It most be the cheese that makes us crazy.

A Wisconsin man stole bras and pants, not to mention other things.

Is it the cheese that causes Wisconsin to produce freaks like this.

Baggy Pants lands man in jail.

Caught with his pants down.

About freakin’ time, I am so sick of seeing your raggedy a–es hanging out of your pants.  If you have to dedicate one hand to holding up your pants you need a belt.  It’s doesn’t look good, it looks slovenly.  You look like you can’t dress yourself.  Young Punk!!!

Also if you are going to insist on your boxers showing please wear something that is going to make me laugh, or in rich my life in some way, raggedy gray ash boxers with a hole in one cheek.

A Cathedral to open Wine Bars

God told me to drink it.

http://newslite.tv/blog/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=cathedral+wine

I kind of think this is cool.  I have said for a while that if you are going to evangelize you need to go to the folks you want to evangelize, or you need to come up with a compelling reason for them to come to you.  Drinking fits the bill for me.  I’m so ready to witness.

My Wife and I met 10 years ago right here.

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My Wife and I met here on September 2, 1998.  We met at an ice cream social the night before classes started.  We knew we were meant to be because we both were having Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream and to this day we have Chocolate Chip Mint ice cream to celebrate.

Why do radio people have egos?

This is a question I have asked ever since I started going to school for radio.  The answer I got in school was that you had to have an ego to survive.  You have to think people care about what you have to say.  I don’t know that, that was ever a satisfactory explanation for me but today I learned something about ego.

I have been out of school for a few years now and last October got my first full-time job in radio.  To say this is a full-time job is an understatement.  I am the only Air Personality at this location.  I pretty much am responsible for about 80% of what happens on air.  Needless to say when something goes wrong I have to deal with it and when things need changing I have to deal with that as well.

Recently one of our programs was canceled.  I contacted the powers that be in the company to figure out what to do to fill that time.  I received no answer.  I preceded to make a judgment call, which apparently was the wrong call.  I was about to go into the studio to do my afternoon show and felt a pit in my stomach.  You know how it is you realize you made a bad call and need to fix it and felt bad about it.  I kicked off my show and realized my energy was lacking and I just felt crappy about this decision.  I then decided to be confident that it wasn’t a mistake it was just a bad situation and I did with it what I could to make the situation better.

This whole thing made me realize something.  With so much on my shoulders I have to careless about what people think sometimes and have to exercise my ego as a survival mechanism.  Now I’m not claiming that it’s acceptable to snub listeners, and act like a jerk, but you have to have that ‘ok I’m not going to give a crap about what they think’ attitude sometimes.  Again you have to be friendly and do everything to accommadate the listeners as you can.  It’s just when you can’t please everyone you have to have a thick skin.  I’m working on it.

Religious Arguements

It’s amazing to me how good God is.  I’m a guy who just wants to understand everything about Him and the world we live in, I don’t think that’s to much to ask.  I recently started praying for understanding again, but I realized that before when I would pray for it I would be expecting Him to agree with me, but now I just want to get it, whatever it is.

I have had salvation and spiritual gifts on my mind lately.  I want desperately to find the answer to the eternal security question.  How do we have an assurance of salvation.  There are typically two prevailing thoughts on the subject.  The first is one I grew up believing, that you were once saved always saved.  The other is that you could lose your salvation.  Now I don’t support the idea that God is an evil dictator just waiting for you to mess up then boom your salvation is gone.  I actually believe that if you can lose your salvation you would have to make a conscience decision to release yourself from God.

I think the more likely explanation is that you are once saved always saved.

I have agonized over this because there is so much scripture to support both sides of the argument.  I think first you have to define salvation.  I am not sure I can lay out an infallible explanation, but salvation is faith.  In the Bible there is only one thing that is require to be saved and that’s faith.  Faith is believing that Jesus came to earth and was born of a virgin and he died on the cross and was resurrected on the third day.  Thus saving us from our sin.  If you believed that your saved.  Where I think this gets sticky is when we talk about the maturing of our faith and salvation.  There’s a process that includes: repentance, sanctification, and several other steps.  A lot of the verses that deal with losing something are usually talking about losing sanctification or other steps in that growing process.  But if one loses faith he never really had true faith.  That’s the best I can do to explain this concept.  See faith although it is belief it transcends belief.

I also questioned the spiritual gifts commonly referred to as the sign gifts: healing, prophecy, tongues, etc.  I do believe they are for today as they have been for all ages.  There are two questions I ask you to contemplate when dealing with these gifts.  Why does God exercise these gifts and is there a difference between a healer and healing, or plug in your favorite gift.

