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Name: erick
Birthday: 10/22/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: books, people, theology, disc-golf, food, movies, my wife
Occupation: pastor
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/16/2006
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| title: finding the Jesus you thought you lost text: Luke 2.41-51 notes: Mary and Joseph lose Jesus on their way back to Nazareth. This wasn't intentional or careless, rather they just got distracted "doing life." yet Jesus is not the one who is lost. He is exactly where he is supposed to be. I think of the "Where's Waldo" picturebooks and I'm afraid that we approach spirituality in such a way. That Jesus is hiding himself in a sea of our distractions and agendas and our faith is all about trying to find him? but I don't think Jesus is lost. i think we're lost. I think we're too busy, and distracted with our lives and agendas that we lose sight of Jesus and his agenda and the stuff that he is involved in. Because of this we're not experiencing the amazement, astonishment, and wonder which Jesus longs to evoke from us. Instead we're playing a real-life game of "where's Jesus?" The practical part: Maybe Jr. High Jesus is calling us to retrace our steps, to go and seek Jesus in the place we last saw him? And this involves spiritual discipline. NT Wright says it well: “But if and when we sense that we lack his presence, we must be prepared to hunt for him, to search for him in prayer, in the scriptures, in the sacraments, and not give up until we find him again." The things I preach that I wished I practiced. | | |
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Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)
By Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, David Koechner, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy, J.K. Simmons, Robert Duvall, Kim Dickens, Connie Ray, Todd Louiso, Marianne Muellerleile, Joan Lunden, Eric Haberman, Mary Jo Smith, Rachel Thorp, Jeff Witzke
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so i haven't posted in a while so let me bring you up to speed a bit... my wife and I are expecting our first child in July. my dad had brain surgery on December 18. I just finished my first semester of seminary. spent Christmas in the hospital with my dad's family (and my sister whom I haven't seen in almost 15 years) the packers beat the bears, brett favre cried, and he just might retire i saw many youth vomit egg nog after trying to chug as much as they could in 4 minutes sadaam hung and many watched it which I think is just absolutely disgusting looking forward to an interesting 2007... cheers. | | |
| A recent Newsweek had a feature in it titled "The Politics of Jesus." Inside were many articles discussing the Evangelical influence on the political arena today. The main thrust of the feature was that while Christians still remain concerned with moral issues (you know: gays and abortionsand guns and stuff), they are also becoming increasingly concerned with social justice issues: AIDs, trafficking, genocide, poverty. When asked who the leader of Christian activism in America is, a sampling of university students unanimously responded...Bono. I was speaking at a local university's Inter Varsity last night and I asked the students present that same question. The answer...Bono. the rock star? Why Bono? How many of his sermons have you heard? How many of his books are on the shelves at your local Christian bookstore? How many mega-churches has he pastored? Apparently none of that really seems to matter. Rather, what really seems to matter is that Bono is reaching out to the "least of these," and is leading the charge to bring freedom and hope to places marked by bondage and injustice. At a recent conference at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Il thousands of pastors watched a video of Bono and Willow's pastor Bill Hybels talking about the AIDs crisis in Africa. Afterwards, a woman on staff overheard one pastor say to another, "I went in there wondering if he (Bono) was a Christian, I came out wondering if I was." Thank you Bono for helping me to actually hold my head up when I tell someone that I am a Christian. | | |
| how about a joke... A Green Bay Packers Fan is drinking in a New York bar when he gets a call on his cell phone. He hangs up, grinning from ear to ear, and orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar announcing his wife has produced a typical Green Bay baby boy weighing 25 pounds.
Nobody can believe that any new baby can weigh in at 25 pounds, but the Packer Fan just shrugs, "That's about average back home folks, like I said, my boy's a typical Green Bay baby boy.
Congratulations showered him from all around, and many exclamations of "WOW"! One woman actually fainted due to sympathy pains.
Two weeks later, he returns to the bar. The bartender says, "Say, you're the father of that typical Green Bay baby that weighed 25 pounds at birth. Everybody's been making bets about how big he'd be
in two weeks. So how much does he weigh now?"
The proud father answers, "Seventeen pounds."
The bartender is puzzled, concerned, and a little suspicious."What happened? He already weighed 25 pounds the day he was born!"
The Green Bay father takes a slow swig from his Leinenkugel's beer, wipes his lips on his shirt sleeve, leans into the bartender and proudly says, "Had him circumcised!"
-- Go Packers........ | | |
| I had to weigh in on the Ted Haggard scandal sooner or later. In case you're in the dark, here's what's been going on w/Haggard: Haggard was pastor of mega-church in Colorado Springs, and president of the national association of Evangelicals. He has been one of the main voices for the evangelical right and has very publicly opposed gay marriage/rights. Just recently a gay prostitute named Mike Jones came forward to confess that he and Haggard were involved in a sexual relationship, not too mention that Jones had been selling meth to Haggard as well. Haggard stepped down as pastor and president of the evangelicals. He confessed that some of what Jones said was true, saying that he received a massage from Jones and did buy meth but never used it. Shortly after the allegations, friend and evangelical leader James Dobson said that he would stand by Haggard claiming that the allegations had to be false. then i read this on cnn.com: Citing a lack of time, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson withdrew Tuesday from the team overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use. "Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help -- but the reality is I don't have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility," Dobson said. He didn't have the time? I hope that Dobson is telling the truth. I hope that the Church will not isolate and ostricize Haggard like they did Jim Baaker not all that long ago. I hope the Church errs on the side of grace and not judgment. don't get me wrong, Haggard messed up and unfortunately now many "evangelicals" will be painted with the same brush as him. many might say that the church let them down, and to be honest the church let me down on this one as well. Yet instead of joining the "let's bash Ted Haggard and all hypocrtical evangelical leaders" club as many might be prone to do, I am simply going to hope and pray that this man will find the restoration and healing that he has needed for quite some time. and I hope that Dobson will get in line. | | |
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