No letters after my name. Free to be me.

Updating LayGuy - Part 2

Well it did it again.  For the second time in 48 hours my site crashed.  Those damn old plugins are the culprits.  Working on getting things right again but it’s just gonna take awhile.

Christians. Soft Targets?

Watch any comedy show these days or listen to public opinion and Christians everywhere are made to look like idiots. What we believe in and find precious is being trodden on by an unbelieving world.

We are the butt of jokes and the scapegoats for the worlds problems. Blame it on the Muslims and you’ll have a bomb staring you in the face. The “turn the other cheek” mentality of Christians has facilitated this in a big way.

While I agree with the words of Jesus, I believe we have not mastered what He meant by these words. After all, He went nuts in the temple didn’t He? No turning the other cheek there.

Then I come across the following video by The Chasers War on Everything - an Aussie production totally irrelevant to everything and anyone:

Makes me want to seriously punch something at how the unbelieving world wants to put down the One who died for it. They don’t trash Mohammed or Buddha. They trash Jesus - and do so in ignorance not knowing that one day, their proud knee will bow before Him in terror.

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:8-11

But watching that video also made me think how parts of the Church make us look ridiculous - therefore making us fair game to a skeptical world. In particular, Catholicism.

It always amazes me when the world thinks about Christians, they think about Catholics. They lump us all into the same basket. Well I don’t pray to Mary or any other “saint”. I don’t care less about the Pope, don’t appreciate relics and couldn’t care less about apparitions or what happened at Fatima.

But millions do, therefore making the rest of us look like lunatics. Apparitions, and the crowds they attract are particularly embarrassing and attract attention as shown in the video above.

Relics are even more bizarre. Catholics should take note of the story found in Numbers 21:4-9:

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”

So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Here we have people bitten by snakes and asked to “foolishly” look to the bronze snake on a pole and live. Christians would know that this is representing Christ’s crucifixion. Snakes represent sin. Bronze represents punishment. So it talks about sin being punished - exactly what Jesus did on the cross and was alluded to by Jesus Himself.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” John 3:14-15

So the story ended on a good note except that if you read on, hundreds of years later we see that this “brazen snake” became an object to which people burnt incense to and became, in effect, an idol. Hezekiah, an Israelite King who honoured God destroyed the relic:

“He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” 2 Kings 18:4

Check out the Wikipedia entry on the brazen snake here and you’ll see that it’s associated with occultism. In the same way, much of what Catholics practice is occultic in nature and is downright wrong when exposed to scripture.

The net effect of this is that an unbelieving world makes a mockery of our faith. Sure even in the Protestant movement there are heaps of things done in a questionable way.

Even the practice of worship where singing songs and raising hands could be looked on as foolish. But what difference is it to attend a Iron Maiden concert and mosh away while holding up your arm and doing the devil sign?

So are we soft targets? Probably. But only cause we represent peace and actually challenge people to question their lives in a way that most people would avoid in that it exposes their depravity in profound ways. But, because of all the depravity in organised religion, we provide ample ammunition for their attacks.

It’s a totally sad reality. Oh well, at least we don’t respond by bombing people. Chew on that for a minute.

Tags: Christianity, Moses, Catholicism, Catholics, Relics, Apparitions

Beef Jerky

Being a sales rep, I travel around a fair bit. I’ve only recently discovered beef jerky. Every time I went to a petrol station (yeah I know, you Yanks call them gas stations) I saw these horrible looking dry pieces of meat in air vacuumed packs and almost dry reached every time I saw them.

The other day, I bit the bullet and actually bought a pack. I must have been delirious from all the driving and totally over Mentos and Crunchie bars. I hesitantly opened the pack, took a sniff and wondered why on earth I bought this stuff.

But in my travels, I got hungry and the only edible things was this dried out beef. So I jerked open the pack (pun intended) and cautiously placed a piece in my mouth. I eat my meat medium raw so to put a piece in my mouth hard as a bone was freaky!

But as my saliva mixed with the jerky, a metamorphic experience occurred and this hard jerky turned into soft meaty mush. And it was delicious! And I’m lead to believe, quite nutritious! Well at least after my sugar highs with Mentos and Crunchies!

So I became a fan and these days, I actually check out the jerky’s and pick and chose from among the different brands and flavours. So you can imagine the smile the following video’s brought to my face when I saw them on YouTube today.

Jack Links is a brand I have no idea about. But their adds on YouTube cracked me up. You guys in the US probably have seen these already, but me, as an Aussie, haven’t seen them before and I thought I would post them here to remind myself to have a laugh.

In this age of political correctness, these adds shine through with humour and wit. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Tags: Beef Jerky

BlogRush - Generate Free Traffic

I’ve already discussed BlogRush before here.

