Rick Nier...Woo!

I am sitting here with the number of things on my to-do list climbing higher than the temperature on a sunny day in Florida. With all these things clamoring for my attention, I say to myself, 'Self, why don't you blog?' I answer with the obvious, 'I don't have time!' It's a ridiculous problem that many of us find ourselves with. We tell people how busy we are. Yet somehow we find the time to blog, tweet, or text all our friends so they know just how busy we are. I think sometimes we are so close to ourselves (a predictable dilemma) that we don't see the lie for what it is. It reminds me of a king named Saul. You can read all about his misadventures in the book of 1 Samuel. I think my favorite disaster of his life can be found in 1 Samuel 15. Saul is told to destroy the people of Amalek. God uses absolute words like 'totally destroy' and 'leave nothing alive'. Seems pretty basic, like even my 6 year old could follow this direction. Half a ...

Whoever talked about the quiet before the storm lived in a simpler time. I think many of our lives could be described as the storm before the next storm. Take, for instance, August and September. For any family with school age children, for any Church worker dealing with planning kick-off events, or for anyone unfortunate to be planning kick-off events while at the same time having school age children, you know this feeling. It makes me think of Job. Do you think Job ever gets tired of being the example of life kicking you while you're down? I bet he does. I bet he looks at his life and asks why we're not paying attention. After all, Job is the guy who lost it all and said, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised" (Job 1:21). Unless I'm wrong, Job is also the guy who lost his family and all his earthly possessions, conversed with God, and then apologized. Imagine getting beat up and then apologizing to the guy who beat you ...

I could not believe what I was listening to. 'This person really does not think that he is doing anything wrong,' I thought to myself. What made it worse was that this person claimed to be a Christian. The sin and the sinner are irrelevant, because there are many similar instances. Sadly, this is nothing new. You can find as much sin within the Church as you can outside of the Church. I do not have a problem with this in theory, because the Church is called to be a place where sinners come. If the Church were perfect, I could not belong, and neither could you. My issue comes when we become more comfortable living with sin than dealing with sin. That's when we have a problem. That was also the problem for the Israelites back in the days of Samuel the prophet. The Philistines had just returned the Ark of God, the national symbol of Who they followed. Perhaps because it was out of context, several Israelites, upon seeing the Ark return on a cart, decided to take a peek insid...

If you flip back into the days of a prophet named Sam, you'll find a story of refreshing honesty. It was at a time when the Israelites were not very good listeners to God and so had lost the Ark, the one physical presence of God they had. A group of nose-picking, massively hairy men and women known as the Philistines had taken the Ark to their home. Without any help from His people, God starts raining down terror in the form of tumors and rats on the Philistines. What happened next was incredible. The Philistines credit the One True God of Israel as the source of their problems. They admit God is stronger than their national god, some joe called Dagon. So they call together a meeting of the minds. But, as is the case with many meetings, they ask the wrong question. They should be asking themselves, 'Why aren't we serving this God of Israel?' What they asked was how they could get rid of Him. (1 Samuel 5:7-8) They were stupid. But at least they were honest. The fact is t...

I returned last Friday from a four day youth trip. Four days is shorter than usual, but losing sleep at the high velocity as we were made this trip just the right length. And while there was nothing quantifiable that I can give you about the results of the trip, I know it was good. For the low price of $160, I sent teens off into the wilderness armed with just a Bible, a pad of paper, and a ball-point pen. We did this for two hours each morning while having no access to the outside world. Otherwise, I would have twittered about it. Two hours of uninterrupted time was well worth their dollars. I started where many would have when you have a blank piece of paper and anywhere to go in scripture. "In the beginning, God..." (Genesis 1:1). We should take our cues from how God has written His word. God wrote about God. He wrote about Himself as if He were the main character. He did this because He, in fact, IS the main character. "In the beginning, God..." After pondering ...

I found this little slice at relevant.com. Read it and then I’ll comment. One of the greatest products ever invented by humankind is the Snuggie. Combining a blanket with a monk's habit, the little blanket-that-could took the world by storm a few months back. Sadly, while you were warm, your little puppy was left out in the cold. But not anymore! Introducing the Snuggie for Dogs (the hilariously bad commercial is embedded after the jump). If you feel like your dog needs to be mocked by all of her doggy friends, buy now ... I hope you understand their sarcasm. The Snuggie has to be one of the worst products foisted upon consumers. It is a blanket with a hole in it for your head to fit through. I have to wonder when wrapping a blanket around yourself became too much work. Sadly, it signifies one more way that advertisers convince us of what we need. But we are certainly not the first generation to be exploited in every known way. We do get the award for doing it in the most inventive...