Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Marriage Minute - Treadmill Warnings

Well, we had short announcements this week, so I’ll post a “classic” marriage minute. I mean classic in the sense that it’s old rather than the sense that this post will endure the test of time.  Here’s the treadmill warning one:

I don’t mind exercise. I really don’t. Give me a nice evening with a cool breeze, and I’m happy to go running. What I don’t like is running on a treadmill. It’s miserable, but this has been a pretty hot summer. Consequently, I found myself standing over a treadmill in the gym near my house one Saturday. I don’t typically read the warning sign on the treadmill; but this time, it caught my eye. It started off with “Consult your physician before using this equipment.” Not just before the first time you use the equipment. Every time you set foot on the treadmill, you should check with your doctor first. I think our health insurance co-pay just went up to $30 or $40 per doctor’s visit; so my first thought was that if I took this warning seriously, I couldn’t afford to get in shape.

That wasn’t the end of the warning though. No. It was just starting to get good.
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Monday, August 30, 2010

Stormy Seas

I was reading in Chapter 4 of Mark this morning and at the very end of the chapter is Mark's account of Jesus calming the stormy seas.  We've all heard this story many times but I think there is a very important piece that we tend to skip over that can actually reveal a lot about how we address problems in our own lives.

The disciples are out in a boat on the sea and Jesus is sleeping in the stern.  The storm has reached max force.  The account says "there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up."  We all know what happens next:  the disciples go wake up Jesus, he comes out on the deck and says to the wind and the waves, "Hush, be still" and everything calms down.

Pretty cool, right?
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Sunday, August 29, 2010

QuickSilver

Following Ty's example this is a post from another blog, thought someone might enjoy taking a look.  To put this in context it was part of a study I was doing over the life of David.
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Until the 20th century one of the most popular cure-all's was something known as quicksilver. Quicksilver was said to be the cure for indigestion, syphilis, hair loss and old age. It was a fantastic medicine, it would do it all. The problem with quicksilver was that it didn't do all these things. It does not cure anything, and as a bonus it is highly poisonous. Quicksilver is a really cool name for the element Mercury. Mercury poisoning causes "paralysis, insanity, loss of motor control and death." During the better part of three or four centuries people would take quicksilver with the effect of getting worse and not better.

So the question is how did mercury get a reputation as a cure all when it poisoned? The answer seems to be that mercury looked kind of magical, its a metal that stays liquid at room temperature. It was a case where it looked magical, it looked like a medicine. There was certainly no empirical proof that mercury lived up to its reputation, in fact it was quite the opposite. It was easy, it did everything, it was supposed to cure everything you could possibly ever have, take it, its easy, it will solve the problem.

Kingship, the idea of giving complete control to one man, setting him up as absolute authority seems like a disastrous and idiotic idea to us modern democratic folk. So when I read through Samuel and reach the 8th chapter I have a hard time comprehending the request "give us a king". It seems odd to have a group of people asking to be relieved of their money, their children, the best of their property, and their right to complain or stop any of this from happening. This is exactly what the people of Israel are asking for, they are asking for someone to come in, steal, kidnap, rape, murder, and to do it with the full weight of the law. What??!!??
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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Guilty by Reason of Stupidity

This is a repost from my own personal blog (original link in case you're interested).  I promise I'm not trying to plug my own blog--I just really didn't want to retype all of this.  Leave your comments and let me know what you think.


Guilty by Reason of Stupidity

There's a major Catch-22 when it comes to the world's perception of Christianity. I've seen it so much lately and it's got me thinking. The catch goes something like this: if a Christian lives life guided by the Holy Spirit, he or she will act in such a way that causes non-Christians to label him or her a legalist. However, if that Christian (or so-called-Christian as the case may be) lives life attempting to do good deeds to convince God of his or her righteousness, such person truly is a legalist and also likely a huge hypocrite. A person who lives life trying to convince God of a righteousness that simply is not there is also likely to judge others who are also failing miserably at convincing God of their righteousness. So, the Catch 22 is either be a legalist or be labeled a legalist.

So, what do we do?  The answer hinges on who we, as Christians, are ultimately subject to and controlled by:  God and his grace, or people and their perceptions (and inherent lack of grace).  For the true Christian, the answer should be obvious.  Those of us who understand the doctrine of total depravity know and understand that there is no amount of "goodness" we can accomplish to convince God of our righteousness.  We also understand how ridiculous it is to judge the actions of others as either righteous or unrighteous and try to brow beat or guilt-trip others into being more righteous.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

O Glorious Day!

Our study this past Sunday took us right to the end of First Peter and we covered, in depth, chapter 5, verses 10 & 11.

10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion foreverand ever. Amen.
We read so much of what Jesus' disciples wrote (Peter, being one of them), that it's naturally within us to desire to be one of his disciples, too! We read, on Sunday, through Jesus' charge to the disciples from Matthew 10. Jesus kicked his ministry into gear with a vibrant speech to the twelve men who, at that point, knew nothing of what it meant to give all they had. Jesus laid it all out, beginning with "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!"
  • Freely you received, freely give
  • Do not acquire
  • Share, share, share the Good News
  • ...and much, much more!

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Marriage Minute - A Cup of Coffee

How would you describe the cup of your life this week? Pretty full? What was this week’s cup full of? Was it work stuff? Family stuff? School stuff? Long to-do lists? In our good moments, we think of these things as important responsibilities. However in my life, there are times when they’re just the stuff that’s stressing me out. The Bible talks about our full cups in the Lord’s prayer.

Take a look at Psalm 23:5 (NIV) “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” The Psalmist tells us what the cup of our Christian life should be overflowing with…it’s good stuff. Blessings. Something nice to wash down that meal we’re eating with our enemies watching on with some well-founded jealousy. That’s life isn’t it? The stuff God blesses us with are those responsibilities that sometimes stress us out…our job (thank you for my job, Jesus), our spouses (thank you for Sandy, Jesus), our kiddos (thank you for Allison and Madeline, Jesus). Fill in your own blank here. They’re our blessings from God, and they’re our responsibility, and they fill up our cups, and they stress us out...all at the same time.
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Monday, August 16, 2010

Houston Project - 3rd Ward

We're a little behind on posting!  Our last big event happened at the beginning of July.  High Altitude showed up to Houston's 3rd Ward to serve at Houston Project.  The site was Generation One - a ministry that reaches out to neighborhood kids through discipleship, mentoring and education.

We had members helping with registration, food team, prayer team, teaching VBS, evangelism, basketball, construction and more!  It was a great opportunity and honor to serve these kids in the name of Jesus. 

Here are some pictures from the week:

David, Lisa and Caleb working at registration.

We always had lots of extra helpers!

Rachel hung out and played games with the kids while they waited for dinner.

Jaclyn serving dinner - pizza and Girl Scout Cookies on the last night!

Melissa hanging with the kids eating dinner.

Damen and Christen were the prayer team.


Worship time inside Generation One.

Kevin helping with VBS.

Melissa helping with one of the groups.

Joel and Kim entertained the kids with balloons!




It was super hot!!  But snow cones always help!

We had a few more people from High Altitude at the other site for older kids and out in the community with construction.  It was a great week - exhausting, but rewarding.  We hope to see even more people from HA out there next year!
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