Jesusgreek

This month has for the most part has gone by in a blur. Several times I've wanted to blog about various events in the day-to-day life of this Jesusgreek but never had the time. So today during a much needed sabbath I'm going to try my best to recall a few random hindsight's... "No country for old men" and "3:10 to Yuma" were two of the best movies I've seen in a long time. "Twilight" was one of the worst. Beth swears the books are better but the movie may have done to much harm for me to ever give them a chance. My indoor soccer team at the Y may have went 0-8 this season but I met a lot of very cool folks and had more fun losing then I have had before. I've figured out I'm destined to be a loser the rest of my life. I've never played on a single winning team. I know nothing about the thrill of victory but I can sure tell you a lot about the agony of defeat. I finally got back on my bike for a trip around Salem Lake. I forgot ho...

Last week at our Wednesday night youth bible study, I asked the students to write down one question that they have always wanted the answer to or something they may be dealing with right now. Once everyone had passed in their questions I mixed them up and randomly started doing my best to attempt to answer them. I'm not sure what I expected but what I got were deep, heart felt, thought provoking questions that most adults are afraid to ask. Here are a few we dealt with: Why does divorce have to be so difficult? Is the bible true? Why do people care for each other at all? How do you give up control? Where is heaven? Where is hell? How do you deal with difficult sin in your life? How do I stop feeling lonely? It took 2 weeks to go through all the questions and when were done it was obvious the students wanted more of their questions answered. So next week they'll turn in more questions and we'll do it all over. How much better off would adults be if they were given the opport...

If I'm nothing else I know I'm at least an "awkward conversation" magnet. No matter where I am complete strangers have this uncanny knack for telling me way more very awkward information then I care to know. This past Sunday morning on my way to church was no exception. The following was told to me by a very grumpy 80+ year old man while standing in line at Food Lion while he was buying cigarettes... Old man: "Everyday it seems I'm in here buying these @#$& cigarettes for my wife. She goes through a box in three days. That's $25 every three @#$& days! And If I get the wrong ones she yells at me to take them back and I tell her to take them back her own @#$& self! Me: You don't say? Old man: I guess I'd divorce her if I weren't so old. Me: Yep Old man: You know why I keep buying them for her? Me: Nope Old man: I keep buying them 'cause I'm hoping they'll hurry up and kill her. Me: (speechless)

I ran across a list of the upcoming movies of 2009 and more then a few caught my eye. Here's a list of some that I'll try my best to get out and see: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1st) Angels and Deamons (May 15th) Land of the Lost (June 5th) Year One (June 19th) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (July 1st) Public Enemies (July 1st) Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (July 17th) G.I. Joe (Aug. 7th) Inglorious Basterds (Aug. 21st) Where the Wild Things Are (Oct. 16th) A Christmas Carol (Nov. 6th)

'Sex' Sermons Cause Stir in Rural Alabama By JAY REEVES, AP HOPE, Ala. It's one thing for a church in a big city like Dallas or Atlanta to tackle the ticklish topic of sex. It blends in with the urban scene. It's another thing when a small-town congregation puts up billboards with the phrase "Great sex: God's way" on rural highways to promote a sermon series. You can't even legally buy beer in Cullman County, and a preacher is talking about S-E-X on Sunday morning? Daystar Church, whose congregation has grown dramatically under pastor Jerry Lawson, has run up against the sensibilities of a conservative north Alabama community with a monthlong focus on sex. Sex just isn't an appropriate topic for church, some say, and others are upset over the church's signs, which advertise the sermon series and accompanying Web site. "It's really stirred up the people here," said Good Hope town clerk Joann Jones. Evangelist Roland Belew, a self-d...

So You Wanna Be A Rock Star by Keith Green For as long as be could remember, Keith Green's greatest dream was to be a musical success. After be gave his life to Jesus, however, he felt the need to surrender those dreams and aspirations by laying down his music...perhaps never to perform publicly again. Ironically, when sometime later he felt God release him to pick up his music again, he soon had a recording contract and his first album soared straight to the top of the Contemporary Christian Music charts. The following message was birthed out of Keith's encounters with those who approached him, usually after a concert, to ask how they too could "make it big" in Christian music. Today, so many people ask me if I can tell them how they can start or enter into a music ministry. At concerts I get countless questions about this, and I also get lots of letters and even some long-distance phone calls from many people who feel they are only "called" into the mu...

I often wonder where some of our more popular phrases come from and who originally made the phrase so popular. Well now I know. I ran across a great site today called "Phrase Finder". It has just about every phrase you can imagine listed with it's definition and origin. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html

Here is a great article form Christianity Today... The Depression Epidemic Why we're more down than ever—and the crucial role churches play in healing. Dan G. Blazer 3/06/2009 The church is God's hospital. It has always been full of people on the mend. Jesus himself made a point of inviting the lame, the blind, and the possessed to be healed and to accompany him in his ministry, an invitation often spurned by those who thought they were fine as is. We should not be surprised, then, that the depressed populate not only secular hospitals and clinics, but our churches as well. Yet depression remains both familiar and mysterious to pastors and lay church leaders, not to mention to those who share a pew with depressed persons. Virtually everyone has experienced a "down" day, often for no clear reason. We might say we "woke up on the wrong side of the bed," are "out of sorts," or just "in a funk." Such polite references are commonplace in Amer...