Summaries
Over the weekend I finally got a chance to watch The Dark Knight, and true to many of the things that I’ve heard of it: It was dark, and it was a powerful movie.
While there were many interesting lessons/topics to discuss coming out of the movie, the interesting thing at the top of my head this morning was that I wondered if Rush Limbaugh could actually be the Dark Knight for the country.
Let’s examine the facts in the case, and see if this could indeed be so:
He Won’t Run For Office
We all know that Rush makes more than any public servant. It also stands to reason that he’s wise enough to know that he has probably saved and invested enough money at this point that the whole money question is moot.
What we also know, though, is that he is the most listened to talk radio voice, and the most vilified. If there was ever a big target, it would be him. He has millions of hours in the vaults at the future “Limbaugh wing of Museum of Broadcast Excellence” and you could be sure that they would find and twist anything they could. Indeed, though Limbaugh could make a passionate argument for conservatism, he’s also hampered by the amount of exposure he has to the public spotlight, as well some of his personal struggles with morality.
He Still Fights the Bad Guys
Though a Rush Limbaugh candidacy would be an uphill battle all the way, his current location, “behind the golden EIB microphone” allows him to stand up for principles every day, and he is able to educate people in a way that he wouldn’t be able to as President.
Just like Batman was able to use fear and the cloak of the night to scare villains to work in the daylight and inspire the White Knight, Limbaugh is able to talk through the left’s talking points and shape the culture from his current perch.
Yes, the transparency has its costs—as did the physical and emotional wounds Bruce Wayne had to endure different wounds—but in order to take them and soldier on is the mark of the Knight.
He Takes the Fall
At the end of The Dark Knight, Batman acknowledges that he can never be the hero that Gotham needs. He can be their protector, he can look out for their best interest, but he cannot be the one that inspires them. His reputation is not pure enough.
Ultimately, our perfect example is Christ—and as believers we know that any other example will have tarnish. But apart from this, I believe that Limbaugh is a Black Knight simply because his position and his morality issues precludes him from being a White Knight. I will not list his sins, either you know them or you do not. But for the public nature of the man, and for the morals that he supports while not at the same time keeping them himself, he would not be able to fill the White Knight position.
Your thoughts?
I’ll spare you all the “you should be using a real browser” lecture for right now, and just let you know: I’ve tried to post a comment to my latest post in IE7, and I got stuck on the wp-comments.php page. Right now, I don’t know whether it’s a WordPress bug, an IE7 bug, or something in my theme since I’ve upgraded to WP 2.7. So, for all of you that want to leave a comment and can’t, rest assured that I’ll get to fix this when I can!
Oh, and by the way, commenting is working for me in Firefox 3.0.5, and it’s a free download.
UPDATE: Looks like it was a plugin causing the problem. I use Link Love to take away the nofollow restriction on links in comments. Guess I’ll be looking for a new plugin for that feature!
Another holiday season has come, and one thing is certain—we’ve all had a lot to eat. I’m not sure where the tradition came from, but what I am certain is that this is not just the season for presents and good cheer, it’s also the season to make exotic dishes in the hopes that family will eat them.
It’s also the time of year where people that would not darken a church door find themselves in the pews singing familiar songs and hearing a message of child born in stable whose destiny was a cross.
This Christmas season, as I sat in my church in the row of seats I practically always sat in and heard the message one more time, I began to wonder not only about the people that come on holidays, but about us as a Christian people. The question that came to my mind was “Have You Had Enough?”
Have You Had Your Fill?
You see, a lot that I see around me says that many Christians have “had enough.” Not that they are frustrated or are quitting out of spite, but that they have simply had enough, or have had their fill, of spiritual things such that they can go without.
It’s what goes through my mind when I think of people that just attend on the holidays—that attending that one or two services during Christmas time is about as much as a person needs or can take, and that they don’t need any more of it until the next year passes.
Priorities
We live in a time period where many things vie for our attention—and it seems like there are more every day. We have places to go, things to do, and you multiply that number by the number of children you have and you can quickly find yourself way over booked.
In my mind, when a family chooses to do a sports activity or promotes a sports event over a church event, that says something about what that family thinks about how important the church event is. I’m not saying that you have to make service every time the doors are open—though it would be good.
What I’m saying is that if you willingly choose to engage in an activity that occurs at the same time as your regularly scheduled worship service and you don’t see any problem choosing the sport or game activity then I believe you’re making a statement about your inner man.
I believe that you’re making a statement that says “I don’t need to hear from God at this time as much as I or my child needs to be at soccer or football.”
Answer: “Yes, I’ve had enough—or more than I need—so I can go without this one meal.”
Involvement
Many people attend church, but that’s all they do. They view the church as a place that they should come to and get ministered unto. After all, that’s why I put my money in the plate, right? These people miss the point that the church is about ministry one to another, not ministry to them only.
