Rick Nier...Woo!

I recently read Dinner with a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory. I initially picked it up because it sounded like a B-movie my wife once told me about. The actor called the actress by her real name. She laughe slightly, corrected him and they moved on with the scene. Apparently it was low budget or the director was sleeping. Maybe both. Either way, this book is not based on that movie...thankfully. This small book is as unassuming as the invitation it is based on. Businessman Nick Cominsky receives an invitation from none other than God. And apparently God likes Italian food because they meet at a pricy Italian restaurant, where God is on a first name basis with all the help staff. Not because He is God, mind you, just because He is friendly. I had read a review on this book before reading the book. That can be dangerous, I know, but it's not lke Rob Bell wrote the book or the review. The review compared this book to The Shack , which I have also read. If hearing it compared with ...

Sometimes I like to imagine what it was like to be a 19-year old Israelite when the spies were sent in to explore the Promised Land. If you read the account you will see that only 2 of the 12 spies came back with good reports. Everyone else was afraid and refused to go in and claim God's promise. So God brings judgment, which you can read in Numbers 14:26-35. In a nutshell, everyone 20 years and older is going to die in the desert. Which brings me back to imagining life for those 19-year olds. I have to believe their first response is a brush of the hand against the forehead while breathing a sigh of relief. 'Whew, we just made the cut-off.' I imagine this was quickly followed with disdain for the 20 and older crowd. After all, there was to be 40 years of wandering in the desert because of the rebellion. God said it would be 1 year of desert wandering for every day the spies explored the land. I think I might wish for God to smite them all so we could just get on with it. A...

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf." Hebrews 6:19-20 While no one is sure who wrote the book of Hebrews, I like how the writer communicates. He’s been using his letter to talk about how Jesus is superior to anything the Jewish people knew from the Old Testament. Jesus is superior to the angels. He is superior to Moses. He is superior to the priests. And now the author is talking about God’s promise being certain and sure. You know how, if we really want someone to believe us, we might say something like, ‘I swear on my mother’s grave’ or ‘I swear to God’? When God makes a promise, there is no one greater to swear by, so He swears by Himself. ‘I swear to ME.’ This happened in Genesis 22:15-18 . The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done t...

I have had a love-hate relationship with the idiom 'perception is reality.' On the one hand, I get it. If people perceive something to be true, then their actions will be based on that perceived truth. We see this in every area of life. For instance, a young child who sees a slide as tall and scary will have to find courage to go on the slide. An adult will see the slide and think it not scary at all. On the other hand, our perceptions can not always be trusted. I'd rather say that 'reality is reality'. As with the previous example, a child and an adult may perceive the slide in different ways, but that won't change the fact that the slide is a particular height. The slide does not change heights. Reality is reality. This idea of perception and reality is why rumors can be so devastating. Truth is to be valued above all perception. We see this in the Bible as well. Back in the book of Deuteronomy God is preparing His people to enter the Promised Land. We read th...

Have you ever tried to one-up someone else on how busy you are? Perhaps your competition was over who lost more sleep or was more tired? Yeah, I've been there. But I think I just inadvertently trumped myself in this incessant game of proving how busy we are, and thus, proving how important we are. I ran out of gas in my vehicle last week. Nope, not the gas-guzzling Durango that refuses to be sold. Not even the grocery-getter that gets OK gas mileage. I am not even referring to my spiritual state of being (yet). Nope, I ran out of gas in my moped. Apparently E stands for empty. Even on a moped. In case this doesn't sound stupid enough to you, let me break it down by the numbers. I get 145 miles to the gallon. My moped only holds 1 gallon of gas. So I only had 145 miles to take 2 minutes out of my day to stop and put 1 gallon of gas in my moped. But did I? Nope, I was way too busy. No. So I found out that there is something worse than being mocked for driving a moped around town....

If anyone tells you that the book of Numbers is just about counting the Israelites, don't you believe them. Not now. Not ever. Oh, and if you catch my kids, pastor's kids, doing some crazy things, please know they have not yet trumped this story from Numbers 25. Phinehas (not the brother of Ferb) runs into a tent where two people are committing adultery and...well, maybe I better let you read this description straight from the Bible. It's worth the read, unless you're faint of heart. 1-3 While Israel was camped at Shittim (Acacia Grove), the men began to have sex with the Moabite women. It started when the women invited the men to their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their gods. Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor. God was furious, his anger blazing out against Israel. 4 God said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of Israel and kill them by hanging, leaving them publicly exposed in order to turn God ...

I should have known what I was getting myself into when I agreed to blog on Bruce Wilkinson's new book You Were Born For This . After all, I had read The Prayer of Jabez . Yeah, I'll admit it. I read it. I loved it. I prayed the prayer for about 3 months before I felt stupid about it. Whether right or wrong, I decided it was a little too prosperity-gospel-esque for my tastes. So what was I doing reading another book by Bruce? Good question. Even though judging a book by its cover is considered taboo, I fell for the title. The idea of destiny seemed laced right into this book. By the end of chapter one I knew I was already entrenched in a philosophical debate that hasn't ended in my mind just yet. Perhaps that's ok. Bruce doesn't start out slowly to allow you to get our feet wet. He begins by welcoming the reader to Everyday Miracle Territory, a place he believes God intends for all of us. He wows us with a few stories of miracles and then offers us his definition of...