Mr. Fortune Cookie Writer gave us 4 mini conversation starters for the short drive home tonight after our Chef Yang Buffet (with 6 lbs of crab legs)
Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.
A difference, to be a diffrence, must make a diffrence.
Your individuality provides a light for others.
AND
How you look depends on where you go.
Thanks Mr. Fortune Cookie Writer - here's one from Nigeria:
Photo Source
"When God seems far away, focus on biblical answers that can not be questioned, rather than life's questions that cannot be answered."
- Bobb Biehl
I've been having a spiritual itch that has needed some scratching for some time; I suspect it kicked into high gear when I did some mission/relief work in Louisiana after Hurricane Rita. I don't find pewsitting attractive anymore as there is a huge gulf between hearing and doing.
There is something about the word "missional" in one's approach to make a difference; what is the slice of the world that as a Christian I've been assigned to partake in? Another definition of missional is: Christians going out into the world to serve God rather than isolate themselves within communities of like-minded individuals.
I remember Henry Blackaby's statements in "Experiencing God" -
God is always at work around you.
God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.
God invites you to become involved with Him in His work.
God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.
You come to know God by experience as you obey Him and He accomplishes His work through you.
Last year, a friend mentioned the emerging church which made the itch more intense and seeking to understand what all the talk was about via many bookmarked links - Wikipedia distills the definition of the emerging church as:
The emerging church or emergent church is a diverse movement within Christianity that arose in the late 20th century as a reaction to the influence of modernism in Western Christianity. The movement is usually called a "conversation" by its proponents to emphasize its diffuse nature with contributions from many people and no explicitly defined leadership or direction. The emerging church seeks to deconstruct and reconstruct Christianity as its mainly Western members live in a postmodern culture. While practices and even core doctrine vary, most emergents can be recognized by the following values:
Authenticity
People in the postmodern culture seek real and authentic experiences in preference over scripted or superficial experiences. Emerging churches strive to be relevant to today's culture and daily life, whether it be through worship or service opportunities. The core Christian message is unchanged but emerging churches attempt, as the church has throughout the centuries, to find ways to reach God's people where they are to hear God's message of unconditional love.
more values defined
I just placed an order from Amazon for these three books is search of looking for perspectives on Authenticity:
"Why Men Hate Going to Church"
David Murrow -
Book Description
It's Sunday morning. Where are all the men? Golfing? Playing softball? Watching the tube? Mowing the lawn? Sleeping? One place you won't find them is in church. Less than 40 percent of adults in most churches are men, and 20 to 25 percent of married churchgoing women attend without their husbands. And why are the men who do go to church so bored? Why won't they let God change their hearts?
David Murrow's groundbreaking new book reveals why men are the world's largest unreached people group. With eye-opening research and a persuasive grasp on the facts, Murrow explains the problem and offers hope and encouragement to women, pastors, and men. Why Men Hate Going to Church does not call men back to the church-it calls the church back to men.
"A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey"
Brian D. McLaren
A New Kind of Christian's conversation between a pastor and his daughter's high school science teacher reveals that wisdom for life's most pressing spiritual questions can come from the most unlikely sources. This stirring fable captures a new spirit of Christianity--where personal, daily interaction with God is more important than institutional church structures, where faith is more about a way of life than a system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being doctrinally "right," and where one's direction is more important than one's present location. Brian McLaren's delightful account offers a wise and wondrous approach for revitalizing Christian spiritual life and Christian congregations.
"Revolution"
George Barna
Book Description
World renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Churchone that will impact every believer in America. Committed, bornagain Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? And what does this mean for the future of the Church? Using years' worth of research data, and adhering to an unwavering biblical perspective, Barna predicts how this revolution will impact the organized church, how Christ's body of believers should react, and how individuals who are considering leaving (or those who have already left) can respond. For leaders working for positive change in the church and for believers struggling to find a spiritual community and worship experience that resonates, Revolution is here. Are you ready?
First things first: I cleaned up a ton of links on Safari to not browse so much so that I can devote more physical book reading time in my schedule.
The season ending shows should wrap up soon: 24, Invasion, Alias, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Desparate Housewives, American Idol, Survivor, The Simpsons, That 70's Show... which will give the TIVO a break and shift 8 hours into reading...
Purging out my BlogLines feeds - I check out about 93 on a daily basis; some I have to keep on top of for my work such as the handheld/PDA/wireless/Palm feeds, but I will pull back radically on the opinionated ones. Reading rants about politics, nonsense or non tolerance towards Christians isn't productive anyway, so I''ll pass it on by...
With a birthday coming up, I get reflective on spiritual things anyway, so I'm anticipating some thought provoking epiphany moments to spring forth in search of authenticity.
Big Idea: get a large group of people in blue polo shirts and khakis to enter a Best Buy or a group in red polo shirts and khakis to enter a Target. Wearing clothing almost identical to the store's uniform, the agents would not claim to work at the store but would be friendly and helpful if anyone had a question.
See the invasion unfold as they seek out WMDs...
