Getting "the sex talk" from your pastor...

If you have not seen this article yet..you really need to check it out. A pastor at a church near Tampa, Fla, the Relevant church, has issued a challenge to his congregation: If you are not married STOP having sex for 30 days, and if you are married START having sex for 30 days.

The pastor is trying to show that habits are formed in 30 days or less, and that God's plan for sex is not being followed today. Sex helps strengthen marriages, and many marriages end because of a lack of intimacy between a man and a wife, intimacy that was designed by God. On the other hand, sex outside of marriage places intimacy in a context where there is no commitment, and that leads to hurt and pain.

To quote the pastor, "for far too long the church has remained silent of the subject, leading many people to believe God is against sex, which is completely counter to what the Bible teaches". The pastor said the married people are far more fearful than the single people...that is crazy.

I say, PREACH IT PASTOR, HALLELJAH!!!

CC

One Super Loss is Another's Super Gain

It's been a little over 2 weeks since the Super Bowl was played and for many sports fans in the United States, our attention has turned to college basketball's upcoming March Madness, the NBA All-Star Game or baseball's spring training.

In our era of mass consumption and instant gratification... the images that pass through our mind of the closing seconds of the Giants incredible upset of the Patriots includes grafiti raining from the sky as fans hold up the front page of the newspaper that declare "Giant Upset!" while players put on their New York Giant Super Bowl hats and shirts.

I believe that it would be safe to assume that for every one of those t-shirts or hats that those players and team officials put on that day, another thousand were already printed for fans to purchase the next day (if not later that night!). All for a team that wasn't suppose to sniff victory. Can you now imagine how many t-shirts, hats and other apparel were printed for the "Super Bowl Champion" New England Patriots?

For the past several years I have spent the third weekend following the Super Bowl participating in World Vision's 30 Hour Famine with our church's youth group. During 30 Hours our group and thousands of groups around the nation and the world fast for 30 hours while they raise money to eradicate 3rd world hunger. Millions of dollars have been raised by youth over the years! Millions and millions of people are alive today because of World Vision and the participants of the 30 Hour Famine.

So, by now you are probably wondering "what does the Super Bowl have anything to do with the 30 Hour Famine?" Well, according to this article World Vision, in cooperation with the NFL, has been giving the Patriot's "winning" Super Bowl t-shirts to poor children in Nicaragua.

The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

What may be considered as waste and useless in our eyes is warmth and love in anothers. Let us pray that our eyes are opened so that He may use all things for His Glory...

Looking good for Jesus- Sacreligion gone wild

I saw this article on Fox News today. Besides these products being ridiculous it seems to be making light of our God and Savior. Then I was wondering if it was in fact making fun of Jesus or Jesus' followers who seem to have obscure thoughts and priorities at times.

Question: do we Christians have a thick enough skin to see something like this and not think that the world is making fun of us? Maybe the world really is making fun of us and we deserve it? A fresh perspective may help us to see how we appear to the world around us.

I know that in many parts of the country and in many churches it is unacceptable to come to church unless you are dressed nicer than normal, kinda "looking good for Jesus", if you will. I have actually heard, "don't you want to give your best to God by dressing nice for church?" (Reminds me of the whole concept of Lent, but that is another discussion for another time.) There was no discussion of going to church for Christian fellowship, the building together of the body of Christ or learning more of God's Word...only that we need to look nice for each other. How foolish. Jesus always saved his harshest criticism for the religious, as we can see in Matthew 23:25-28. The Pharisees were so concerned about the outside, the external appearance, that they neglected the inside, which is where our heart and soul are located. We could be full of hatred and envy in our hearts, but if we dress nice and smile maybe no one will notice. Do we really think that we are fooling anyone? I think this is part of what has made Christianity so repulsive to so many people, superficial Christians that are more concerned about the external that the heart and soul of man.

Being a representative for Christ is about looking at the inside, the heart and soul of ourselves and others and, and not walking around making judgments based on appearances...anyone else stone cold guilty of this in their own way?

CC

AM Static Presidential Endorsement

Like the lingering thirst after eating a salty pretzel, America has reached a moment in time when she thirsts for a new and different direction. This election year has shown that many of our politicians know how to make promises, they just don't know how to fulfill their promises and that is really the most important part, the fulfilling. Anybody can just make promises.

