Hiatus

As I have done in the past, I am feeling led, once again, to take a break from Beside the Point.

You may want to check from time to time--if there is a major event of some kind that virtually demands comment here by me, I'll do it, but I don't expect that I'll be doing daily postings through the rest of this calendar year, at least.

In the meantime, I suggest reading more of the Bible, particularly the New Testament.:)

What Are Our Children Being Trained to Become?

Warning: This is extremely violent and cartoon-graphic.

This is a video 'game', Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Airport Mission. Quite frankly, you get the idea in the first 45 seconds.

So, the question is this: what are our children being programmed for by the enemy of their souls?

Another Midweek Funny...or Not

Apparently "Jesus Christ" was kicked out of the jury pool in Birmingham, AL.

Which brings up the question--since none of us would probably be crazy enough to change our name to "Jesus Christ," but aren't we all supposed to be Christians, that is 'little Christs'? This lady has just taken the Christian bumper sticker to the nth degree, hasn't she?

Midweek Funny: Progress is Overrated, Episode 3

The last two Wednesday posts (Episode 1 and Episode 2) are all I have to say by way of extra commentary. Enjoy!:)

When Would You Leave America?

On a recent Focus on the Family broadcast, James Dobson stated that he and Shirley might consider leaving America and living in "exile" if the proposed health care reform measure were to include taxpayer-supported abortions.

Here is a People for the American Way link that includes the 57 second sound clip. I don't know to cut and paste the sound clip onto this Blogger platform.

Here's the question of the day: What, if anything, would cause you to ever consider leaving the United States and permanently relocating elsewhere in the world?

Thanks for the heads up, Kevin.

The Lost Years of Jesus

The Bible tells us virtually nothing of what Jesus did between ages 12 and 30.

My best guess is that he cared for the family as a carpenter (see Mark 6:3) after the possible death of Joseph, but others have speculated many other things, including Him being a world traveler.

Here is a BBC article that tries to give credence to the pretty wild theory that Jesus might have visited England.

Has anyone ever come across anything more credible than this?

Weekend Perspiration: Keith Olbermann, Sarah Palin and the Assemblies of God

Actually, I'm kinda proud that I've been blogging for almost 4 years regarding the intersection of pentecostal/evangelical spirituality and current events and haven't yet mentioned the name, Keith Olbermann.

Well, I'm holding my nose (which may be more than some of you are willing to do), but I'm sharing this segment on the twisted and inaccurate (she hasn't attended an Assemblies of God congregation for quite awhile) analysis of Sarah Palin's view of Israel and the End Times, to ask this:

If you were actually having a conversation with, say, a political liberal and they brought up the impact of End Times theology with politics, what would you say?

Be nice.:)

What's the Missing Word Here?

I truly don't want to be unfair (like the lame stream media), but after watching this CBN (!) news clip of the Sarah Palin book tour, I noticed a missing word. So, I followed my curiousity and went to the Amazon search engine of her book.

First, the clip...



Now, as I listened to what she said about God (and strongly so), I thought, hmm, I'm not hearing "Jesus" or "Christ." As long-time readers know, I'm hypersensitive to this because I believe America is essentially unitarian universalist.

So, I went to the Amazon page that allows limited searching of some of their books. In "Going Rogue," I found 42 references to "God" (there may be more than that in unsearched portions of the book), 0 references to "Christ," and the following references to "Jesus":

"...what I really wanted to do was scream bloody murder and beg for drugs. Blessed Mother of Jesus, I finally got them." (page 52)

"So I followed his advice. I had my come-to-Jesus meeting with legislators. They didn't quite want to hear it." (page 144)

"...and Track had a Jesus fish inked into his skin..." (page 169)

Now, there may be more, but I did check the end of the book and she encourages her readers to turn their life "over to God." What does that mean to most people?

