For a while now I have been feeling distracted and I certainly think this is a weakness of most Christians. We need to understand why we are here. The specifics may be different for each of us, but the goal is the same, furthering the Kingdom of God.
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12 "You are not to say, 'It is a conspiracy!' In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. 13 "It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread.
This passage reminded me of a man that I am in a study with. He tends to get caught up in the latest conspiracies and loses his focus on God.
Christians all to often get caught up in fear and distractions the Devil has placed in our way but forget we are to fear God and trust that he is taking care of us.
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]]>...yes, even on Mondays.
]]>First off anxiety is cause by being concerned with things you don't have control over or you are unwilling to do anything about. If it's something you won't do something about the answer is easy, get off your duff and do something about it or quit your whining. What about things we don't have control over, what do we do with that? I don't know of a method, that doesn't include mind altering drugs, that is 100% effective, mind altering drugs not recommended. The interesting question here is that if you can't control it why do you concern yourself with it?
That question, oddly enough, doesn't really help a whole lot so what do you do? I pray about it, well it's not that simple actually. I use a method that has worked for me in many cases. While I pray and my eyes are closed I envision myself before the throne of God. In my hands I have a wood box. I open it, with my mind because it's cool that I have telekinetic powers in Heaven, and start to place all the things I'm worrying about into that box. When I'm finished filling the box with my worries I close it and place it at God's feet. All the while saying things out loud and I finish by saying something to the effect of,"Lord I give these things to you because I have no control over them and you do, and I have faith that you have a plan and it will be in my best interest." Then I get up and walk away leaving my worries behind.
I will admit it is not a 100% solution, and I may have to do this more then once, but it works.
I was recently talking to my Wife and God showed me that we usually expect the gifts of God to come easy, or be given to us, but I don't think God just gives these things to us. We need to choose to have faith in Him and accept the gifts. I pray every night that God would give us faith, hope, allow us to walk in His joy, and peace. God has been good.
I pray that this helps you in your struggles and tribulations as they all have their purpose.
MC
]]>I use Tweetdeck for reading and posting to twitter but there are a lot of options such as Seesmic Desktop, and their web app, as well as Hoot Suite, Twitzap, and many more. They all include a search function, which will scour Twitter for posts with the words you search for. So usually I search for tech stories or the latest trending topics, but why not search for topics like God, Jesus, Pray, Prayer, Christ, etc. Now you will run into plenty of profane posts in doing this but pray for the prayer requests, and the people who are posting profane things or maybe someone is questioning. You most likely will never see the fruit of your prayers, but it's something you could be doing to make a difference. If you feel lead you could drop a note to them and let them know your praying for them or offer to help.
I'm a big supporter of letting the technology work for you, instead of working the technology, so there you go, and please tell me any stories that you end up having in the comments below.
Thanks
MC
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I have heard Christians really pushing the idea that "we are in the end times." OK? haven't we always been in the end times. What I mean is, that the signs that we refer to are so often false signs. For the last 2000 years people have thought that they were the generation. People understand something, we may be or we may not be, but one thing you can't forget is that the Devil doesn't know when the end is coming. So doesn't it stand to reason he is always preparing for it? I believe he always has several antichrists being prepared to become The AntiChrist. I also believe that he is always creating psuedo signs to distract Christians. If there is one thing I want Christians to understand it is that we can not allow ourselves to be distracted. Your mission here on Earth is to win the lost for Christ. I see far to many of you seeking after selfish things, including seeking after an experience with God. Look if God wants to grant me a touch awesome but I am not wasting valuable time begging Him for a touch to stroke my ego, while millions of people all over the world are DYING. Study your Bible, Pray, and get your spoiled little butt on the street and love folks. Don't forget though that the Holy Spirit leads folks to Christ not you. You are the vessel.
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]]>My Wife and I have been married for a little over 8 years and we are doing great. God has taught us so much over the years about how to love each other. My first warning to all of you is that if you believe men and women need the same things out of a marriage STOP!
When we say love most of us think of really abstract ideas of fuzzy feelings and emotions. Guys don't think this way. Sure we get emotional sometimes but our feeling loved doesn't start there. We don't equate sex with love as much as you do either, and frankly are far more sensitive about sex then you will ever know.
In marriage there is a currency but the problem is, that I need Euros, and my Wife needs Dollars. We don't need the same thing to feel loved and this is where the problem is.