This also has a secondary outcome—those that do feel burdened for the nursery, children’s ministry, etc. will work themselves to point of burnout to keep a ministry going while many able bodied people believe that they don’t have to get involved because someone else will.
They say that 80% of the work in the church is done by 20% of the people. Is this something that should be going on in the church of God?
Answer: “That was a fine meal, but I can’t help do the dishes or clean the table.”
Missing the Message
This last group is the group that’s doing all the work, making all of the services, but tuning out the message. This is the group that I struggle with making sure I’m not a member. This is the group that hears the Gospel message and realizes that it’s special, but no longer feels its power.
This is the group of people stuck in a rut. They are doing what they always did because they’ve always done it. They “go through the motions” and do the job, but no longer feel the thrill of knowing that their sins are forgiven, understand the agony of the pain of the One who died for us, and don’t know why they don’t feel anything anymore.
Answer: “I’m full,” they say, while they still have a bunch left on their plate.
God’s Command
God tells us that we can never have too much of Him. He promises that if we will open our mouth wide, He will fill it. He tells us to drink deep of Him, and that if we will pursue Him, we will find Him if we search for Him with all of our heart.
While I’m not equating your local church as the only place where you can find Him, I am saying that a heart that longs to have more of Him will be where His people are, longing to hear what He has to say.
It was said, during the revivals, that the bars had to close, and business on Sunday ground to a halt. When the Lord moved in people’s lives, people wanted to hear all they could, and lives were changed.
What our Answer should be: “No Lord, I haven’t had enough. Give me more!”
It’s that time again. Time to look back at 2008 and see how the Lord blessed:
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We’ve all experienced it: The man at the Chinese Restaurant in the mall that begged you to try is chicken. That lady in Wal-Mart that wanted you to try a new flavor of ice cream. The vacuum cleaner salesman that offered you a free vacuum and shampoo.
Retailers believe that if they offer something for free, or if you just try what they’re selling that they can convince you to buy. And if you’ve seen these thing in real life, you have to believe that there are places on the Internet that are doing the very same thing.
And it’s true, there are not only free ebooks out there as well as free newsletters, but there are now sites that help you find Free Stuff from all different kinds of sources!
That’s right, there are sites out there that help you take advantage of different kinds of freebies and offers—though I advise proceeding with caution. Although many things say they are “free”, don’t underestimate the value of your contact information. Make sure to read what strings may be attached before entering into a deal.
She is sleeping with her boyfriend, left the church because they were going to discipline her, should they follow through with the public announcement?
That is the situation a church in Florida found itself in this past week as a woman in the church first confessed to a woman in her Bible Study that she was in an immoral affair, and then (ironically) tried to stop that church from declaring what she did was a sin.
Accountability and the Church
In order to understand what is going on, we need to first understand what the goal of the church of Christ is. Contrary to popular belief, the church is not on the Earth to enforce a legalistic lifestyle. Though there are individual churches that do this, and there is a code for sin and holiness in the Bible, the church’s main function is not to serve as judge and jury. A church’s function is show Christ, to win souls to Christ and to disciple them in those ways.
That being said, when a person joins a body of believers they both decide to agree to the Church Constitution and agree to a degree of accountability. Just like those that join AA are there to help fellow alcoholics stay away from alcohol, Christians bind together in churches to help each other to stay away from—or get out of sin.
The Authority of Scripture
So, people bind together with their understanding of Scripture and the rules that they have in place. And when someone in that assembly violates a rule, there has to be some process in order to deal with the situation.
In the case of a sin or an offense in the church, the first step in this journey to making the situation right (in Christian terms, reconciliation) is for the person that has noticed the problem to go to the person that has the problem and try to show them where, in the Scriptures they are wrong.
This is where that part of the Bible that says “judge not let ye be judged” comes into play. If you see someone in a sin, you are to take good care that you do not have a similar or worse problem, you are to pray about it, and you are to deal with it from Scripture. Stick to the facts, not the emotion or opinion.
Attempt to Reconcile
So, first it’s just the two people—but if there’s obvious sin, and no sign of changing their mind about the sin, then it’s time to get a second opinion. This is where you find someone that is impartial and you bring that person into the discussion. It may be that you’re seeing something that’s not there, or it could be a grey area.
Remember, joining a body of believers means accepting a moral code, and the accompanying accountability to that. If the two people agree, then sometimes some of the spiritual leaders of the church are brought in, and sometimes not. The point isn’t to judge the person, but to show them the Scripture and help them get back to what they committed to.
Before the Church
The last step is the most “popular” step—it’s the most drastic and the most rare. Some will mock this step because of its rarity, because they view just the last step as church discipline, whereas if a person is in church discipline they’ve actually had two or three steps before this step.