Nice article from Adam Finley from TV Squad (reprinted here in its entirety)
Just because a place is big doesn't mean it's bad. The Pentagon's good. --Hank Hill
I wouldn't have though I could ever become nostalgic for those days when I was forced to wake up early, don uncomfortable garments and too-tight shoes, get shuttled off to church, and then try to stay awake through some boring sermon. I don't recall ever actually enjoying church, but it was part of our routine, and last night's episode managed to touch on all the ups and downs of attending church in a small town.
The episode begins with the Hills arriving late for church, only to find a new family has taken their seats. Hank tries to get them to move, but they refuse. He confronts the reverend about it, but she refuses to assign seats. Upset, Hank leaves the church for another church, which is more like a gigantic worship complex, complete with a coffee bar and a movie theater. Hank is wooed right away by the promise of assigned seats, but eventually grows tired of the fanfare and goes back to his old church, though not before trying out Luanne's boyfriend's worship approach, which involves getting drunk at the bar and singing along to the jukebox.
The episode showed that religious people each have their own way of worshiping and communing with God, and that no way is necessarily worse than the other. It also brought out a major part of Hank's character, which is that he does not accept change very easily. In fact, he's willing to make his life vastly more complicated rather than accept the fact his family has to sit in the back of the church.
I lamented in my last review of a lack of Peggy, so I was happy to see her back in full force this time, offering her unsolicited suggestions to the reverend of their new church, and at one point addressing the congregation to see if anyone had taped The Amazing Race. Yet another great episode, and another funny and poignant look at small town America. Having King of the Hill lead into the rest of the Sunday night lineup and shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy is like having a folk singer open for a punk band. It's different, the styles aren't even the same, but it's the perfect respite for those of us who don't mind a show that's willing to slow down and let us soak everything in.
OK... it's... time to play Oprah or Osteen, courtesy of The Wittenburg Door and Monday Morning Insight
These quotes were taken either from Joel Osteen's blockbuster bestseller "Your Best Life Now" (and the accompanying study guide) or Marcia Z. Nelson's insightful analysis of Oprah's philosophy in her book, "The Gospel According to Oprah." See if you can guess if the pastor of the largest church in the US or America's favorite guru uttered a particular quote.
1. The first step to living at your full potential is to enlarge your vision.
2. If you develop a vision of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold these things from you.
3. Live your best life.
4. You must concieve it in your heart and mind before you can receive it.
5. I have been beyond blessed.
6. Every day I pass the front of my house, I sing, "Jesus Loves Me."
7. Thank you. Two words that can make miracles
8. We have to conceive it on the inside before we're ever going to receive it on the outside.
9. Today is the only day we have. We can't do anything about the past, and we don't know what the future holds. But we can live at our full potential right now.
10. The expression of your feelings is like magic.
Answer key found here at Monday Morning Insight
Feel good gospel, eeh?
Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now
I feel good, I knew that I would, now
So good, so good, I got you
(The Good Rev. James Brown)
Thanks to YouTUBE, I'm going to post a music video every Friday... just for kicks.
Here's a live performance of KT Tunstall - "Black Horse and The Cherry Tree" where she sings solo with loops and a variety of instruments.
well my heart knows me better than i know myself
so i'm gonna let it do all the talking.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
i came across a place in the middle of nowhere
with a big black horse and a cherry tree.
(woo-hoo,woo-hoo)
About KT Tunstall from Wikipedia:
Kate "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Fife. Her mother is of partial Chinese descent, and her father Irish. She was raised by adoptive parents, scientists who did not own a television or stereo, as they would interfere with her congenitally deaf adoptive brother's hearing aid. In her twenties she met her birth mother, who told her that her natural father was a folk musician, long after she had chosen that route herself.
Her nickname, "KT", is a play on "Katie". While a student at Royal Holloway, University of London she performed on an acoustic guitar in a student bar, under the name "Katie". Her style of music varies from the folk genre to the more pop genre.
(Note: since the video takes a while to load based on your bandwidth, just hit play, then pause... while the video buffer gets full.)
KT Tunstall Web Site
I am so starving for a good hamburger.
Turns out that May is National Hamburger Month!
A Hamburger Today is the definitive source for all things burger...
Ever since Fuddrucker's closed here in Nashville, I miss a good burger - (with no gristle)
I did find a great burger at the CheeseCake Factory that runs about $12.00 which was one of the most memorable burgers I have eaten.
I recently dined at the superb J. Alexanders on West End; the Tuna Burger is off the charts - a half pound Fresh Ahi tuna from Hawaii with a ginger-mustard glaze for $14.00.
Speaking of gristle burgers, here's a oldie April Fools prank:
The Left-Handed Whopper
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
(courtesy: museum of hoaxes
White Castle is the official sponsor of National Hamburger Month PRNEWSWIRE
My friend Homer-J just got a brand new job, and they took his picture at orientation. Another friend who happens to work at the same company saw it on their intranet and forwarded it to me. As a stupid joke...
It be stupid, but I find it brilliant... A top tenner fo' sure.
If you love something, set it free.
If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours.
If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with.
If it just sits in your living room,
messes up your stuff,
eats your food,
uses your telephone,
takes your money,
and never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place, you either married it or gave birth to it.
from MikeysFunnies