They’ve have recently upgraded their free service and it’s really starting to make a difference on the traffic to my blog. One really cool feature is the inclusion of sub-categories in their categories section. A number of you said that there were way too many whacked out stories being promoted on your BlogRush due to all religious stories lumped into one category. Well now that’s a thing of the past with sub-categories and the ability to filter out specific sites.

I’m coming across more and more sites out there with a BlogRush widget present - check mine out on the right hand side. It’s a simple and free syndication system. There are plans for many new services so now is the time to join and build your own syndication network. Basically the more people you have in your network, the more credits you earn.

What this means is that every time that little widget on the right loads up on someone’s blog, you have a greater chance of having your post syndicated. And I can tell you from my stats, that the hits I receive from BlogRush are targeted - meaning these people stay on your blog longer and visit more posts than other referrers.To join, click here.

Tags: BlogRush

Man Turning Into A Tree

When you think of your family tree, you don’t usually think of a literal “family tree” do you? Well most people wouldn’t - but unfortunately for one family in Indonesia, they do.

Meet ‘Dede’ - a 35 year old father of two living in poverty in a remote village in Indonesia.

Dede grew up normal, but at 15, he had an accident where he cut his knee. From then on, warts and welts started taking over his body and have simply kept on growing to what resembles “bark like” qualities.

His wife bolted leaving him to look after his two kids. As his condition worsened, Dede became completely dependant on others for even the most mundane tasks in life - such as putting on clothing.

When he cut his knee as a teen, a virus entered his body - HPV. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the bug which commonly causes warts and other skin diseases. Those of us who had or have warts can usually fight off this bug with our immune systems.

But in Dede’s case, things get a little more complicated. He suffers from a rare genetic fault which renders his immune system void in helping stop the spread of this virus through his body. The video clip below demonstrates the shattering reality of this in Dede’s life.

An American dermatologist, Dr Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland, has come to the aid of Dede after being exposed to the story on Discovery Channel.

Gaspari believes daily doses of Vitamin A could drastically reverse the growth of warts to the point where Dede can use his own hands. The rest of the growth can be frozen and then surgically removed. This is great news for Dede as his greatest worry is not seeing his children grow old and not meeting his grand children.

I’m stoked for Dede and am moved by Gaspari’s determination to treat this guy. This story is about to go live as the Discovery Channel “My Shocking Story” series, and will be shown on the Discovery Channel at 9pm on Nov 15. For more details visit the programme’s website.

Already the cruel blog world is making fun of this story calling Dede a freak and using all manner of puns to put him down. He has suffered enough in his life and my hope is that one day, he will be cured of this disease.

Tags: Dede, Tree Man, HPV, Human Papillomavirus, Discovery Channel, Warts

The Rebel’s Guide To Joy

If you’re a Mark Driscoll fan, you would immediately recognise the title of this post is the current series he is preaching at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. If you haven’t checked out his preaching yet, I strongly suggest subscribing to the Mars Hill podcast.

Driscoll cops a lot of flack from Christian and non-Christians alike due to his inability to be meek and mild. This guy tells it like it is and it’s this that attracts me to his teaching. His style of teaching keeps you glued even though he talks for over an hour many times. What also helps is that the guy is actually funny. I know it sounds like an oxymoron but this is one serious and funny guy.

Below is the video intro to the current series, “The Rebel’s Guide To Joy”. It’s a sermon series based on the Book of Philippians.

This series focus is on the topic of joy. Not some airy fairy joy you “feel” when good times roll on. No this is the attitude and mindset of joy despite what’s happening in your life - real joy.

Philippians is written by Paul while in prison in Rome waiting his death sentence. Hardly the place you would expect a letter to be written about joy. An yet, through the Holy Spirit, Paul pens a letter which turns our understanding of joy upside down.

Driscoll’s sermon series on Philippians has blessed me so much and I’ve only heard 3 messages so far. This series will continue through to mid December and Driscoll will cover the topic of joy through many circumstances.

• October 7: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy (Acts 16; Phil. 1:1-1a)
• October 14: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Loneliness (Phil. 1:1b-11)
• October 21: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Suffering (Phil. 1:12-18)
• October 28: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Death (Phil. 1:19-30)
• November 4: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Humility (Phil. 2:1-11)
• November 11: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Temptation (Phil. 2:12-30)
• November 18: The Rebels Guide to Joy in Conflict (Phil. 3:1-11)
• December 2: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Exhaustion (Phil. 3:12-4:1)
• December 9: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Anxiety (Phil. 4:2-9)
• December 16: The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Poverty (Phil. 4:10-23)

Click here to visit the Mars Hill “Rebels Guide To Joy” website.

One really cool thing Mars Hill has done with this series is video vignettes at the end of each sermon outlining how joy was found by a person despite his or her situation. If you love the good old hymns, you will find the video’s particularly interesting. At the time of writing this post, there were 4 videos released and I have included them below. Click here for updates.

Tags: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Philippians, Joy, Saints