Is this the real church?

Every year our students participate in a state Fine Arts Festival. They perform in category divisions like Music, Art, Drama, Communication, and others. This year we had about 13 different entries from my students. One of them was in the category of Large Human Video Group. Although they did not receive an invitation to the National Fine Arts Festival in Charlotte, NC, they certainly gave the judges some comic relief from all the wild party, violence, and crucifixion scenes they endured all day.

"Is this the real church? Is this the ministry?" is how the song begins. For those of you who grew up in the church, maybe you can relate.

Purity Matters

I like this...hope you do to.

Challenged by C.S. Lewis.

I've been reading The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis and he challenged me personally when he said, "I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to 'rejoice' as much as by anything else."

I must admit that I don't always rejoice. Sometimes it takes work to focus on the good that is happening all around us. The question I have to ask myself is..."Why am I more passionate about the things that disturb me than the things that make me glad?"

What a world it would be, if I would only rejoice in all things, instead of complaining and moaning. What if we always looked for the good and brought those things to everyone's attention? I'm not talking about denying the realities of imperfection, I am talking about how I deal with those realities.

What about you?

It's not what goes in, it's what comes out.

Oh, I don't think anyone will read this blog, it's been so long. But, just in case there are lurkers still out there...here goes.

I picked up a CD Audio Drama called The Word of Promise the other day. It's the NKJV New Testament read, word-for-word, but put to orchestra music and sound effects. The readers are famous actors and such. For example, Jim Caviezel reads the part of Jesus and Terence Stamp is the voice of God and the Holy Spirit. Fantastic work!

As I was listening yesterday on the way home from work, Jesus was talking about how it's not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of his mouth. What goes into the mouth is food that passes through. But, what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart.

My first thought is, "Thank God, it's not food that defiles a man. Eat hardy boys!" Huh... No, not the Hardy Boys, sicko. Eat food without worrying about religious regulations of different kinds, etc. Eat for enjoyment.

Then, I think that if it's the stuff in our hearts that causes us to spew out poison and be defiled, we need to exam ourselves a little bit closer and ask God to give us pure hearts. Are we struggling with anger and hate? Are we thinking about good things?

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! The Audio Drama is a great gift for anyone. Especially someone who has a lot of commute time during the week! :)