Every 4 years a new man (or woman) seemingly comes through the door, saying hello and telling us how they can change America, the world and seemingly the cosmos. But is this a lane, a road or a course that we want to take? They run after your vote like Tom chases Jerry but your vote matters and you can be on George Washington's grave that we will not endorse any average candidate.

As we sit around and wait to see which politician can hold out the longest in the contest, it is becoming obvious that none of them come off as refreshing as say, a Junior Mint. Many of our current candidates just act as they want to be President but to us they may as well be pretending to be an architect or marine biologist.

We need a President who is real, honest and has a good sense of humor. A person who is just as comfortable advising a Pakistani in the restraunt business as he is talking to the parents of a bubble boy about how they share the TV remote. A President who is well aware of the importance of cleanliness and good hygien. A man who can see the value in nothing and make it into something. A man who will stand by his commitments, even if it means wearing an occasional puffy shirt.

Who is our Presidential Endorsement? Sorry Hillary Clinton. Wait another 4 Barack Obama. Head back south Mike Huckabee. It's time to retire John McCain. We are going 3rd Party!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you our endorsement to be the next President of the United States... Jerry Seinfeld

End the Drama!

This is a big weekend for us - our daughter's 4th birthday party. Today is my day off and I have been given strict instructions that it should be spent cleaning the house. So what am I doing? 10 minute cleaning sprints followed by 10 minutes of updates on ESPN and the internet to check on the latest Eric Bedard trade.

I had hoped to refrain on many posts on the Orioles, Ravens or Terps but at some point it becomes necessary to vent built up frustrations or joy when it comes to our home town teams. I am sure I will post a nice blog when the Terps beat the Dukies or NC or when the Ravens thrash the Steelers. Unfortunantly, there just isn't really anything nice to say about the O's - at least not in the past 10 years.

The rumors that the Bedard trade is on the verge of completion have been running wild for almost 2 weeks now. The Orioles are once again the topic of ridicule from the national media.

Part of the problem is the O's unwillingness to come out and update the fans as to what is happening. The Baltimore Sun's Roch Kubatko does a great job of expressing the frustrations us fans are having with this whole process.

In my humble opinion, the best way for the O's to compete in the future is to trade Eric Bedard and Brian Roberts now. We may royaly stink in the near future, but watch out in 2010! However, it's time to either complete the trade or send it to the trash heap and trade Bedard later in the year. End the drama, please!

Update: On February 7th the Orioles officially traded Bedard to the Mariners for 5 players. YEE HAW!!!

Ever Wonder What God Smells Like?

Christian products and marketing never fails to amaze me. We have everything from our own bookstores, coffee shops, diets, apparel, mints and now perfume.

Introducing Virtue.

"Based upon an inspired Biblical formula, the perfume is designed to be a reminder of God, Christ, spiritual self and soul."

The fragance consists of a blend of apricot (which through research they determined was the real apple that Adam and Eve ate), pomegranate and fig as well as other smells found in the Bible.

Why a perfume? Because according to the makers of Virtue, Jesus and all the saints gave off a fragrance "attributed to their virtue." I guess we common folk need to purchase a 1.7 fluid ounce of Virtue for $80 in order to get that same smell?

Super Bowl & evangelism- What's good for the goose is...

So after years of hearing that Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter are being secularized by the greedy commercialistic American culture here is an article in the Washington Post talking about local churches using the Super Bowl, the most secular of all American holidays, for Jesus-purposes. What better way to reach out to our community than to watch the Superbowl together?

The actual point of the article is that the NFL doesn't like churches showing the games on big-screen TV's, but I think it shows a heart to reach out and engage the community for Christ. Churches are offering food, fellowship and fun for no cost to reach out. I like it. I do have to admit though, that I am attending a Superbowl party with lots of friends from my church at a friends house, and the thought never entered my selfish little mind to invite some unbelievers. This is another problem with most of us believers and I am the biggest culpit- forming a nice little cliche and not being "in the world".

Do you think it is a good idea for churches to gather together, even instead of a church service, and watch the Superbowl together?

CC out...