The first question of why God exercises these gifts, I think the answer is to show us His glory.  There may be other reasons but I think it really boils down to God wants us to see His glory.  I think this might be why we don’t see the gifts as much in the US.  We live in a culture of ego.  All to often people are looked the person doing, instead of God.  In other cultures, especially 3rd world countries, they are more in tune with the spiritual realm.  So they are more accepting of the spiritual gifts.

The other question stems from defining the gifts.  When we look at the apostles they healed without question that the healing would happen and I don’t remember them ever not healing someone after praying for them.  Yet today people pray for folks and they get healed and don’t get healed.  So I think a healer is someone with the gift of healing that heals every time.  The rest of us don’t necessarily have the gift of healing but we pray for people and sometimes God heals them.  I use the example of healing because it’s the easiest illustration to understand.  This could pertain to many of the sign gifts.

I think that if we listen to God that we will reach a common understanding in today’s culture.  We must all continue to hear God and trust what the Bible says and abandon our preconceived notions.

I Love My Wife

Lately I find myself so incredibly in love with my Wife.  I’m sure there are multiple factors that have a hand in it.  Obviously, I love my Wife more then anything.  I have had lots of country songs about love and the death of someone close to you running through my head, it’s the down side of working at a country station.  Jaime also got a gym membership and is working out when I get home at night.  I’m so used to her being home when I get home I miss her not being there.  I have been reading my Bible more lately to and I think that can play into it as well.

It’s like I can’t say I love you enough.  We have reached a point in our marriage that we can stand up to just about anything that comes against.  I describe it as us being bulletproof.  I thank God that He has brought us so close.  He seems to be constantly redefining love for us.  Just when you think it can’t get any deeper it does.  The more I love her, the more I can’t fathom what love is.

Learning of my inner self.

I am most definitely on a journey, spiritually I mean.  It’s interesting that you can think you have everything figured out then someone or thing changes it all.

A little background about me might be in order.  I grow up in a conservative fundamentalist church in Fond du Lac, WI.  I think one of the dangers growing up in a church is that you just accept things your taught, you don’t learn to challenge things.  So, when I was 18 I met a man who has been my best friend ever since.  He taught me so much about the Bible and spirituality.  Something I never was really introduced to growing up.  The ability to reach out and touch God.  I have been down a road that has taught me so much since then.  I spent a great many years in the pentecostal church, and from time to time even a charismatic church or two.  I do believe strongly that God is moving and active today like he was in the early church.  I’ve seen and personally experience God, I was even healed of my asthma about 8 years ago.  So no one can talk me out of that.

When My Wife and I moved to Portage, WI recently for my job I decided not to go to a pentecostal church.  I felt I needed to stretch myself a lot.  I found a church that I believed was ordained for me to go to.  I have for years looked for a church that wasn’t fluffy and sweet, but I church that would dig into scripture and teach me not help my patch my needs with a pretty spiritual band-aid.  I really desired depth.  God is so much more then some guy we go to so we can feel good about ourselves.  I’m starting to understand a lot of the things I was confused about before.

I have to admit I was wrong about some stuff.

I at least think I may have been wrong about some of it.  I still have a lot to study.  The thing that is making it the hardest is that I’m trying to get over this issue I have about trusting people.  Frankly I don’t trust most people and especially church people.  I’m bruised and broken still over stuff that happened to me over the years.  It’s going to be hard for me to ask for help, but I now that is what I’m supposed to do.

Is it OK to be smart?

I run into the same thing in Christians over and over. Yes I believe that Christianity certainly tends to attrach a lot of the more simple minded among us. I believe that a majority of people in churches today fall into that category. Now I don’t believe all are, and I don’t tend to have those people in my inner circle. I’m not bigotted towards them I just don’t find myself attached to those people.

The problem is when I question a topic. Drinking, Gay Marriage, and all the other things that get Christian’s panties in a twist. It’s my desire to understand a topic and search the reason for our belief, not the quick Bible verse and cliche.

Non-believers question us and when we give them the pat answer then they ask a question and we stand there dumb founded.

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

I desire to understand the Bible and more so God so much that I am often put off by so many people when I do something so simple as question. I have prayed for wisdom, I have read and talked to people looking for a greater understanding. I don’t count this as my accomplishment, and Lord knows that I really don’t know anything compared to most.

