Thanksgiving is this week

I post this video to remind you of James 1: 2-3 "Count it as joy when you face trials of various kinds."  Trials make us mature in our faith.  This video is a perfect example of that.  We should be thankful even for hard times. (Important, don't watch this video around others if you don't want them to see you cry.  You are going to cry when you watch this.) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0]

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A Letter to My Representatives

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I just sent the following letter to Jim Bunning, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul (But I could only find a campaign address), Ed Whitfield, and Barrack Obama.  They are my United States representatives.  I thought I would share it with you. I am writing you today regarding the new TSA screening policies.

They are unacceptable.

First, let me be clear about something.  I want to be safe when I fly.  I do not want to share a plane with terrorists.

Second, I do not believe that the new screening practices make anyone safer.

Third, the new screening practices are unconstitutional. (As far as I know, the 4th amendment is still in effect.)  They are invasive at best, and immoral at their worst.

Airlines are a major economic factor in this country.  The new TSA requirements make me not want to fly for a host of reasons.  I do not want multiple x-rays per year.  I do not want anyone to see me naked. (I’m not worried about the pictures getting out because nobody else wants to see me naked either.  However, not everyone can say that.) And I certainly do not want to be groped.  The new pat-down procedure is tantamount to being groped.  No one can deny that.  If many people feel, as I do, that being subjected to such humiliation is not worth it, there will be disastrous economic consequences for the airlines.

I believe the security bottleneck makes flying more dangerous.  Simply put, where there is a backup and a long crowd, there is an opportunity.  Bombing 200 people standing in line at a security checkpoint is just as effective as blowing up a plane.

It makes me feel like the government is not really concerned about my safety, but rather with putting on a show.  These procedures will not make flying any safer. They will only make it more humiliating and less enjoyable.  However, we will continue to be subjected to this treatment because it looks like we are doing something.

Please do whatever is in your power to overturn these screening procedures and to implement a system that would actually make us safer.

- Concerned voter

This post mentions politicians by name so read the * in the right-hand column.

My thoughts on the 2010 KBC

For the past 7 Novembers I have been a North Carolina Baptist and I have attended the North Carolina Baptist Convention.  For at least 3 of those years I have had a conviction that the state convention keeps entirely too large an amount of cooperative program funds.  I have considered making an amendment from the floor to move toward a 50/50 split between the BSCNC and the SBC.  At one time I even consulted some friends about the best way to do this.  Ultimately I decided that the timing was not right for North Carolina. (At least not yet.) I am no longer a North Carolina Baptist.  I am now a Kentucky Baptist, and today I believe we made history.  (I guess Florida beat us to the punch, but only because their convention was last week.) Today we voted to move toward a 50/50 split between the KBC and SBC.  We voted to do so within 10 years.  This represents a 14% change.  Even more significant, there will be a 5% change in thisyear's budget.

This change in the way we fund the CP was a part of a report from the KBCs Great Commission Resurgence task force.  There were 4 recommendations as part of that report, and I expected that someone would make a motion to consider each part separately.  No one did so.  There was a motion offered to ignore the report, make a 1.5% change and thank the committee for existing, but it failed handily.  The discussion was remarkably civil.  I didn’t even hear groans or commentary from the crowd.  The recommendations passed with 2/3rds majority and I am proud.  I believe this was a great move for Kentucky Baptists.  It demonstrates real commitment and not just lip-service to taking the message of Christ to the nations.

Here are some other thoughts –

Today I served as a teller.  It was my first time serving in any capacity at a convention, and I was glad to do so.  Interestingly the ballots in my bucket twice were in conflict with the final tally.

You may notice that I share a name with the president of the convention.  Don Mathis was an excellent moderator and even if we were not related I would say so.

My former church, Mexico Baptist, was recognized for being number one in per-capita giving to the CP.

The body as a whole at the KBC is a much younger group than in North Carolina.  I was impressed with this. I think it shows a bright future for the convention.  People are always saying that the younger generation is not interested in identifying with the SBC.  But today gives me hope that that is not true.  Kevin Smith said today that if only gray-hairs are happy, then something is wrong.  I agree and I believe that many of the younger generations were happy.

If you missed the shiny shirts that the choir wore at today’s meeting, you really missed something.  I cannot do them justice with words.