This step is only entered into by those that have refused to repent (change their mind about) what they have done all this time. The last step states that they will be brought before the members of the church, their sin will be stated, and they will have a chance to repent. If they refuse, they will be taken off the active membership role and be treated as someone external from the church.
At that point, ties are not individually severed, but the point of contact with the person will be to try to get him/her to repent and rejoin the church.
Which is where she finds herself…
The girl in the story is at this last step. She was notified by the church about the meeting that would discuss her removal from the church roles (also called excommunication) and told when it would be and that they hoped she would attend and repent.
The woman then attempted to revoke her membership (something that you are unable to do during church discipline for obvious reasons), and at the same time notified the media.
It’s silly to think that she was telling the media because she wanted to keep the story from going public. The whole world now knows about her sin. The only logical reasoning that I can think of is that she is hoping to shame the previous church, that she has some degree of guilt over what she’s done, and that she doesn’t want to carry around the fact that she’s been excommunicated from a body of believers.
Admittedly, it’s an embarrassing thing. However, you cannot have it both ways. You cannot decide you believe something is true, and then when you have to make a tough decision decide that it may not be because you like the alternative.
This church is in the right, and is doing what is right. I pray that this woman will eventually see the love they have for her and will repent.
Some people like change. Others want to keep whatever they have for as long as they have it.
Most of the time that I was growing up my dad had a gold colored digital watch with one of those metal bands that didn’t clasp, but grew like elastic. His ring and his watch he wore all the time.
When the watch stopped functioning, he took my watch that I had—I got cool watches, let me tell ya—and put his band on that watch. I don’t know when the watch finally went away, but I don’t believe that he’s consistently worn a watch since.
A year or so ago we went looking for a watch for him. We checked different places, including the watch places in the mall. The feature I wanted to get him? Radio synchronization.
We looked at all kinds of watches—Timex Watches, Seiko Watches, Digital and Analog watches. We didn’t find one that we liked, and it seemed that we must have waited too long, because there didn’t seem to be any that synched their own time.
Have you ever wanted to get something and ran out of time to get it? Have you ever had the perfect thing in mind and find out too late that the thing (if you bought it) would arrive after Christmas? What did you do?
If President-Elect Obama does well in office, what does that say about the qualifications to be president?
During the campaign, one of the resounding issues was that of qualifications. Sen. McCain was attempting to paint then Sen. Obama as someone that hadn’t lead much of anything, let alone a country. When he made the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin to be his VP running mate, many then turned the discussion to ask whether she was qualified to run the government should something happen to Sen. McCain.
So, thinking through this, now’s a great opportunity to see, and perhaps settle the question. If President-Elect Obama can do a decent job as President (especially with all that’s stacked up against him), then I figure that Gov. Palin could be ok, and that perhaps the media has set too high a bar for qualifications for President.
How do I get this? Because the resume of President-Elect Obama is not what the media demanded of Gov. Palin—he has a skinnier one when it comes to executive leadership than she.
But I also don’t buy into the concept that the President has to be this super intelligent guy who knows everything about everything. It’s not that I don’t want a smart President, but the man picks a whole group of people under him, and it’s those people’s job to be the ones that know a lot about their field of expertise.
So, I would put forth that the choices of the men and women that a President chooses to surround himself with, the President’s organization abilities and decision making abilities that really matter, rather than some test about the intelligence quotient of the man.
I’m very excited to announce our first giveaway over at Is This Modest: The Blush Undershirt Giveaway!
This giveaway is sponsored by Blush Topless Undershirts, and they are a unique brand of clothing that is designed to be worn under clothing to help make the more modest!
They’re a pretty unique article of clothing, and I encourage you to go on over and enter the contest. If we can get 150 entries, then the people at Blush will throw in two winners instead of one.
So why are you still here—go over to the Blush Undershirt Giveaway and sign up!
So, in the latest twist of events, and in the midst of the coldest winter that I can remember, we’re still being told that Global Warming is a big problem that President-Elect Obama may not have enough time to solve! But that’s not the funniest part…
It has plagued scientists and politicians for decades, but scientists now say global warming is not the problem.
We are actually heading for the next Ice Age, they claim. British and Canadian experts warned the big freeze could bury the east of Britain in 6,000ft of ice.
Most of Scotland, Northern Ireland and England could be covered in 3,000ft-thick ice fields. The expanses could reach 6,000ft from Aberdeen to Kent – towering above Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain.
Personally, I’m wondering where the call is to increase our carbon emissions and to buy wasteful cars. I’m wondering how long until it’s inevitable that we will be in an ice age unless we hurry up and burn more fossil fuels!
And in tribute to this, the Minnesotans for Global Warming came out with the following adaptation of the Christmas classic:
