about God...

     Do you want a more fulfilling life?  A life that is more meaningful and with a purpose?  Get in good with God by accepting what his son Jesus did for us on a cross.

about Christians...

     I will attempt to explain what a Christian is, and why so many come across like they do.   A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he gave his life in place of ours to save our souls from eternal hell and after that he came back to life and now lives in Heaven with God and is preparing Heaven for our future arrival.  Furthermore, a Christian tries to live a cleaner, more rewarding life by learning about Jesus and how he treated others and applying that knowledge to their lives.   The problem comes when they accept Jesus as their Savior but they never go to the next step of living a "Christ-like" life. They have accepted Jesus' sacrifice on a cross but have not applied his example to their lives. What you end up with is a person who lives his or her life feeling that he or she is "above" others. They do not learn to be humble, caring, giving, sacrificing, loving and stuff.

      Many people hate religion, not because they don't believe in God, but because some "Christian" told them they were going to hell, or was hypercritical.  If a person has accepted Jesus' gift of eternal life, he or she may be saved, but if they do not live a life that reminds others of Jesus, they are not a Christian.

     I believe that most Christians are good at heart and do try to learn from the Bible and do good for others, but it seems that the ones that aren't make a lot more noise than the ones that do, so people see the extremes and assume that we're all like that.  One one side, we have the stone-cold, old-fashioned religious people who think going to the movies and dancing is wrong, and on the other we've got the holy-rollers that handle the snakes and swing from the chandeliers.

      Trust me, this whole Christian/God/Jesus thing is for real. I'm real big on things being for real and if there wasn't a realness to it, I wouldn't be a part of it.  God is real, and he does help me, and Jesus did die for me and I know that, cause it all changed my life and it makes life actually mean something. Sure it's hard. There are times I want to give the finger to some jerk that cut me off on the freeway, but I don't, and that doesn't make me better than someone else, it just shows that Jesus is real, and he's worth it.  (Plus it's not like flicking someone off actually expresses what you really feel like when you get cut off anyway!)  ;)

     I said that my Mom did a good job in raising us--and she did--but it almost killed her.  She worked full time as a teacher my entire childhood and raised three kids.  It all really shows in her face now.   It has hardened her too.  She'll tell you quick that having a man around would have been awesome, someone to help her with everything.  A two parent home is a home with less stress for both.

      A home where the father works and the mother works at home, is the best configuration in my and my wife's opinion.   Understand that my wife is a college graduate (in 3 years), she was Valedictorian in her High School, and passed her CPA exam the first time she took it and is now working full-time as a CPA here in Lakeland.  Her choice is to work until the finished her certification and then until she has her first of at least two or three kids and then work as a independent CPA from home so that she can be there for the kids.  I will be working as a Youth or Children's pastor by then and will have a rather loose schedule and will be able to be more involved with the family during the day and evening than most working fathers.  We will have the nuclear family.  My point is not to brag, but to show that the more "old-fashioned" and "traditional" ways that supposedly "reduce women to slaves and servants" have also changed with the times.

      I personally believe any career woman that puts their own job above the job of a home manager is wrong.  So many times the home manager is made to feel that there job is unimportant, sometimes form the members of her home, but more often from the world at large.  I believe that a couple raising their kids and keeping enough time set aside to train them and keep them out of trouble is a very honorable task.  Especially with the negative view that most have on the job of home management.  It's the husband's job to make sure that the wife is lifted up, appreciated, and glorified in the home, and to squish the bugs, take out the trash, and to give back rubs.

about Politics...

      I think that what President Clinton did was wrong--so does he--but I think that we do not need to judge him, like we're better than him.  He has asked for forgiveness and we must, by God's own command, forgive him, but even after forgiveness there is still punishment.

     God forgives us when we do wrong, but we must still deal with the consequences of such actions.  When a man kills another, he may be sent to prison for life.  He may ask God for forgive him for taking the other's life, but he must still serve his sentence.  In that same way, I think that there should have been some kind of a retribution, not that it would have made me happy, but it would have shown to future presidents that such behaviors are not appropriate of an American leader.

      I think it's sick how Christians try to legislate their own views on others.  Christians expect everyone to have the same values and morals that they do... sorry, it's not going to happen.  All we Christians end up doing is shooting ourselves in the foot.  Everyone ends up hating us cause all they see is a few of us screaming about how they shouldn't be doing something they may enjoy.  We end up being the spoil-sports.