I need to say to the men reading, if your looking for the key to her, I'm still working on that one. So try asking her, but don't expect to understand it right away. (Women are crazy, really they are) I may ask my Wife to write a post to address men in the future.
Women the currency for a man is respect and trust. Absolutely nothing means more out of my Wife's mouth then,"I trust you." Along with that you need to realize that nagging your husband only breeds contempt. It's only a matter of time before he realizes he has one mother to many and leaves, or stays and is miserable.
"But I can't trust my husband," you need to understand why. Is it you, or him? Don't answer that quickly, think about it.
If there is no obvious mistrust start telling him you trust him to get _______ done. Then don't forget to thank him when he does it. Tell your man that you are proud of him instead of "I Love You" once in a while. That means so much more. Don't over do it though, otherwise it losses it's meaning. In most homes it's a change in culture from being a contentious, naggy, disrespectful B****, to a loving, tender, trusting, respectful Wife.
Below is a link to a book that will no doubt help, also I recommend every couple dust off their copy of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Respect-Desires-Desperately-Needs/dp/1591451876
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I'm pleased to present the interview my collogue Bruce did with Portage native, and my brother-in-law, Travis Cooper. They discussed his up coming album and played a few tracks from it. Click below.
To download right-click on the link and click "Save Link as"
Audio posted with permission of Zoe Communications Copyright 2009
]]>I feel like I need to start by saying this is one of the hardest articles I will probably write for a while. I find myself conflicted with this subject and I know that a lot of my Christian friends and relatives may not understand why I feel the way I do. It's complicated as well, to me it's not black and white, as I will explain as we walk through this. So at this point I need to ask you to commit to reading the whole argument and not jumping to conclusions, and then you have my attention if you still wish to question my view.
Gay Marriage and the Church
First we will examine the Church's view toward gay marriage. Obviously the Church does not agree, and I understand how you feel. The Bible makes no bones about homosexuality being a sin. If your pastor is telling you anything else you are being deceived. I think there is a fear in the church that our rights to preach that homosexuality is a sin is in jeopardy. Now I am an advocate of free speech but not an advocate of physical violence toward anyone. If anyone lynches a homosexual because of his or her lifestyle, they deserve severe punishment. There is scripture that calls for the the death of homosexuals (Leviticus 20), but you must understand that any thinking Christian understands that this wrong for our culture today. Anyone that uses this scripture to justify killing a homosexual should be classified with extremist Muslims that believe that they must kill the infidels.
Gay Marriage and Civil Rights
I think what conflicts me is the angle that this is a civil rights issue. I tend to agree, I think we don't have the right to tell someone we believe is a sinner that they can't exercise there beliefs. It is important to understand the difference between marriage and a civil union. A civil union is the legal side of the presiding, where the marriage aspect is uniquely religious. Marriage has always been defined by the Church as a religious union. If this is a purely civil rights issue why is a civil union not acceptable? The issue here presumably is that homosexuals don't feel that this is equal to marriage. I am not one to ever defend legislating morality purely for the sake of belief. Yes it is immoral to kill someone but I think you have to admit that there is good reason for making it illegal to kill people. What's your reason to outlaw gay marriage?
Gay Marriage and Jesus
Jesus didn't preach to His followers that they should storm Rome and force a legislation to outlaw the flavor of the day. Jesus preached love, and acceptance. He preach the idea of helping our neighbor and bringing people into the Kingdom. He showed us by example to pray for those that hate us, and for those that are at odds with what we believe. The Church today sounds an awful lot like the Pharisees condemning people because of there lifestyles and Jesus on the other hand ate and drank with the sinners.
]]>The God Filter - I am planning our flag ship podcast and am brainstorming co-hosts. If you would be interested in guest co-hosting email me: mitchcraig@gmail.com. This would be an informal discussion of news, tech, and theology.
Yet unnamed scripture podcast - I am looking at doing a chapter a day and being a little less formal then if you were listening to the Bible on CD.
Yet unnamed chess podcast - Yeah we are playing,"which one of these is not like the other." I play a lot of chess and poker for that matter, but I was really looking for something that my best-friend and I could do. Although this is going to take some work as I am not a video guy (yet). We may even do this show live and post the url for folks to watch the games as we teach and have laughs. I think this would be a great opportunity for us to take advantage of Google Wave when it is available.
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