RE:think

Falwell Defends Coulter

So Jonathan picks where Jerry left off...

Ann Coulter is INDEFENSIBLE. Folks can talk all they want about here being taken out of context this week, but she should have known better. She is one of the most mean spirited voices in the conservative camp and we have no business defending her. She is not a voice to trumpet for the cause of Christ. Falwell said:

Ann, rest assured, there are millions of people in this nation who appreciate your willingness to step into hostile fire in order to point out the inconsistencies of the mainstream.  May you be bolstered by our prayers and well wishes.

Disgusting. Oh well, some things will never change I guess.

Link: Moral Majority - Defending Ann.

Incredible Video

Never seen anything like this. A battle between buffaloes, lions, and crocs over a baby buffalo...

My Desktop

 Just a quick post to show you the sweet dual screen desktop I found. Here is an actual pic of my desktop...

Go Dodgers!!!

Challenges to the Church III: Politics

Growing up in East Tennessee in a very politically conservative family, I didn't think we were to listen to, much less vote for, anyone not in the Republican party. I can remember sitting in front of the TV with my family during the Iran Contra hearings, thinking there was no way any of those men did a thing wrong. I'd watch that coverage a bit differently now. But at the time, Republicans were God's men, the good guys, and always looked out for us.

The main reason I thought I HAD to identify myself with only Republicans was because God was obviously on their side. Let me tell you what that meant to me and many I was close to. You'll see the challenge after reading this list.

Automatically any who supported or voted for a Democrat couldn't be a real Christian.

We were better than everyone else, more enlightened, and closer to God because we rode an Elephant and not a Donkey. 

Ronald Regan was functionally our Pope. (sometimes I think that Dubya is filling that role for evangelicals now)

War and aggression towards other nations was NOT to be questioned under any circumstance. We were on God's side after all.

Homosexuals were something less than human and their agenda would destroy us all.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

The biggest thing in all of this a puffed up pride. No matter where we affiliate ourselves politically, if we stop questioning and consider ourselves better than our opponents, we'll inevitably do damage to the Church. I believe that we need to be a people with high principles and we need to vote our conscious on them, but we can not blindly follow any party and call it God's own.

It is interesting in the coming election how a couple of contenders for the GOP nomination could really through Conservative Christian voters for a loop. What if Guiliani or Romney were to get the nod? All of our eggs were placed in that basket and now we may have to vote for a guy who supports abortion or a guy who is a practicing Mormon.

So how do I vote now? I've voted for candidates in both major parties and even a few independents in the last few elections. The first time I pushed the button for a democrat (state rep) I braced for a lighting bolt, wondered if I had just sold my soul to the devil, and shook for 15 minutes after. It was very traumatic.

I have purposely kept this short to encourage questions both for me and anyone else who may be reading. Feel free to drag a little more out of me on this.

I Told You She's a Geek Now

Here is my wife. Playing Super Paper Mario on the Wii with a laptop to look at walkthroughs and cheats. Wow. This is just pure crazy. The world has turned upside down.

The Big News

Many of you know that my wife, the beautiful Evette, used to blog. She really wrote some wonderful, though provoking stuff and we all miss it. But, she was working, going to school and raising 4 children with me and had to quit.

Well.....

I have convinced her to guest blog here with me at "Hey Ya Know What". I have her set up with her own account to post here and she should be starting soon. I think she has many important things to say and I'd be a bad husband if I didn't encourage her to get those things out there.

I'm very excited about getting her back in the game. I may have her sprinkle a few of her "greatest hits" from the old blog in here from time to time.

So watch for her posts and lets give her a big welcome back!!!

Huge Announcement About My Blog...

Is coming tonight or tomorrow. It's gonna be great!!!

Let the suspense commence.

Hot Date

No kids tonight.

Dinner out with my Wife.

Maybe a movie, who knows.

Did I mention no kids?

Yay ME.

Rewards of Ministry

I forgot to mention in my last post that one of the costs is ENERGY. I was worn out Tuesday night after a "counseling session" with someone we are trying to help.

But enough of that. In reaching out to this person and giving of ourselves, Evette and I are noticing some rewards.

Closeness to God - You can really feel God right there with you when you are following his words and will. He truly will not give you more than you can bear and he will not take off and leave once he has you in the middle of something. He stays near, helps with the words you need to speak and gives you the strength to go on when it looks hopeless and it would be easier to just give up.

Closeness in our Relationship - To do ministry with my wife is awesome. In the talking, planning, scheming and all that goes along with helping another, we add a different level to our marriage. I love her all the more watching her work with someone and counsel them.  It makes me very proud. We get to hear each other say some pretty nice stuff about the other in the midst of this too.

Encouragement - It never fails that in the midst of some tough work, God comes through with encouragement from many sources and in many different ways. Monday I was encouraged by my pastor and it helped on Tuesday night. Wednesday I was encouraged by a boss at work on the work I am doing with our company and it helped me with the tiredness from the previous night. God's really does know what he's doing.

There are a so many more but those are the ones I have noticed the most this week.

I hope sometime to tell you exactly what is going on with us and our ministry to a young single mom of four kids. I'll have Evette sit down and help me with that. It's a sad, frustrating situation. But it's also a situation for us to step up and live out the instructions Jesus gave us in his sermon on the mount. It sure is hard cashing all those checks you write with mouth (or fingers as it were if you are a blogger).

Costs of Ministry

Evette and I are learning what ministry in the lives of others can cost. I really hesitate to even talk about it because I don't want anyone to get the idea that we are tooting our own horn. We are simply doing what we feel God has led us to do.

We are finding out that doing the will of God and helping folks not as fortunate as we are is costly.

I was talking to my pastor yesterday and he made a statement that is so true. Lots of folks go to extremes on the continuum of how we help the poor. We can go too far right and have an almost Darwinian-survival-of-the-fittest-pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-boot-straps kind of attitude. Or, we can go ultra liberal and give and give and give with no expectations from those we are giving to. The truth is, its really somewhere in the middle.

So what costs have we run into?

Time - If you are truly going to help others and try to both help and speak truth into their lives, you will burn a good deal of your time. This happens both in physically ministering and preparing/thinking/praying about how to do it.

Money - In our current situation, we haven't gone overboard but have spent a considerable amount of money to help.

Comfort - We have lost a good deal of personal comfort in our current ministry situation.

Family time - I hate to even speak of this one because it feels so ugly. But God does in fact take time away from our family to help. I imagine some situations allow a family effort, but the one we are involved in does not at this time.

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I can think of now. In spite of this, because it IS a God thing, it has been such a blessing. So, tomorrow, I will talk rewards. I don't begrudge any of these costs.

What's the point of this post? It's kinda crazy for me to tell anyone what to expect, but that's really it. I am putting it out there to say "hey, it ain't glamorous". I know plenty of you who read, both those I know well and those I do not, are involved in ministering to the "least of these" or will be in the future. So it's good to talk it out with you.

What are your experiences?