So I've been reading a lot more lately, reading about marriage, my faith, Obama and the Red Sox.  I have been reminded of how imperfect we are, which is funny because usually I just need to look in the mirror to realize that :)   

Boundless.org had a 3 part series called "Sane Faith," which addressed the symptoms of sin, which the world will translate into the latest condition or disease.  The reality is that we are evil, full of sin, and we do stupid shit.  Case in point, Michael Guglielmucci.  

Homeboy faked cancer, said he wrote a song about it, had a video made by Hillsong, led thousands of people in worship to his song, "healer."  It's a great song, apparently written when he got home from the hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer. He sat down at the piano and wrote the song. Turns out he was full of crap.  Maybe he did sit down and write it, he did have those symptoms, but they came from a 16 year pornography addiction that rocked his body.

Now it would be easy to get pissed, say this makes it hard for us to witness, but it shouldnt.  Sad that he had no one to go to, but really, his actions reveal the true human condition. We cover our own ass, have trouble admitting the deepest and darkest struggles, we are shady, we are just like the thousands of Chinese government officials who extorted money.  While our actions may have not exactly been the same, our sinful nature is.

 

If you get in an argument with your girlfriend...

Next time you get in an argument with the lady (and you're not married), call in a replacement, or at least threaten to do so! And for the record I found this looking into MBA programs. UnFreakinBelieveable http://www.khersongirls.com/index.htm http://youtube.com/user/khersongirls

An Amazing Night (from April)

so I had an amazing night, come hither... So in 2003, I left YWAM to go back to college. I got a job working at Chilis as a cook, a rough job if you know the crowd. I was always hassled, always, about my faith, pushed to the brink, almost got in a fist fight, etc. I think I swore once in the whole 8 months I was working there, which is pretty good. There was one guy in particular who gave me a hard time, he called me 'mormon boy' even though I wasn't nor am mormon. He was a fun loving guy, I got along with him great accept for when he called me that. He was kinda a pervert, he kept talking about the different nationalities that he had not had sexual relations with yet. Since he was married, I questioned whether he should cheat on his wife, but he didn't really care. Anyhow, I quite during the summer of 04... I could never forget about the guy, I always thought for some reason that he should be a Christian, I know that sounds somewhat obvious and dumb, but I'm not quite sure how else to put it. I just knew that he should be saved and that one day he would come around. OK, tonight, 420, I went to church with my fiance to meet our friend Jen. When we do the obligated 'meet your neighbor' thing, I sat down, cause I hate that part of a service. Well, I hear someone introduce them self as Cesar and I look up and it's the same guy! I couldn't believe my eyes! I saw him and started chatting and asked what he was doing there and he just replied "God does miracles!" No joke there. So he tells me his story: He got a job at another restaurant, and there God placed two Christians in his life. But he also started cheating on his wife, got became suicidal and went to counseling. Quitting that job and finding another one, God placed another Christian in his life, he started asking the hard questions about God. Eventually, after failed attempts at getting counseling, his friend invited him to church. With nothing to lose, he decided to go. On that day June 7, 2005, he accepted Christ. He has changed, I couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. On that day, he said he remembered thinking about me and how I had been a good witness, and I was so humbled. An amazing night.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my faith recently. I grew up going to different churches. The first church I went to is where I "experienced" God, where I could feel God changing my life and I knew he was there. We had that Holy Spirit felly type thing, and I can tell you it was authentic to the core. Then as I moved on to another church, there were those days at church when you could feel the Holy Spirit.

Somehow, someway, this is where things began to change and I saw reality for the first time. There would be people involved in ministry there that you knew where not living the life, sleeping around then singing that God is King on Sunday in front of people. There were many prophets who came in, robbing these people. Preachers with big pimp suits and in hindsight, they really never brought to closer to God except that you were praying how you were going to get back the money you just gave to the preacher that you needed to pay your bills.

I saw people manipulate others. I saw lazy people asking for prayer but would not work. And I learned that at a mostly Mexican church that worship can be led by the bass guitar.