Again, I hesitate to post this, because most readers are going to see this as me piling on the attacks Sarah Palin has endured, but I'm trying to get at a deeper point here. It is this:

Supposing Sarah loves Jesus with all her heart and had virtual freedom to write what she wanted (she had Lynn Vincent, an evangelical writer for World magazine assist her), why would she feel that she can't openly talk about her personal relationship with Jesus? What is so unAmerican about that? Or is it unAmerican?

Actually, I'm afraid it is. God, yes. Jesus, not so much.

The Funny Side of Thanksgiving

Very cute and funny. Thanks, Tom!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I trust you all are having/have had a great Thanksgiving Day. There is so much to be thankful for, as this wonderful, simple link reminds us.

(Caution: if you only want light, encouraging stuff today, stop here.)

We are celebrating with family and guests. This year we have two vegetarians joining us (no, I'm not one), who I'm afraid might agree with the following PETA commericial, which was banned by NBC (yes, it has to be way too liberal to be banned by NBC!).

So, if you are reading this blog rather than spending time with family, friends or shut-ins, and you have a very strong stomach (or a streak of masichism), here it is...



Now, my serious question is this... How often does reading this blog make you feel like the people at the table? Frankly, I'm amazed how many people in State College want the kid that told them in grade school that there was no Santa Claus to be their pastor.:)

Oh, and did I mention that the Pilgrims/Puritans banned Christmas?

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Midweek Funny: Progress is Overrated, Episode 2

Since a few weeks ago I said that while I love the words conservative and liberal (both are solid biblical concepts), I utterly despise the term "progressive," which is far more Hegelian than it is biblical (except in the areas of limited progressive revelation and sanctification).

It's not that I deny that there is ever any progress on any front--we make progress in some areas and lose ground in others. This is especially true in the denomination in which I was raised, the Assemblies of God.

"Progressives" often know what they've left behind, but they rarely seem to know what their goal/destination is. Well, knowing your departure point but not your destination seems to me to be more descriptive of a runaway than a visionary.

For Christians, the goal should be clear, I think. Return to the ministry of Jesus and the Book of Acts as our norm. We are restorationists, not progressives!

So, in the spirit of this, I started a series of hilarious "anti-progressive" videos last Wednesday, which tends to undermine my entire argument:). Nevertheless, here's the second installment.

The Chip

Of course, we knew this was coming. It's only logical, but the real question is this: Does it in some way fulfill biblical prophecy?

Hey, I grew up on this stuff, but I think I'm as much concerned about the backlash of indifference to the Late Great Planet Earth/Y2K/Gulf War prophetic hype as I am to the concern of being overly fearmongering.

So, what do you think? Is this guy crazy? Do articles like this concern you at all? Are you looking up for our redemption?

Here was a video/CNN report on the same subject three years ago.



So, where will be three years from now? Oh, I forgot...2012.:))))

Putting Preachers in Their Place

Here is another video from Mark Driscoll. I was unaware of this until a pastor emailed me this last week. Thanks, George.

It comes from early 2008, is a message to pastors, and is a strong defense of a somewhat traditional view of Church, particularly as it deals with the proclamation of the Word. Toward the end, Mark takes on George Barna (and the house church movement) as well as his frequent target, the Emergent Movement.

It's not a short message, but if anyone is able to listen to this while you are multitasking, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Weekend Inspiration: Title or Testimony

I found this inspiring video of Tony Campolo over at Jeff Leake's blog not too long ago. The great part is the last half.

The Bumperstickers

I'm not sure, but it seems likely that the relatively new bumper sticker above (Psalm 109:8) is a response to the bumper sticker below (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

So, if one of your Christian friends had either of these on their car, what would you say? And if we have to choose which covenant to live out of (Old or New), which would it be? Both?

You'll notice that I included verse 9 in the link above to Psalm 109:8. Is the context relevant?
On a related note, I, for one, am glad that the Presidential Prayer Team has been non-partisan enough to continue their work after the Presidential transition.