Rick Nier...Woo!

I shared this following story with my youth group on Sunday to demonstrate the idea that fair is not an issue in the Gospel story. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— We can read verses like Romans 5:12 and be pretty bummed. We didn't choose Adam to represent all of us. What's Adam's deal, anyway? Isn't he kind of stupid for screwing it up for all of us? But then we scroll down to Romans 5:18-19 and we read about Jesus taking all the bad stuff away. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. That happened a long time before we were born as well. We also didn't choose Jesus or know what ...

I know I haven't been alone in my thinking when some whack job does something wacky. There's plenty of these people out there. But then it's made so much more enjoyable when said whack job gets a microphone shoved in front of himself and they claim the reason for their wackiness is they are a Christian. Awesome! Well, Dave Burchett was thinking the same thing when he wrote When Bad Christians Happen to Good People . As he said early on, 'this book is for everyone who has been disgusted by the hypocritical arrogance of a church congregation or its leadership. It is also for Christians who inflict the wounds.' I thoroughly enjoyed Dave's style, as he didn't mince words, but readily acknowledged that all Christ followers can be both the offended and those who offend. He spoke openly with Christians about our style and approach to all sorts of topics. But he also spoke about the expectations of non-Christians. Some of these arguments have indeed been ...

Yeah, how annoying was this commercial after the first time you saw it? I have had too many conversations. Period. Seriously, people can be so annoying. Alright, I don't mean that. But there is a particular conversation of which I have had too many. The main topic can be about a diverse number of things, but somewhere along the way people ask what they are thinking, what they are doing, when they will get around to it. This would be fine if we were talking politics, something I try to avoid. It would be okay if we were discussing sports, something I enjoy a lot more than politics. Alas, this conversation is happening in the Church. It's not just in the Church, it's about the Church. Indeed, it's about the particular church where I serve. Are you confused? Let me clarify... Nondescript person #1: So tell me more about this decision made by them . What were they thinking? I leave it as a nondescript person, because this seems to be a habit of many, dare ...

Jacie, my 11-year old daughter, was shocked to hear that girls use 5,000 words more than boys. (I actually made up the number.) Here’s how the conversation went; Jacie: Girl use 5,000 words every day? Me: No. Girls use 5,000 more words than boys every day. So if boys use 6,000 words in a day, girls use 11,000.   She was shocked and and spent many words detailing how shocked she was. Of course, whether the numbers were made up or not, she was making my point. But her need to use up her daily quota of words clearly knows no boundaries, as the next night, she was found talking in her sleep. Clearly, if she doesn't get anyone to listen to her during the day, this will not keep her from talking. She is not the only female in my house who talks in their sleep, but for reasons of safety, I cannot reveal the name of the other female. (Read: My wife would kill me if I told you it was her.) This got me wondering what the actual number is for average words used per day by ...

Conventional wisdom isn't always that smart. There are many things my parents spoon-fed me as a child that I now know the truth about. For instance, eating cookies before a meal does not ruin my appetite. But, in case my mom reads this, they also taught me to question logic that makes no sense. And that brings me to a comic-writing blog I would like to share with you, my readership. You can find this, and many more like it over at  http://xkcd.com Woo!

We are mostly passive in our choices of media. This is because we too often choose media for the sake of entertainment. What will this do for me? The positive or negative comments that follow are based purely on...me. And since we are each inundated with media in today's ocean of technology, I believe it is important to take a disciplined look at our choices and make a concerted effort to make the right decision. Ryan M. Blanck has given us just such a tool to assist in that endeavor. It's a book titled Engaging the Media 2.0 . As you may guess, Engaging the Media 2.0  is an updated tool from the original. As technology grows, so does our need to educate. I believe this is a great tool to use in that education. The premise, no matter the form of media, is based on 3 questions. Is this good for me? Is this in its proper place? Is this a stumbling block for others? After laying a solid foundation, Ryan tackles all forms of media, always bring it back to these 3 q...

Yes, sometimes I have to get some things off my chest. Like John McClane in any Die Hard movie, if there was someone else to do the job, I would let them do it. But. There's. Not. So I am doing what nobody else will, hopefully signalling the clarion call to bring this mad world back to some semblance of normalcy and intelligence. I recently found the following: An article in Time.com noted that ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of .028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the San Diego Zoo, zips along at a blazing 0.16 miles per hour, or almost six times faster than ketchup. But impatiently tapping your ketchup bottle soon might be a thing of the past. Dave Smith, a PhD candidate at MIT, and a team of MIT mechanical engineers and nano-technologists have offered a posible solution to this ketchup flow problem. After months of research, Smith and his team developed LiquiGlide, which they define as a "kind of stru...