The pastor’s conference last night was wonderful.  It featured 3 premier preachers, Johnny Hunt, Danny Akin, and Alistair Begg.

The youth ministers’ meeting was yesterday as well.  I was challenged to think about some stuff, and I appreciated each of the speakers.  (Especially because they kept it short)  It was definitely worth my time.  We had nothing like that in North Carolina.  I am grateful to Joe Ball for his leadership and his desire to see us fellowship as a group.

Best Web Junk (November 12)

I am pretty sure this will be the most bizarre story you read today - Dick van Dyke Rescued by Porpoises I know there is a real danger that every person in America with internet access has seen this already.  But it's the most brilliant trick play ever, so watch it again.  Also, Middle School football is not usually this entertaining.  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UIdI8khMkw]

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Is Hulu Killing TV?

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There was a well-publicized quote by a dish Network executive last week that essentially said, Hulu is killing tv.  Since this blog is about whatever I think is interesting and I find this quote interesting, I am adding my own commentary. Here is my thought on the topic. Brace yourself, it’s pretty brilliant.

Duh.

Of course Hulu is killing TV.  You know what?  I also have a feeling that the invention of the car is going to do serious damage to the horse & buggy industry.  It is the way of things,

better technology kills worse technology.  Blogs are killing newspapers, podcasts are killing radio, and cell phones are killing landlines.  I think that rather than to complain, the companies need to find a way to adapt.  Most will not and most will die.

There are only 2 reasons I still have paid television service today.

Reason number 1 is sports.  If not for sports, which I watch a lot of and do not care about on a delayed basis, I probably would overlook reason #2 and get rid of paid television service.

Reason number 2 is picture quality.  Like almost everyone I have a large HDTV that cost a lot of money.  Filling it with low quality video is frustrating.  Though I must admit, the video quality of Hulu or Netflix streaming over my x-box is quite acceptable.  I cannot say the same for CBS.com or You Tube.  There are other ways to get acceptable quality video from the internet to my TV so I see this problem being remedied soon.

I’m curious, readers, have you seriously considered doing away with your television service like I have?  As soon as those 2 problems have an acceptable solution I’ll probably be gone.  What about you?  (BTW: I do not see an affordable solution to the sports issue on the horizon)

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Best Web Junk (November 5)

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This week has been largely about politics, so I thought I'd show you a video for Best Web Junk that features a politician. The Ds had a bad week so I'll show you one that features a D.  Also I saw Al Franken do this 15 years ago and thought it was neat, so I taught myself to do this in a particularly boring history class.  For an entire 4-week class, every doodle in my notebook was a of the states and how they fit together.  I made an A in the class and was quite good at this trick by the end.  (I'm out of practice now though so the states become all warped and the sizes are off.)   [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0-FYyuvrRk]

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NaNoWriMo Take 3

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I just realized that it is November and we need to start another collaborative story on the blog.  This was incredibly fun for the last 2 years.  The only thing I regret about it is that it has only lasted a few days each time.  Here is a link to the 2009 story, and the 2008 version. Please write something.  The story going in unexpected ways is what makes it fun.

We will do this the same as we have for the last 2 years.  There is a tab at the top "collaborative story" that contains the story.  You add your portion to the comments and I will place it in the body of the story.

More rules

  1. No one can write two consecutive portions
  2. Portions may not be longer than 400 words
  3. Be aware of continuity.  Please read the story and relate your section to the rest.  We don’t want this to turn out like Snoopy’s novel.   Not too many meanwhiles etc.
  4. No quick endings.  Please don’t have aliens destroy the world, or some sort of catastrophy to end the story short
  5. Please don’t negate the contributions of others, (e.g. Then he woke up…it was all a dream)
  6. Don't worry about continuity.  This story will feature the same William, but he doesn't have to work for the Wisconsin board of tourism and cheese relations, he doesn't have to know anything about particle physics and he doesn't have to even know who Michael Strahan is.  This will be like the Simpsons where Homer still works at the nuclear power plant even though h has held 100 other jobs and been fired dozens of times.
  7. Careful of content/language.  Try to write your portions without swears or non PG-13 content.
  8. I reserve the right to edit your portion for spelling grammar and format.
  9. Have fun

Seriously...please participate!