     The idea is not to censor pornography, but to connect with the person seeking the porn and lead them to a loving God that will help them to leave the addiction associated with it. Companies only make stuff that people want.  If we reached out the world and showed them, in love, how some things, though fun, are destructive and develop problems in life, the demand for such things would diminish.

      I do think that I have a few talents that some don't. As a kid I would have traded them all just to be able to throw a football, or shoot a basket though. I stink at "guy stuff"--I hate sports--but I can play and write music, I draw, do websites, I'm good with kids and teenagers, and can learn just about anything on a computer.

     I have to give any credit for these talents to God and so I try to use them for his service whenever I can.  I work as a Children's Pastor right now and love it.  I'm going to school to become a Pastor so that I can give teens better things to do with their lives than what their friends tell them.

     I love life, and have fun with it. Too much fun by some peoples standards. I sometimes get in trouble for saying things I think out loud. In my opinion it's worse to feel or think things and keep them safe inside in order to avoid them than to confront them and just let it be known.

     Thanks for reading all of this mess.  I hope that you have gained some understanding of what Christianity is supposed to be, and that you might want to give God a change to prove himself to you.  I know this one guy that didn't even believe in God, but prayed out to "whatever was out there" and "whatever was out there" responded.  He now believes in God and knows that he touched him inside.  I hope that you will give God that same kind of chance.   Hey, I tried carrots the other day, and I absolutely hate them.  So if I could give carrots a try, surely you can give God a try.

      Even if all of the computers go down, it doesn't mean that life as we know it will end.  Computers are cool and all, but dang, some people give them too much credit.  If calculators and computers go down... companies will just pick up a pen and note pad and start doing business like they did before computers (which wasn't that long ago).

      And even if life does go to pot and it turns out that the Y2K thing was for real... don't you think that the church should be stockpiling food for the masses, not just for themselves?  We are called by God to be selfless, not selfish.  Self preservation is not a characteristic of Christianity, dyeing to self is.   Hey, I'm going to put a few bottles of water in the fridge, and make sure I've got batteries in the ol' flashlight, but other than that... as for me and my house... we're watching the ball drop!

      I don't want to make a big deal about this, cause it's not a big deal.  If you want to believe in aliens, go ahead--if they show up one day, hey I was wrong--my only concern is over the idea that I think most people have about aliens.   That view being that if aliens show up it automatically exposes God centered religion as false and furthermore shows that God doesn't exist or at least that he didn't create the universe. Maybe I'm not understanding the logic at work there. I figure this view supposes that God and aliens cannot exist in the same universe. I guess since most Christians have made such a big deal about there not being aliens ("If there were aliens God would have told us in the Creation story!  Not telling us is the same as lying, and God don't lie! Blah, blah, blah..." yea, whatever) everyone assumes that the Creation story is the basis of our faith, and if aliens show up, our faith in the Creation story will die, and so our faith in the Creator will also die and we'll all be thrown into a mass panic (which probably would happen because of the fact that so many Christians put their faith in what God has done rather than who he is...) and we'll all kill each other off or something.

      The only problem with this way of thinking is that it's wrong.  Christians do not base their faith in the Creation story, but in the Creator.   If aliens exist, God created them.  It's going to be really funny if they show up and believe in the same God we do... wouldn't that be the bomb.

      Only thing is... I don't believe in aliens. It's not a huge belief--not one that I would die for or anything--just one of those little ones that you keep in your head. I've even got a reason for it.  God created man, and as soon as he could man turned against God and God eventually sent his Son to save mankind.   The bible is very clear in expressing the pain that both Father and Son experienced in their physical/spiritual separation that occurred at the time of Christ's death due to the impurity caused by our sin.  I just can't see God ever creating another race on even the slightest chance that they would do the same as us and He would have to go through that again.  I think that kind of pain even God finds hard to handle. That's my view... like I said, not a big one... but there it is just the same...

      I've always had a few questions for folks that believe in aliens:  Why are they always smarter than us?  What if they show and don't have the answers you expect?  (I could just see them looking at each other wondering what you expect from them.)  If they're so smart... won't they think we're kind of stupid?  What if one wanted to marry your daughter?  Would they think X-Files is racist and stereotypic?