Today I asked a friend to pray for me to honestly live out the truths of grace in a tough environment. I know, I know. Be careful what you pray for because God will often answer in unexpected ways. I have been praying that prayer for myself recently and I have already had a couple of situational at bats. The first time I had a bloop hit. The second time I swung and missed with the fury of Casey at the Bat. Pitchers know that every hitter (except Vlad Guerrero) has a location in the strike zone where they are likely to miss. My weakness in the zone is being quick to judge and quick to distance from those who are not walking the walk. I love the way that my oft-quoted buddies at Truefaced put it. “When we view other Christians as sinners trying to be saints instead of saints who still sin then we give ourselves permission to judge
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Most of the responses to my humble ramblings are encouraging and gracious. Sometimes the spiritual hall monitors smack me with their “ruler of truth” if they disagree with my theology. They seem to love that a little too much. But some responses stick with me and pierce my heart with sadness. I received such an email recently. The writer only identified himself/herself as “collegestudent” and gave me no way to respond. So I hope the writer is still checking in now and then. This is a place where I hope you can find grace and encouragement. Here is the email I received. your blog has brought me some measure of… peace? hope? some kind of positive emotion amongst the intense turmoil i have found myself in lately. I’ve known may ex-Christians. most of their reasons for not attending church, though most still believe in God, consisted of basically “bad Christians”. I regret attending a…. religious… college. I’ve never been around
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On April 6th I added another year to the body odometer. Even if I could roll it back the gray and wrinkles would give away the deception. So I choose to embrace my journey to geezerhood. A line in a story from the Dallas Morning News today gave me some hope. People who have big smiles live longer. How about that! That statement was based on a study done by researchers at Wayne State University. According to the story by Shari Roan of the Los Angeles Times the study used information from the Baseball Register to look at photos of 230 players who debuted in professional baseball before 1950. The players’ photos were enlarged and a rating of their smile intensity was made (big smile, no smile, partial smile). The players’ smile ratings were compared with data from deaths that occurred 2006 and 2009. The researchers then corrected their analysis to account for other factors associated with longevity, such as body mass
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Last week my bride joined me on the drive from Dallas to Houston to cheer our Baylor Bears basketball team. Along the way I spotted a billboard near the exit for an adult video store. Drop the porn. Be reborn. Jesus I spent the next several miles thinking what a sad message that billboard proclaimed. It might cause some guilt and shame for those who do want to drop the porn. They might vow to try harder not to view such material but when they fall again they will be swallowed by guilt and hopelessness. The sign might cause anger for those who feel judged and condemned by the holier than thou types. It might open the door for Satan to stir up old hurts and shame contributed by self-righteous moralists who receive grace easily but cannot return it. What made me sad is that the billboard did not communicate the central message that Jesus suffered the Cross to achieve. You
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I was saddened by the recent passing of actor Peter Graves. Who can forget his portrayal of the clueless Captain Oveur from the movie Airplane? Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9’er cleared for vector 324. Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence. Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What’s our vector, Victor? Tower voice: Tower’s radio clearance, over! Captain Oveur: That’s Clarence Oveur. Over. Tower voice: Over. Captain Oveur: Roger. Roger Murdock: Huh? Tower voice: Roger, over! Roger Murdock: What? Captain Oveur: Huh? Victor Basta: Who? But my fond memories of Peter Graves centered on a show from the the mid-sixties called Mission Impossible. The show featured one of the best theme songs in TV history. I remember waiting anxiously each week for the crew’s new mission led by Grave’s character Jim Phelps. I remember imagining myself as an IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent. Becoming a secret agent was an unlikely career path out of Southern Ohio especially when I shifted the next day to imagining
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To be honest this may only be the biggest mistake that I am willing to write about with the knowledge that internet postings have the shelf life of plutonium. Years ago I wrote a book with the provocative title of “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People”. In that book I was incredibly candid about the damage that Christians often do in the name of Jesus. I expected to get roasted for my candor about my faith. For the most part that didn’t happen. Perhaps those who most needed to read it didn’t recognize their need to read it. A couple of fans of one heretical televangelist decided I was on the express train to hell. Who knew they could read? I took the most heat for a chapter where I cleverly (I thought) tried to use a political situation to make a spiritual point. Bad idea. I mean a bad idea along the lines of tank tops for middle-aged men and Spandex for almost everyone.
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(This article was posted earlier at theFish.com. I post an iPod Devotional every Monday at that site. Hope you will check them out) Real and honest relationships are messy. If you take the chance to be known and get hurt it is easy to build a wall. If you take another chance with the same result it is easy to build a fortress around your heart. And that is tragic. Sara Groves is a powerful lyricist with a great voice. That’s a very appealing combo plate. Her song entitled “It’s Me” is amazing. She captures the insecurities, old stories about our past and selfishness that leads to relationship meltdowns. And those moments seems to come out of nowhere. weather came and caught us off our guardwe were just laughing and feelin’ alrighthad such a great time just last nightwe walked into a minefield undetectedyou took a tone and I took offense anger replacing all common sense oh run for you lifeall tenderness
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