 

Our Collaborative Story (2009 edition)

It was November and William was out for his daily walk through the neighborhood. It was cold this morning but walking through the neighborhood was better than a treadmill and looking at the same wall for an hour. As he arrived back at his house he checked the mail and found a package. There was no return address on the package and he didn't remember ordering anything so he opened it as he was going into the house.

The package contained a t-shirt that said, "I'm with stupid," a note that read "wear this on your trip," and a plane ticket to Brazil.

"At least it's not a train ticket," he thought, recalling a frightening dream he had about a year ago. He began to debate in his mind whether he wanted to be a part of a mysterious adventure. The ticket was for a flight tomorrow at 7 a.m. so he had a while to make up his mind.

Brazil was not an unfamiliar destination for William. His mind was busy processing memories of his previous visits to the country. Four years ago he resigned from his mid-level position with Cummins Diesel Engine Cooperation, which had provided him the opportunity to travel to their manufacturing plant in Rio de Janeiro.

November was a wonderful time to visit South America as winter’s chill was creeping into the USA. As he thought about what clothes to take (if he actually did take the trip) he realized that he needed to start a load of laundry.

William woke up at 8 a.m. and muttered something inappropriate. He rushed to the airport, and to his relief, the flight had been delayed because of a massive snow storm.

Several hours later, as he boarded the plane, William noticed a very distinct odor. “Dunkaroos!”, he exclaimed, and ran towards the source of the smell. A very old woman was trying to pick up all the cookies she dropped when her granddaughter knocked them out of her hands. The granddaughter was busy licking the chocolate off of her first packet.

An hour later, he was on the plane with a stomach full of those delicious dunkable cookies. He had paid dearly for those Dunkaroos™ as the little girl was indeed not a novice in the art of haggling. As he settled into his seat, his stomach rumbled and he realized that he was not yet done paying for those dastardly Dunkaroos™. “Darn me and my irritable bowel syndrome”, William says to himself. As he is doubled over with sweat dripping off the tip of his nose, he realizes he has caught the attention of the young and attractive red head sitting across the aisle.

The fart was loud and long, the kind that says “Look at me, something is wrong inside!” The red head turned away in disgust. William’s eyes turned to the only slightly less attractive brunette, two rows over, who was cracking up. Their eyes met and twinkled the kind of twinkle that only comes from an appreciation of a good fart.

“Phil? Phil Connors? Is that you?” she voiced. “No. My name is William”, he answered. “I guess you have me mistaken for someone else. Please excuse me. I need to visit the little boy’s room.” I’ll spare you the details of the events that took place for the next 8 minutes. Needless to say it wasn’t pretty.

After returning to his seat, feeling like a new man but still with that “not so fresh” feeling, he noticed that the flight attendants were now serving food. When it was his turn, William asked for the kosher meal, for he is an observant Jew. When his food was served to him, he politely replied, “Shalom, toda”, and began to eat, hoping his IBS would be slightly less irritable this time.

With a belly full, and his pangs over with, at least for now, William was able to relax for the first time since the trip began. He laid back to sleep but he was unable to keep his latest project from invading his thoughts. William was a quantum physicist in his spare time and had recently been working on a homemade particle accelerator. He thought he was close to finally being able to create his own wormholes but so far they would all just disappear while emitting a blinding flash, causing William to black out for several hours. He knew he was close, and that he was missing something obvious. Perhaps this trip would clear his mind enough that the answer would come to him.

After a short nap, William woke with a jerk, not knowing where he was. As his senses came back to him, he looked around and noticed the pretty red head looking at him again. His face flushed as he remembered his ordeal only an hour or so ago. He started to look away when he noticed something about pretty red head girl. She was wearing an “I’m with stupid” shirt, just like the one he got in the mail! The only difference was that her shirt had an arrow pointing to the left, whereas his shirt had one pointing to the right. William was finally able to break eye contact and began to slump down into his seat. “What could this mean?”, William thought to himself.

After a few minutes his curiosity got the better of him. Despite his earlier embarrassment he decided to speak to the red head. “Have you been to Brazil before?” He asked.

“No, this is actually my first time out of the states,” She replied. “And you wouldn’t believe the circumstances if I told you.”

“Let me guess, you got that shirt and a plane ticket in the mail anonymously and decided to take a chance and go,” said William.

“How did you guess?” she questioned.

“I have the same story. And on top of that I don’t know what I’ll do when we land. I have no Idea where I am going, where I’ll stay or even how to pay for a ticket home. I’m just glad I already have a passport.