I welcome prayer in this matter, especially because I find that in the pursuit of truth and wisdom is confusion. I pray through that on a regular basis.

Christians and Drinking

This post warrants a disclaimer: I do not intend to encourage or endorse the excessive drinking of alcohol. If you have a history with alcohol did not under any circumstance lead yourself into temptation. I will not have your blood on my hands.

I have had some good and not so good discussions with some people recently about whether or not Christians should be allowed to drink or not. Obviously if your breaking the law, you should not be drinking whether your a Christian or not.

I have a problem with the normal pat christian answers for stuff like this,”Oh, don’t drink it’s a gate way to alcoholism.” You know that is true for some folks, I don’t intend to argue that. My problem is as christians we owe a better answer then it’s bad. The Bible says it’s bad. You see how weak that is.

So I embarked on a short study of the subject. I do not claim to have done an exhaustive study. The study actually confused me more then answered my question. So with out trying to lose every fiber of respect people have for me here it is.

I do not believe that drinking in it self is a sin. There I said it. To me sin requires motive. “Why did I do this.” So the next question is: Is my motive for drinking pure? uh…um….I can’t really answer that. I mean sometimes I just want to drink a beer. Other times I have had a stressful day at work and want to unwind. Still other times I with people who are drinking and decide to join in.

I suppose I could list reasons for a while, but I think you’d rather me continue.

One has to point out that there is a flaw in the arguement. There are places were the drinking can take the place of God. And what do we call that class “idolatry,” very good.

I do think that there may be an appropriate time and place, but it can very easily be taken to an extreme. If you are in ministry you shouldn’t drink. I do agree with that. The Bible says that teachers will be held to a higher standard. You are examples to people far weaker then you, especially in youth ministry.

I think we also have to take into account that we have to seriously consider our justification for such things. I won’t blanket judge people, but I have noticed that sometimes people will talk about all their reasons why they should be allowed to do something and rarely think about the reasons they shouldn’t do them.

1Co 6:12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful.
“All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.

Obviously I didn’t talk about drunkenness because you can’t argue that it’s ever ok to be drunk. I do also feel like I am leaving this open a little, but I believe this is something that anyone struggling with this needs to pray about as I have been doing.

Here’s some verses that may help. Please study them for relavence, I will admit some could be taken out of context.

Isa 29:9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!

This verse centers mainly on being “drunk in the Spirit.”

Joh 2:9-11 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Ok the water into wine thing, there’s an arguement that states that this is actually grape juice and not fermented wine. I’m sorry to say this but that makes absolutely no sense if you take this in context with scripture. Every passage that talks about wine in the Bible refers to drunkenness of some sort. And why would the poor wine be left to after the good wine. Maybe because everyone was to drunk to care what it tasted like. And lastly, they didn’t have a perserving process for grape juice in those days so after a week of being stored it was already fermenting.

Luk 1:15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

This verse was the only verse I came across that said anything about no drinking at all. This instruction is given to John the Baptist’s parents. People still though he was crazy.

Rom 14:21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

This is a legitamate concern, you don’t want to cause another brother to fall into sin be cause of your behaviour.

Eph 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Again, a verse pointing out that don’t get drunk, but choose God

1Ti 3:8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

Here we see that deacons and I say any leader in a religious organization should not be drinking at least getting drunk, but it stands to reason that drinking should be avoided.

1Ti 5:23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

I was glad to find this last verse, because it’s often over looked that wine and even beer are in fact sources of nutrients. Yeah I’m claiming that they may be healthy in moderation.
You can make the argument that highly caffeinated beverages, and beverages high in sugar are more damaging to the body then alcohol in moderation.
Alcohol does cause liver damage and other health issues, but most if not all stem from over consumption. Caffeine in average doses has been linked to heart disease and attention defecit disorder. High fructose corn syrup (sugar) is a leading cause of diabetes in America where it has become our next great epidemic. The disturbing thing is, that this isn’t people drinking a 2-liter bottle a day, it’s people like you and I that have a can or two, or a 20 oz. bottle a day.

I can hear people already clamoring, “Your defending drinking.” In a way i probably am to some degree, but there is a bigger issue. If we say drinking is wrong because God says so, then you need to show me Biblically. If you make the case that it’s bad for you while your drinking your Pepsi then I say so is your Pepsi.

Hear me when I say this though, a strong case can be made that drinking although lawful,is not profitable. Like anything, you must must must hear God and I leave myself open to being wrong.