This song wasn’t written to glorify Christ, and I am sure that the two guys singing it aren’t Christians either, but the truth in the message is real. Just listen…
…so yeah, I hope you enjoyed!
July 21 2008 | Culture and Random | 1 Comment »
Hey everyone! Those of you who know anything about the area around Reno, Nevada, you know that Tornados are not a common part of life here. But today there was one, or two (I’m not sure, because the news story was confusing), that touched down around Fallon, Nevada, which is only about an hour from Reno. Total craziness…
If you want to read the official story from the Reno Gazette Journal click here…
July 21 2008 | Random and Reno | No Comments »
Hey everyone! This week I am going to take a week off from my blog. I am going to be at youth camp as a counselor with my youth group. So if you want take the time to go through some of the archives and see if you find anything interesting… Make some comments, and have some fun!
July 13 2008 | Random | No Comments »
This past Monday was what our church and several others call City Wide Prayer. It is when people from a handful of churches get together and pray corporately for the cities of Reno and Sparks. I really enjoy these meetings, but I will be honest. There always seems to be, without fail, something I notice that will amaze me.
This time I noticed something, and I am not quite sure what to think about it, but I will tell you what my gut reaction is. I saw a man, from my church, who brought in a cloth. This cloth looked somewhat like something that a Jewish Rabbi would wear. It was white, long, and had stripes and tassels on it. As he began to pray he took the cloth and placed it over his head, and he placed his hands in the front of it so it wouldn’t touch his face, and so that he would still have room to pray.
I remember my Pastor once talking about how when Jesus talks about prayer in Matthew chapter 6 he brings up this same exact situation. To be more exact it is actually Matthew 6:6:
6But when you pray,(A) go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.(B) And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
You see, some people will say that you are supposed to go into your prayer closet, and that is what Jesus was talking about. I will be honest. I don’t know if that is what he meant. It sounds to me like he was saying go pray in private, but it isn’t too specific into where or how. But what I found to be interesting is that this man must have felt so strongly that Jesus was saying that we must go and pray in our prayer closet that he went and found out how the Jews would enter into there own prayer closets. I found this on the internet which talks a little bit about what the “shawl” was for:
In biblical times, Jewish men wore this garment called a TALITH, TALIS, TALIT or PRAYER SHAWL all the time — not just at prayer. TALITH contains two Hebrew words; TAL meaning tent and ITH meaning little. Thus, you have LITTLE TENT. Each man had his own little tent…
Six million Jews could not fit into the tent of meeting that was set up in the Old Testament. Therefore, what was given to them was their own private sanctuary where they could meet with God. Each man had one! His Prayer Shawl or Talis. They would pull it up over their head, forming a tent, where they would begin to chant and sing their Hebrew songs, and call upon Elohim, Yaweh, Adonai. It was intimate, private, and set apart from anyone else — enabling them to totally focus upon God. This was their prayer closet! (http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-8/Prayer_Shawls_2.htm)
Why did this man feel that he had to imitate Jewish traditions to be biblical? I will be honest. I see this as very Pharisaical. By this man doing this and not one other person, I felt that he was trying to make a point, he was trying to say that he had the right way. And you know what is funny about right ways? There is usually only one. So that means that if he was right in doing that, then we were wrong by not, and that is not something that I believe. I believe that we pray correctly. We don’t need our prayer closet. We need the Holy Spirit! That is how we communicate and enter into the presence of God, not by some shammy or shall, or whatever you wanna call it.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to start ranting… But what do you think? Is it okay for people to feel that if they do things a certain way they will have more favor with God? Or is this even accurate? Is there another place in the Bible where it talks about this? Help me out!!!
July 09 2008 | Christianity and Jesus and Random and Rants | No Comments »
I hope that you all had a great 4th of July weekend, because I know I did. On Friday I went and hung out at my sister’s house. While I was there I swam, got sun burned, hung in a chair like a monkey, and had some awesome bbq. After that I went and watched the fireworks with some friends and family. Then the next day I went to Lake Davis with a special someone and a friend. I got totally sunburned, it sucks! But then we went back to that special someone’s grand parents house and had some great food, and then we all went and watched the fireworks over a pond in Graeagle. It was a blast!
July 07 2008 | Life Experiences and Random | No Comments »
So I don’t know if you have read my previous post yet, if you have to read it to know what I’m talking about. I told you that the iPhone is $599 for the 8gig, that is true, but only if you are going to do the no commitment plan. They are actually offering an early update option for those who are eligible for a price of $399 for the 8gig, it’s not as bad as I first thought, but I still am not sure how much I want to spend on it…
July 03 2008 | Culture and Random | No Comments »
I don’t enjoy ranting, and I don’t enjoy reading rants. I can’t help myself this time though. This morning I was browsing through some photos that a friend of mine posted on her Facebook, and even though they were of Yoga, I decided to check them out. I began reading the captions she had placed on each one, and umm…. This is what I found…
I honor that place in you where the whole universe resides. When I am in that place & you are in that place, we are ONE.
I hope that you see all the reasons here that this bugs me. First of all the universe does not recide within ourselves; we reside in the universe! I am not too sure why or how people find this to be more comforting than the truth that there is a sovereign God whom created all things in this universe, he created one universe, and it is the same for everybody. We don’t contain separate realities within ourselves.
I think it is hilarious how there are people who try to talk about Yoga as if it is harmless to your spiritually if you are Christian. I think the quote above should be enough. It goes completely against all things we believe as Christians, and it is completely derived from the spiritual side of Yoga…
So there is my rant, and I promise I won’t do that too often…
July 02 2008 | Christianity and Culture and Random and Rants | No Comments »
Hey all! I just wanted to remind you that it is possible to subscribe to this blog, just like any other blog. You can either sign up for a daily e-mail notification, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Either or would be appreciated. By subscribing you get the latest posts delivered to you instead of having to come and check on my website with the hope of seeing something new.
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June 27 2008 | Random | No Comments »
So I am newly getting to know this organization. They seem to be great. They want to help spread the message of Jesus Christ to the world, and what can be better than that? I am not sure there is anything… So I just recently noticed that I have been place in their blogroll, so please take the time to visit their website by clicking here. Thanks…
June 26 2008 | Jesus and Random | No Comments »
I have a question… How and what do you base who you vote for off of? As you know this year is the year of the election. And there is one problem for many people: There is not a perfect candidate. So when this happens how do you cast your vote? Do you choose to vote for the one whom may compromise on some issues that you feel are important? Or do you vote for the one who is more solid on these important issues but isn’t so cool?
Obama is a really cool guy, right? Well, if you said no you probably aren’t liberal, and are most likely over the age of fourty-five. I have one thing to say though. If you choose to vote for Obama because you feel that the other choice has less going for him, then you are saying that you agree with murder. I am pretty sure you know what I’m talking about. Obama agrees with abortion. He says that it is the woman’s choice to keep the child or to abort it. He even agrees with abortions that are in the last month of pregnancy. To me this is horrific, and I could never vote for someone who holds such views.
Yes, he may have a good plan, he may be charismatic, and no, he probably won’t have a heart attack within the next 4 years. But he will support the murders of possibly millions of unborn children, and that is something that I can’t morally support.
June 26 2008 | Christianity and Culture and Random | 1 Comment »