Maybe I should introduce myself. My name is William. I work for the Wisconsin Board of Tourism and Cheese Relations, but in my spare time I like to toy around with particle physics.

How about you?” he asked.

“My name is Wilma. My dad was a huge Flintstones fan,” she answered. “I got on in Miami with a connection out of Atlanta. I live in the southern Appalachians of north Georgia … a town you’ve probably never heard of with a population of only 36. I have no idea how I was chosen for this adventure.”

William was captivated by her southern accent. It was so smooth and sweet – like fine chocolate!

The pilot interrupted, “Pardon me folks but we’re starting our decent for landing in Rio. I’d ask that you return to your seats and prepare for landing. The temperature is 81 degrees and it’s partly cloudy. Thanks so much for flying with us today.”

William and Wilma said simultaneously, “See you in the terminal.”

William quickly blurts out “Jinx!” and punches Wilma in the arm. Wilma, with a scornful glare, is able to get out a small chuckle as she turns her back to retrieve her carry-on, rubbing her shoulder the whole time. William, proud of himself for finally winning a ‘jinx’, begins to file out of the plane. “This is going well. I might actually have a chance with this chick”, William says to himself. “Just don’t mess it up this time.”

“You realize you said that out loud, right?” Wilma said with a blush.

“Crap.” William said, a small IBS fart escaping.

As William, followed shortly by Wilma, made their way toward the airplane’s front exit, the steward had a puzzled look on his face. “Pardon me folks, but it’ll be several more minutes before we can disembark. If you recall, the pilot just said we were beginning our decent into Rio. We’re just passing through eleven or twelve thousand feet now. Please take your seats and buckle up.”

Both blushing, William and Wilma returned to their seats. Several passengers nearby giggled.

William looked out his window as they descended out of the clouds and, from that height, he could see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue up on the peak outside of Rio. This is a familiar landmark to him. It was on his first visit to the statue that he had met Father Roberto.

Father Roberto was racing to the airport as fast as the scooter donated by one of his parishioners would take him. he wasn't sure why William was coming to the airport, just that he had received a letter yesterday announcing his arrival, flight information and that William need to talk to him desperately.

Phil Ryan Ben

Distracting the Church

Recently, I was involved in a discussion with a group of youth ministers about what the church should be doing.  (We are reading Think Orange by Reggie Joiner and the discussion in chapter 2 of how we move our light as a church brought this discussion up.)  This conversation got me thinking about a post I wrote back at the height of the healthcare discussion.  The question I asked at that time was, “What should the government do?”  What I was trying to get at is the question of what are the necessities.  All the stuff that didn’t make the list I would consider distractions. The purpose of today’s post is to ask the same question of the church.  What is it that we should be doing?  All the other stuff is a distraction.

  • Evangelism – Just to be clear evangelism means telling people the message that Jesus died for our sins.  Our success in this is not determined by how many decisions we see, but how faithful we are with the gospel message.  I would call this the most important function of the church
  • Corporate Worship – From the earliest days of the church there has been corporate worship.  Corporate worship is important.  Though it can occur at a rally or at a parachurch function, it is best when done well in the body of local believers.
  • Discipleship – The point of the Reggie Joiner book is that discipleship of youth/children lies with the family, but there is no question that the church should be in the business of trying to lead people closer to Christ.
  • Ministry – Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)  I am not for one second promoting the social gospel.  Helping people with physical needs is only temporary.  Telling people the truth about eternity has eternal consequences.  But the fact is that it is the job of the church to minister to those in need.  It demonstrates the Love of Christ in the world and it is the command of the Bible.

That is my list.  I will be interested to hear your thoughts on this list and what you think I left out.  I may write a post next week about the many things that we do in addition to this and why those things draw our attention.

Tomorrow is Election Day…So What?

Before you read any further, go to the * in the right side column and read my disclaimer. voetI am not a fan of cynicism.  I am, however, downright cynical when it comes to politics.  Sometimes I feel that there are no good choices when it comes time to vote.  (Tomorrow’s US Senate election in KY is a perfect example of that as far as I’m concerned)  I feel like it is a huge distraction from the gospel whenever preachers get onto the subject of politics.  I nearly cringe whenever I hear statements about politics or politicians from the pulpit.  I believe, and I have said this before, that there is ultimately no hope in the world that can be found through politics.  I don’t believe that better laws will make better people and I don’t believe that worse laws make worse people.  I believe that if there is going to be a change in our country, or in our culture, or in our government it will come, not because we pass the right laws, but because of a move of God in the hearts of individuals.

