouragement to carry on even in the face of the most miserable life experiences I've known to date, and I am fully expectant that they will continue to be there for me in the future, because I'm pretty dang sure I've still got a lot of junk to go through before I'm done down here.

We tell people to take comfort in God's presence, and that's certainly a worthwhile thing to say, but do we ever stop to think that maybe OUR presence is the presence God wants to use to comfort them? Do we ever stop to think that maybe all we have to do to literally SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE is offer a genuine smile at the sight of a friend, a warm hug for the journey, and an encouraging word for the weary soul?

Maybe part of this whole "being a Christian" thing is just about getting involved in each other's lives to the point that we know each other's weaknesses and struggles, we know each other's pain, we know each other's fears, we know the things that keep each other awake at night... and we Love on through those things. Maybe it's about humbling ourselves to the point that we do not consider our own lives anything worth treasuring but instead sacrifice ourselves in the spirit of Christ's Love for all of humanity and seek out not our own good or our own comfort or our own happiness but instead make our primary focus in this life the betterment of all mankind outside of our own bodies.

Wes was a good kid. Nothing will change that. He made a mistake, but he was a sincerely good young man. When I see him again - and I'm entirely confident that I will - I'll give him the same hug that I can't wait to get from Jesus. But in the meantime, I'm gonna do my absolute best to make sure that none of you gets to Him before you're supposed to.

Reach out to people. Please. Jesus touched the untouchable, loved the unlovable, and pardoned the unpardonable. Maybe we ought to start doing the same thing.

Album Cuts and Lactose Intolerance in the Name of the Faith

I love me some Jimi Hendrix, but Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix just makes me mad to no end.

Yeah, yeah, it's got "Foxey Lady" and "Purple Haze" as well as all the other Hendrix songs you're gonna hear on any classic rock station across the country in any given day. And if you've somehow managed to go through your whole life to this point never hearing a single Jimi Hendrix song, Experience Hendrix would definitely be a decent start, but if that's the only Hendrix you ever hear... Oh, you just don't know Jimi Hendrix.

Where's "Third Stone from the Sun"? Where's "Wait Until Tomorrow"? Where's "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"?

If you actually want to experience Hendrix, Experience Hendrix is not the place to go. Go pick up Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, give those a listen, and then you can say that you've scratched the surface of knowing what Jimi Hendrix's music really meant. But even that's really just a start. You still haven't heard Band of Gypsys, or the Live at Woodstock recording, or any of the hundreds of hours of material available outside of the confines of those original three studio albums.

And again, it's not like there's anything on Experience Hendrix that isn't good. It's just that it's missing the crazy awesome stuff. The only way to hear the crazy awesome is to really get into the original albums and live recordings and rare bonus material and all of that. That's when you can know Hendrix.

As you may have gathered, I am also kind of a fan of God. But there's a sort of "greatest hits of God" mentality out there that I'm not really comfortable with.

Don't get me wrong, salvation is pretty awesome. Heaven will be better than I can imagine, and I've got a pretty awesome idea or three about how it's gonna be up there. But there is more to the story. There is more to this faith than the simple ideas of sin and redemption, Heaven and Hell, good and evil...

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.

- Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Did you catch that? Repentance from sin, faith in God, eternal judgment... child's play. Infantile material. Milk.

I am ready for some meat.

It has become painfully obvious to me that there are a great many people in today's Christianity who are complacent with their faith. They may have a far better grasp than some (including myself) on the idea of approaching strangers with the Gospel of the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth... but that's kinda where it stops for a lot of people.

That's not where it stops for me, and I don't think that's where it stops for God, either.

In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk... an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, "I've no use for all that stuff. But mind you, I'm a religious man too, I know there's a God, I've felt Him: out alone in the desert at night; the tremendous mystery. And that's just why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him. To anyone who's met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!"

Now in a sense I quite agree with that man. I think he probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he will also be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper.

But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would only be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.

Now, Theology is like that map. Merely learning and thinking about Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experiences of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God--experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused.

And secondly, if you want to get any further, you have to use the map. You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion--all about feeling God in nature, and so on--is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.

- C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity

As I've been looking for work in a church setting, I've come across an oft-quoted statistic that says that anywhere between one-half to two-thirds to seven-tenths of the kids who grow up in church wind up leaving by the time they're out on their own. Why is that? I think it's largely due to the fact that the church at large is promoting a type of mentally hollow Christianity.

I've been to the big youth rallies and the late night communion services and the sunrise devotionals... And I'm not about to say that those are not good things. They are wonderful. There is absolutely nothing wrong with those... Unless they're simply attempts to emotionally manipulate the audience into feeling a connection with God.

If a youth minister delivers a devotional thought that has all of the kids in his youth group crying their eyes out but doesn't actually engage their minds, what good does it do? As soon as there's something funny to distract from the emotional manipulation, the focus on God is completely gone.

I don't feel a connection between two and two that feels like four. I know it. So, in the same way, I want people - myself very much included - to know God.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

- II Corinthians 10:3-5

It seems to me that we have come to a point in modern Christendom where we've stopped trying to KNOW more about God. We've become content with the things we already think we understand, confident that we've studied enough to pass the test, and conceited to the point of blindness to any further understanding of what the Bible is actually talking about.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

- Romans 10:1-4

Paul's beef with the Israelites was that they had become complacent in their knowledge of God. Their hearts - their feelings - were all ablaze for God, and that's definitely a commendable thing But their minds had become closed off to true understanding of the deeper truth of who God is and who He wants us to be, and so they wound up condemning themselves.

Let's not do that.

It seems to me that the only way to really get this is to go deeper. Deeper into the Bible, deeper into the understanding of God, deeper into theology... Deeper. Just go deeper.

We're not meant to keep repeating the same things over and over and over.

Yes, Jesus died for our sins.

Yes, adultery is bad. So are murder and car theft.

Yes, faith in God is essential.

Let's get past that.

That's infantile material in the growth of a Christian. Those are elementary steps. We should all be way, way, WAY past that.

I'm not saying we've all got to sit down together and start reading the works of Kierkegaard, although that would definitely put a smile on my face (and an ache in my head). But can't we maybe start looking at the true definition of righteousness? Can't we start working towards a deeper understanding of the nature of God? Can't we start looking at the eschatological framework of the repatriation of post-exilic Israel and how the rebuilding of the temple is meant to show us a glimpse into the forgiving nature of God?

Can't we get past the easy stuff?

We aren't making mountains out of molehills - we're making sermon series out of simple elementary truths that we all should have understood once we actually became Christians. So why do we wind up running over these things again and again and again?

Look, all I'm saying is that the foot-washing devo can only be done so many times before it starts to be repetitive. (So many times = once.)

There is MORE TO THIS than most people are willing to accept. Why? Are they happy with where their faith is? Do they think that it's good enough to just accept Jesus and move on with life?

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

- Romans 12:2

In Deuteronomy 6:5, Moses tells Israel to "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." However, in Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27, Jesus adds one... "Love the Lord your God... with all your mind."

Christianity is not a religion of stupid faith. We are called to a higher understanding, a deeper knowledge. There are some hard things in the Bible. Don't be afraid of them, but embrace them openly that you may become better acquainted with the whole of who God is, and then be able to distinguish - for yourself - the difference between good and evil.

The World - like, the evil thing we're supposed to be in but not of - says that Christianity is a religion that suppresses reason and education and learning and wisdom and free thought. My Bible says fairly differently. I'd like for us to all start proving the World wrong.

May God bless your mind as you seek Him with your whole being. Amen.