Lost: Season 4

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Needless to say I'm pumped about the upcoming season of Lost. I've been slightly dismayed at the delay of 24 season 7, but there is little I can do about that. So until the release of 24 I have Lost.

When we last left off, the passengers from Oceanic 815 were getting ready to be 'rescued' by the boat just off the island's shore. Some will be saved...some won't.

If you've never season an episode of Lost, that's okay. You can watch some of them on ABC's website. And if you don't have time to watch 3 seasons of Lost, you can go to the Lost website and watch all 3 seasons summarized in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. By the way, I don't think it's a coincidence that the video is that long. You can find the video here.

Quote of the Week 2

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

"Don't waste time: In just two days tomorrow will be yesterday."

Getting Political

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Honestly, I'm not much of a political person. But with election season in full swing, I have chosen my candidate relatively early. You've probably noticed that with the ad on the right side of the page here. My candidate of choice is Ron Paul. Why? The man is a genius! When you listen to him speak, he is passionate in what he says and you can honestly believe that he cares about what he is talking about.

While other candidates make their usual campaign promises, Ron Paul talks about the issues that really matter to the majority of Americans. You can't help but listen to him and believe what he says. I don't agree with all that he stands on, but I can't find anyone else that I more readily agree with. If you're like me and you're a big fan of smaller government, take a look at this video. Even if you know nothing of the man, watch it anyway. You'll enjoy it!


Quote of the Week 1

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Each week I'm going to try to put up a new quote that is either insightful, inspirational, or something that makes you think (I ran out of words that begin with "in"). This week's quote comes from an unknown source but that doesn't devalue it.

"In addition to knowing God, there are 5 secrets to a joyful life:

  1. Free your mind from hatred.
  2. Free your mind from worries.
  3. Live simply.
  4. Give more.
  5. Expect less."

We're watching you

Monday, January 14, 2008

By now, most people have heard of Google. Of course Google is most famous for their amazing search engine which can find pretty much any information you want. If you knew the term, you could even search for unprotected security cameras in various areas and literally take control of them.

However, quite a few people are still unfamiliar with the other services that Google offers. Gmail, which is web-based email, news, shopping and they even try to show you ads that you might be interested in as you search! Probably the neatest piece of application they offer is their ability to make maps and show you satellite images from all over the world! And this is the application I want to ask a few questions about.

People got a little freaked out when they learned people had the ability to look at their house from a satellite image. But now with "Street View", you can literally drive down your street using your web browser. People didn't like this either. In fact it's made some stories over the past couple of months about people seeing funny things that people are doing walking down the road or even invasion of privacy.

I thought it was all quite an amusing bit of news and something fun to play with when you're bored at home. Then yesterday, it was brought to my attention that Seymour was now on Street View and thought it simply unbelievable! There are large cities out there that haven't even been mapped, and yet they have Seymour on the Google Street View map? And sure enough, there it was!

So of course the first thing I do is go and see if I can see my house. Sure enough, there it is! Not only can I see my house but I can see both of our dogs outside in great detail and I can see right into our living room. Kinda freaky! All in all it doesn't bother me because this type of "information" is available to anyone who just drives down our road. You can't even make out the license plate numbers on my wife's car. But it was a neat thing to be able to see your dogs on the internet through google.

So, what do you think? A neat novelty or an invasion of privacy?

Lil' Markie

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I found this little diddy over at Marko's spot. Word's cannot express this video. You have to watch the whole thing. Notice the awkwardness of the audience...


The questions kids ask

Tuesday, January 08, 2008


A couple of weeks ago I started a "series" in our Junior worship (1st grade through 5th grade) about "Questions about God". I challenged the kids to write down a question that they had about God or the Bible or anything in the church and I was pretty excited that they accepted the challenge with an amazing gusto!

The first question I got? "How can God be three different people?"

From a 4th grader. We have a young theologian in our group!

But I wanted to focus on the question that I got this morning from a third grader. She asked: "Why do we do bad things that we know is (are) wrong?"

Good question, I wish I knew the answer to that. If I did, I'd sell more books than Rick Warren!

Paul kind of struggled with the same question in Romans 7:15

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing."


To sum up, we are evil creatures. This is the only part of my theology where I come close to being a Calvinist. I believe that we are totally and utterly depraved, unable to do any good EXCEPT through the grace of God. Only God allows us to come to him and accept his love and grace.

I often think about the decisions I make in life and ministry. Am I making this decision because it is what I believe God wants? Or am I doing this because I want the glory of it? The eternal struggle between what I want and what God wants is nothing new, it's been going on since day 10* of creation.

Only when we get to heaven will we finally be able to live in total and complete righteousness.

*Day of the first sin is only an approximate...but you knew that already.

Adventures In Youth Ministry 2

Thursday, January 03, 2008

On December 26th one of the most memorable moments in my life occured: Operation Knee Socks. Long story short, our High school youth group decided to plan a lock in type event that involved me being kidnapped and thrown into our church van for an afternoon/night of fun and excitement.

I present you the video that gives you the play by play on what happened.


Adventures In Youth Ministry 1

I wanted to start a series on here entitled: "Adventures in Youth Ministry" where I share funny stories, anecdotes, and even the dark times of youth ministry. To kick off this series I want to begin with a funny "Top 10" that is in this month's issue of Group Magazine. FYI, I wrote a letter to Rick Lawrence the editor of Group and he published it in this issue as well, but that's just bonus. The following was written by "Steve" a contributing editor of Group and not written by me.

Top 10 Rejected VBS Song Titles


10. I'll never be as good as Jesus
9. Come on down to Brokeback Ranch
8. What did David do with Goliath's Head, Head, Head?
7. I get a buzz from the Savior's love
6. John, John, John the Methodist
5. Vomit, you big fish, Vomit
4. She-bear, she-bear (Poor Elisha had no hair)
3. C'mon, it's time to Exegete!
2. We're gonna build a new church (with the $ in mommy's wallet)
1. Father Abraham had many sons (and wives!)

And we're back...

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

It's been a while but I'm back and ready to get back to getting on the soap box again.

Today's topic: Normal person + Internet Anonymity = Jerkwad

If you've ever participated on an internet forum you know what I'm talking about. When you take completely normal people and give them complete anonymity and free reign to talk about whatever they want, they become the biggest idiots of all time. It's almost magic how the transformation takes place.

Let's take for instance, posters on our local newspaper forum. All reason and sanity are gone when a comment is made.

I have witnessed someone posting a topic on a video game forum stating that the original player had died and the brother was posting in the forum to say his goodbyes for him. The very next reply was by one of these anonymous idiots asking "Did he drop any loot?"

When a disagreement takes place it is not uncommon for one person to tell another to "go and die in a car fire" or "have a few drinks and go for a drive".

It's been called by the media "cyber-bullying". I call it being an idiot. You wouldn't say these things to someone's face.

The famous advice given to children about annoying friends is still the same today: Just ignore them and they'll quit doing it. Unfortunately, people are unwilling to ignore such people and give forum trolls and idiots exactly what they're after: Attention.

So please, do the internet a favor and stop feeding the trolls. Happy surfing.