Now having said all of that –

I will be voting tomorrow

It is absolutely our duty as Christians to vote.  It is our responsibility as American citizens to vote.  Just because better laws won’t solve the problems in our nation, or in our local school district, doesn’t mean that better laws aren’t better.

I don’t believe that we will solve the problems this country has through politics; only through evangelism.  This is a “both and” situation.  However, we need to make our voices heard, most importantly through evangelism, but also in the political arena.  If we are silent then we cannot act or be confused by lawmakers who don’t listen.

Pearls Before Swine

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What You People Come Here For (September & October Edition)

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This is a semi regular feature in which I post the most interesting searches that brought people to my blog in the previous month.  i haven't done this for a while so now I have a pretty long list.  This list is simply cut & pasted not edited in any way.  Whatever you see in parentheses is my commentary.

  • beaker tattoos
  • flee tattoo large
  • tattoos of slot machines (Seriously, one post about tattoos  out of nearly 500 and people come to my blog daily looking for info?)
  • ice age platypus
  • baby running with glue meme (I know nothing about this one)
  • this morning the labrador looked like it (I'd really like to see the rest of this search)

And now to my favorite spam comment of the month.  You really should see some of the bizarre tings that appear there, it is amazing that somebody crafts that stuff in hopes that it will make it to a blog.  Without any further the best of the last 2 months.

keep it real, iight

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Best Web Junk (October 29)

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The kid who did this is going places. Not anywhere that math is required, but he is creative and this is awesome. Dangit, it turns out that awesome pic of a hunter & a mountain lion was fake

Best Halloween costume of all this year

A highlight of every year.  When a car gets smashed by a giant pumpkin If you just want to see the vid, here it is. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbNKVmWj1K4]

This guy claims that Galifianakis wasn't in on it but this interview is funnier than any of the Between 2 Ferns I've seen [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPJowXgH3YU]

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Best Web Junk (October 22)

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Are you looking for the perfect gift for someone's 50h birthday?  Here's a suggestion - A giant mosaic of their likeness made out of toast. I've seen a lot of political attack ads in my lifetime.  I pretty much hate them all.  But "He kicks children in the face" is so awesome that I can hardly believe it. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLfbtduLaho]

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Best Web Junk (October 15)

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Carving pumpkins can be fun. Unless you click here and then feel inadequate forever This is quite enjoyable.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee3L9BQQ4Gs]

This video is a bit twisted, but it eliminates the need for any amnesia kisses.  That always bothered me.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al7FeEZrH1E]

What You Learned in Children’s Church…

Has never been more important.  Remember this song?

O be careful little eyes what you see

Be careful little ears what you hear

Be careful little mouth what you say...

Be careful little hands, what you touch...

Be careful little feet, where you go...

The song goes on to say that God is watching us. (For the Father up above, he is looking down with love)

Not only is the message of the song undoubtedly true, but I think now we can add a verse.  Let’s look at a popular news story from last week.  After reading this article, maybe we should add a verse to the song that says, “O be careful little twitterer what you tweet.”

If you didn’t know it already you should learn that we live in a world where much of our lives is public.  (Nobody any worse than me and I have posted about this before.) Now, however, there is a company that is taking your twitter posts and your status updates and any other public info about you that they can find and building a profile to predict your future behavior.  They know that companies won’t want to hire you if you stand a good chance of embarrassing them publically.

Maybe I have missed the point on this story and this post should be about the fear we should have that people are trying to predict the future. I guess I just think that it’s perfectly fair to make assumptions about the future based on past behavior. You don’t really want to hire somebody if they have a track record of changing jobs every 6 months do you?  I don't see how this scenario is fundamentally different.

I think the point of this article is that we should be careful what we say because people (including future employers) are watching.

Does this prospect seem scary or unfair to you?

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Best Web Junk (October 1)

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All of the HISHE videos are brilliant, but this one I like particularly because I never thought about why he just doesn't stop Luke from falling. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L8b1zPE0-Y] And since you can never really get enough Star Wars-related cleverness I present a preview for a movie I would totally go see. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEE4Pib8QcQ]