"If you want to maintain an image of infallibility, find something else to do besides leading people," J. Oswald Sanders

Quote from Randy Alcorn's book: The Grace and Truth Paradox.

Alcorn states, "We should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a spirit to truth. Jesus wasn't 50 percent grace, 50 percent truth, but 100 percent grace, 100 percent truth." (John 1:14) Through an amazing analogy, Alcorn illustrates the power of God's grace. Imagine a great and generous king. In the midst of his benevolent reign, he hears that his subjects have revolted. He sends messengers to investigate. The rebels kill them. So he sends his own dear son, the prince. They murder him viciously, hanging his body on the city wall. What would you expect the king to do now? Send his armies and take revenge, right? Kill those rebels! Burn their villages to ashes! The king certainly has both the power and the right to avenge himself. But what if the king turned around and offered these criminals a full pardon? "I will accept my son - whom you murdered - as the pyment for all your rebellion. You may go free. All I require is for you to admit your transgressions and embrace my son's purchase of your forgiveness." We'd be stunned - blown away - to hear this, wouldn't we? But the king's not finished. "I invite any of you to come live in my palace, eat at my table, and enjoy all the pleasures of my kingdom. And I will adopt you as my own children and make you my heirs, so everything tht's mine will be yours forever." Incredible. Then he says, "I won't force you to accept my offer. But the only alternative is spending the rest of your life in prison. The choice is yours." That is a grace that is hard to comprehend. That is the grace we have been given. Yet some still want to point a finger at God and call Him unjust and unfair.

A basic belief that life is a bigger story than simply the story of us would lead anyone to believe that there must be a plan for life, and that plan must be discovered and followed. The Planner of the plan has a plan for every life. When worry and doubt cloud our abilities to figure out the plan, it’s not a stretch to assume that the plan is being forced and not followed. Forcing is not listening, not trusting, not humble, not surrendered, and not best. Following is focused on knowing that there is a plan, it’s lining up with that plan, it’s listening, it’s trusting, it’s humble, it’s surrendered, and it is the best option for living with purpose. I think forcing is a symptom and expression of selfishness. Forcing only happens when something isn’t meeting our expectations or desires. When things are one way and we think they should be another, we force. When things don’t meet our comforts, we force. When things give an advantage to another person over us, we force. We manipulate, and conform, our circumstances according to whatever we desire. Isn’t this the American dream? Making your life into something important, something great, and something worthwhile? The American dream doesn’t have to be baptized in the fire of selfish expression and then forced. It can be an expression of diligent and selfless following.

Joshua 3, "Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites (remember there was millions of them) set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before...Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." There are more than a few great things in this passage, but one that stands out as extremely relevant. Joshua had an issue on his hands...getting millions of people to cross a river that was by no means an easy obstacle. He could have looked at this situation as simply something that needed a little hard work or planning, maybe even delegating the decision of what to do to a committee. But Joshua knew that this issue needed to be fought on spiritual grounds, and that is why he sent the Ark of the Covenant (the physical representation of God's presence) before the people, so that they could follow God's presence and direction. Simple application: What issues or obstacles are we facing that we have been trying to overcome with our own abilities, rather than by trusting in God and seeking His presence and guidance? I believe we can listen and hear Joshua saying to us: "consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." part one part two

Check this out. Unbelievable. Really. woman stuck to toliet

I read an article in the sports section this morning that prophetically declared that absolutely no work would be done today by men sitting in offices. I found that to be a little true as I've found myself checking this site frequently.

Yesterday I went to see this: It was a mixture of wonder and disgust with an aftertaste of shame.

I'm so close to being finished...yet...so far

I have been working on the Easter production for church, learning the ropes of video editing, and making some progress-when it all crashed! I lost everything...and my computer had to be "born-again" as well. I have a love/hate relationship with technology at this point. All is ok, however, because I'm already beyond the point I was at before the catastrophic failure.

Have you ever thought about just how true truth is, or thought about truth in light of the also very real things that stand opposed to it? The opposite of a thing validates not only its own reality, but the reality of the thing it's opposing. Our basic ability to classify a thing-A and another thing non-A, means that we were given the ability to know truth and non-truth equally. The question I ask is this: Does truth have to , in itself, validate non-truth? Simply because a thing is true doesn't mean that it will be responsible for "creating" its own opposing non-truth, because it doesn't need it to exist-it stands independent of its opposite. But a thing described as a non-truth as it stands opposed to truth must have truth to validate itself. A non-truth can't reasonably exist without its opposite, truth. A non-truth, therefore, must always come after a truth, being born out of a perversion of truth. If God is the creator of existence and, as the beginning of that existence, is unable to tell a lie, then it is reasonable to assume that God and truth are the same, the things God reveals about Himself are true, and that truth is as eternal as God, because God is truth. You can pin this logic to any of the major ontological arguments and show that evil, pain, suffering, and sickness shouldn't be viewed as having always existed, eliminating the responsibility of God to have "created" these things.

How can humanity remain so calloused and unaffected when visited by the creator, yet blush when in the presence of celebrity? All of creation speaks to the glory of God, truly declaring Him to be the Famous One!

Look at your culture of friends: what do you see? Is there anyone around you who needs to be influenced by you? If you listenend to your sociology professor, you might remember that people tend to gather into groups and form community based on certain shared characteristics-race, religion, background, etc. Unfortunately, Christians aren't exempt from this natural occurance. I don't want to downplay the role of Christian fellowship, because I believe it's vital for spiritual growth and accountability, but I do want to shed some light on some problems I see in the friend culture of many Christians: Take this test: 1. All of your friends are Christians T/F 2. You fear being friends with non-Christians T/F 3. Your social life revolves around church activities T/F 4. You don't see a need to have non-Christian friends T/F 5. You don't know how to lead someone to Christ T/F If you answered True more times than False I can almost assure you that your friend culture is too exclusive-I can almost guarantee that you will not lead a single person to Christ this year. Please hear what it is I'm saying and more importantly what it is I'm not saying: I am not saying to not have Christians friends and dedicate time to building those relationships. I am saying to bring light into darkness through relationships with non-Christians. I am not saying to only associate with non-Christians. I am saying to be able to lead a person to Christ you must have some contact with people who are not already in your "group". Get it? Now rethink your friend culture and influence people toward a relationship with Christ.