What is Baptism?

This Sunday's conversation at aplacetotalk (aplacetotalk.net) will be all about Baptism. I would love to hear your thoughts.... what is the purpose and meaning behind baptism. Thanks, Josh

Blog editor test - ?

I am trying this blog editor for Flock.... a new web broswer

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Jacked up Religion...

Well I am taking the context of this on the word of a friend, but I actually asked him to send me a photograph of the page when he read it to me. He did, so I know that the statement is in the book. I sure hope the reader misunderstood it.

The friend was reading for a class at a very popular Christian Institution of Higher Education. He was reading from a text book when he came across this statement - "We must admit that cults represent "the unpaid bills of the church."

He called me to share with me his shock at that statement.... and I was truly blown away. It is surprising that I am still (because they unfortunately are normal for many in religion) shocked by comments like those, but I am.

How far off purpose, and off direction do we have to get to be thinking about the "unpaid bills of the church" when we are thinking about people in cults? Truth is... I am not so bothered by the thought, but I am blown away by the decision to put that very thought into writing. I too have terrible thoughts from time to time... but I don't say or write everything I think. And yes I do write some dumb things... sorry for that.

What we talked about on 9.27.09:

#1 When we tell the story of Christianity, we too often forget to start the story and end the story with the Garden of Eden and God dwelling with man. See God created man and placed him in a garden, without sin, sickness, disease etc.

#2 We must tell the middle of the story too: ie. the fall, Jesus, and the redemption of mankind. But starting the story in the middle isn't telling the whole story.

#3 In Matthew 19:28, Acts 3:19, and Colossians 1:19 we see that Jesus, Peter, and Paul saw and told the story as a story of restoration.

#4 We must be careful because sometimes the way we tell the story leaves heaven sounding a bit boring.

#5 Seeing the story (Christianity) as beginning before sin and being restored to a sinless state changes the whole story. The story isn't about getting out of here someday, instead eternal life with God begins the moment you begin a real relationship with Jesus.

#6 Instead of attempting to create a Christian version of everything (ie. Christian bands, Christian bookstores, Christian schools, Christian malls, Christian movies, Christian coffeehouses, etc.) let's take Christ with us into the secular concerts, bookstores, schools, malls, movies, bars, and coffeehouses!

#7 Maybe telling the whole story would include a sinless creation, the fall due to a lack of trust in the creator, redemption through Jesus' death on a cross, and eternal life that begins now and includes the restoration of the garden of Eden - a place where heaven and earth are the same place - GOD DWELLING WITH MAN!!!

Well we got started painting the new youth room today

I hope to figure out the best way to fill the room with great video game systems and air hockey etc. Any suggestions?

Kennedy Space Center Today

Kennedy Space Center Today (actually a few weeks ago... 8/20/09 to be exact)

Well $199.28 for Chantae’ and I and the four kids. I still am not sure whether or not it is worth it. But there was plenty to see. We saw two IMAX movies, one was about the moon landings, and the other was about the space station. That space station is amazing. The moon landings movie had Tom Hanks as a narrator, and the space station movie bragged Tom Cruise.

Throughout the day I kept thinking about how amazing God is. Just think, God allows us to explore earth, the moon, and possibly even Mars in the next decade or two. If I were God – I think I would be too controlling to allow my creation to go all over the milky way, but then again I think the milky way is a big portion of God’s creation.

I can't explain how bad my cell phone carrier is....

Sprint PCS is absolutely terrible when it comes to customer service. I will share my current experience.

Today I made three calls to Sprint customer service, the first two ended with my call being disconnected when I was supposed to be transfered to a higher level of support. Each call was disconnected after an over 20 minute wait for assistance.

The third call ended after the customer service agent told me that my problem wasn't something she could resolve. Then I asked her to go ahead and disconnect my service, because I would be changing phone companies first thing in the morning. At that point she told me that there was something that she could do since I had requested to end my service. Now she could transfer me to the retention department. So I explained that the last two times I had been put on hold in order to be transfered that I had been disconnected but that I didn't get a call back.

So she asks to take my number down and call me back. I told her that would be fine.

I didn't expect to hear back from her at all. But then the phone rang. Much to my surprise, even though the first two customer service agents had failed to call me back, this time I did get a return call.

It was the retention department. After an additional twenty minutes or so with them, they told me that they couldn't do anything.

I had insurance on my phone with Sprint, but they couldn't fix my phone. I told them to go ahead and cut off my phones, they agreed.

That is the end of my relationship with Sprint.

I would recommend that others do business with someone else, Sprint PCS isn't very good in the hickory area and the customer service is well below par even in comparison to the overall horrible customer support world that we live in today.