Evangelical Atheism

Why are we seeing news stories of anti-Christian, pro-atheist billboards, and 100,000 people downloading certificates of de-baptism?

What is Communication

I had an interesting day at church today.
One of the things that I don’t like as much about being in church ministry is that I go to the same church every single Sunday. Not that I want to be one of those people who church-hop, in any way. But I would occasionally like the freedom to go elsewhere when I have a friend invite me,

10 Commandments of Cell Phones

I wrote this a long time ago, but I thought it bears repeating.

The 10 Commandments of Cell Phones:

Ok, I know that we in America really value our independance, our sense of automatic rights, and our fast consumer lifestyle.  Cell phones have in one sense made all of that, and our lives in genral, a whole lot easier.  In other ways they have actually made life more difficult.  Of course, there is the fact that now with a cell phone everyone thinks that they have automatic access to you.  Also, there is the constant ringing and chatting and texting that surrounds us constantly.  There is also no peace that normally comes with going “incommunicato” and having alone time. Read the rest of this entry »

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2009 In Preview

Yeah, yeah…so I know that we are already nearing the end of the first quarter of 2009.  I am very late with my predictions this year.  Better late than never, right?  Well, frankly I have just been really busy with all of the stuff I’ve got to do, and this just fell to the back burner.  Having said that, I don’t actually usually do these until the end of January to mid-February.  I promise not to evaluate myself positively at the end of the year based on anything that has already happened as of this writing.  Well, here goes. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Letter to a High Schooler Who Moved Away

This is an excerpt from an email that I sent in response to a message from a teenager who moved away.  I just thought it opened a little window into my world.  Sorry it is long.

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Dear _____,

There are challenges wherever you go.  The difficulty of your situation is that a person’s tendency is to compare the best of one thing with the worst of the other.  That is why comparing ourselves to others is so bad.  We only see their best that they present to the world, compared to the things we see as wrong within ourselves.  The same thing happens with places.  There is good in every place.  People are people.  I miss the surf of Southern California.  I miss the mountains.  I miss driving on freeways where other drivers actually know the rules of the road. Read the rest of this entry »

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What God is Doing

I have been reading through the gospels in the last few days.  I am ending Luke tomorrow.

What stikes me lately is God’s call on us through Christ to not strive to be number 1.  That is a big relief on one hand, because I am usually not numero uno of anything.  I am not “the steller at______ guy.”  I am the “middle of the pack guy.”  On the other hand, it is disturbing.  I have this great ambition to do great things.  I want to be number one.  I want to be the guy that everyone looks up to.  I want to be the one whom people put on the pedastal and say “be like him.”  But over and over again in the gospels Jesus is telling us not to try to be that.  I don’t think that this ambition is always evil.  Most of my ambitions are God kind of stuff.  I know that Jesus doesn’t decry excellence.  When you get right down to it, Jesus is not telling us we can’t be number one, or even that it isn’t good to try to be the best.  It is how we use that status that counts.  But at the same time, he knows that it seldom plays itself out that way.  Number one usually becomes an idol.  We love to make idols.  That has got to be part of why Jesus said the whole rich man/camel through the needle comment. We are rich.  I am rich.  God is working this out in me.

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A Great Quote

I just heard this tonight. I’m not sure who the originator was:
“Prophecy is really just a call to supplication.”

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A Piece From Some of My Personal Correspondence

The following is part of an email conversation that I had recently.  I felt it really got to the heart of some of my current political/spiritual thinking.

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I completely agree with the giant problem of fiscal irresponsibility, the redefining of conservatism as of late, especially in regard to fiscal issues, and even identification as more of a libertarian (to a degree).  Actually, on the last one, more appropriately, I would be a true conservative Republican.  I don’t like some of the libertarian social stances.  I know that there is a big difference between having the government decide what I am allowed to do, and me actually doing that.  Governments always tend to get more and more restrictive over time.  After all, when was the last time you heard of the government repealing a law in order to give more freedom. Read the rest of this entry »

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My 2008 Predictions Analyzed

Every year I create a list of educated guesses as to what the next year holds. Every year I come up with my best attempt at a fair analysis of my guesses for the previous year.  This is my analysis that I posted at my WordPress blog of 2008’s predictions.

Now that 2008 is well done with, we can look back and see how well I did.  I try every year to be fair with this.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  I will give myself a percentage rating on each.  I have shifted the original colors to straight black and my rating of each to red.  I have not changed any of the content from the original posting.   However, I was appalled at my usually impeccable spelling/grammar.  I have improved those errors. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ryan Preaches at Grace Vineyard

Sunday morning at 10:00 AM
Grace Vineyard
611 109th St.
Arlington, TX  76011

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