However, I’m not really wanting to talk about that. Obviously Ted Haggard did stuff he shouldn’t have done and there’s going to be a lot of fallout from that. What’s more to talk about? What I DO care about though is how we, as Christians, handle this situation and the blow that’s been dealt to the Christian Church.

This is the time to realize that our Christian leaders are people, just like we are. They make mistakes, just like we do and sometimes, like now, those mistakes are revealed to the general public. But really, can you say that what Ted Haggard did is any worse than anything you’ve done? I know I can’t. Yes, it affects a LOT more people and yes, it’s a lot more public. And sure, you’ve probably never done the things that Ted Haggard has done. But when you really get down to it, how much worse is Ted Haggard’s sin in the eyes of God than ours?

I’d say it’s no worse. I’d also say that our own sins are no worse than Ted Haggard’s. In God’s eyes, we’re equal, assuming we’ve all accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior anyway. We’re ALL sinners, and that means that we all deserve death. But oh my gosh, Ted Haggard broke the big one. He had relations with another man. SO WHAT?? It’s still a sin, like everything else. Even more interesting to me are the people who are shocked by it. That they never would have expected it.

Well, ok, I guess I never would have expected it myself. I had the opportunity to help on the back-end of some of Ted Haggard’s ministries (World Prayer Team and his personal site) by helping create those sites years ago and helping with the administration of them. During that time, I saw the passion that Ted Haggard had, the leader he was and the plans that he had for God’s people. He’s a great man and truly loves God and wants to do what God wants of him. But because of that position, the influence he’s had in the Christian Church, the influence over Christians, he’s also been attacked over and over and over.

And so it doesn’t really surprise me that Ted Haggard fell because he IS just a human. He’s not perfect. Even less surprising is the manner in which he fell. He’s been a huge proponent against homosexuals and so it makes perfect sense that THAT’S the way he’s brought down. But what I know, and I hope others know, is that he doesn’t have to be out for the count. He CAN rise again and I will be praying that he will. Because Satan didn’t win the war, he just won this one, tiny, little battle.

Think about it this way… Peter denied Christ THREE TIMES, just as Christ predicted he would. I’m sorry, but that’s pretty bad. Or even worse, David had Bathsheba’s husband killed so he could cover the fact that he had an affair with her. Even worse. However, in both cases, they were forgiven and rose again to be even greater. I will be praying that the same will be true of Ted Haggard and I hope you’ll do the same.

Because really, he’s done nothing worse than what I do every day, or what you do every day. And if we can’t forgive his sin and help him move on and grow in strength from it, then who can?

Anyway, so it’s been hard to get that connection going but in the last couple months I’ve REALLY felt like I have it now. Well, no… it’s not 100% there, probably not even quite 70%, but it’s over 60% and that’s a heck of a lot better than the 10% that I’ve felt before. See, the main problem has been that over half the group is girls. Normally, that’s not been a problem for me. But in the last couple years, it’s proven to be an issue.

See, I’m a fairly flirtatious person around the girls (yeah I know, shocker!). Generally all I’m looking for is friendship, but I think that I try hard enough to be friends that it backfires. This is going back to my other comment that I’m a mostly introverted person. Don’t believe me? Well, I’d truly prefer to have a small party with some trusted friends than a big one with a bunch of people that I only know halfway. And if it’s a party that I hardly know anybody at, I generally just sit somewhere on the side and watch people. Basically, feel quite uncomfortable until I finally leave.

Ok, so that’s all very interesting, but how does that affect me now? Well, since most of the people in this Young Professionals group (the Wednesday Night Bible Study) are single girls, I think I’ve managed to convince most of them at some point or another that I’ve been interested in them. So we come to the issue, getting them to trust me. Some do, some don’t. Just a matter of working at it I guess. But it’s all necessary since I need to re-build a good portion of my group of friends (just because life happened, nothing else). This all means that there’s a lot of hard times coming in my life I think, I just hope they don’t last too long!

The truth of the matter is that the entire YP group is awesome. And that’s not just because they’re cool people, but they’re really forcing me to think about the Bible, God and Christianity in general. There’s a VERY wide range of Christian experience represented in the group and so that makes for some very good discussions actually. Because we get the “easy” questions from the newer people that really force us to think about things from the Bible and God that we might not have thought about for many years and then there are the bigger questions that force all of use to look up a lot in the Bible.

To top it all off, nobody in the group is really the “Leader” and nobody has all the answers. It’s ALWAYS a group effort and lots of people speak their minds. Again, makes for good discussions. For instance, on this Wednesday night that just passed, we tried to answer a big question that Christians sometimes get asked. We started by voting on a number of questions that some of us had submitted for a possible topic and then talking about the most popular.

The one on Wednesday night was: “I’m not into organized religion. Can I still be a Christian without going to Church?” This seemed like a pretty easy answer to me (YES!), but some people really insisted the structure of the Church being required. Also, some people had a Catholic background and depending upon the person, that either meant that they were deeply in favor of doing the weekly Church thing, or that they were very much in favor of NOT doing it. Anyway, lots of VERY good discussion about it all (hurts in the Church, reasons to leave, etc, etc).

Again, because of the very wide range of backgrounds and Christian Maturity, this is a group that really challenges my faith and makes me THINK about things and not just take them at face value. Good stuff for sure and certainly a group that I’m hoping to hang out for a long while longer!

First off, I FINALLY got everything taken care of in terms of my new car. I got the auto-pay fixed for my loan (they screwed it up when I tried to have it done the first time… *sighs), got them the insurance information (well, they already had it, I just had to make sure they KNEW they had it) and got my permanent plate for my car (had to bug the dealer, who had dropped the ball and so they overnighted me the new one). So that’s all done and happy now, which makes ME happy.

Asked this really cool girl out recently too, but… she said no. That sucked of course but it’s ok because we’re still friends and stuff and there doesn’t seem to be many (if any) bad vibes going on cuz of it. I mean, she was completely honest with me and just was really cool, so it made it easy for me to take it in stride and be cool with it too. I mean, I’d of course have preferred if she had said yes, but that goes without saying

Hmm… I rolled my ankle pretty badly on Sunday night playing vball. NOT a good thing (never done that before, nor have I twisted it before… Always been pretty fortunate that way, until now!). It’s all swollen up now and so I’m going to be taking plenty of Advil (for inflammation) and icing it every night, as well as elevating it. Good times… Seriously though, it’s not painful so as long as I take care of it, I should be fine.

Oh, and my Aunt and Grandma from North Carolina (my Dad’s side of the family) have been here since Tuesday and are leaving on Wednesday. So I’ve seen them a few times which has been nice. Not as many as I’d have wanted to, but I guess that’s the way it goes. Seems like I’ve been really busy since they’ve been here. Ultimate on Thursday night, X3 Friday night, Saturday I went caving (more on that later), Sunday was Church, lunch with them, bbq that night and then vball later that night (which is where I messed up my ankle… *sighs). Then today (Monday) I spent most of the day working on cleaning the carpets here at our place.

So I went to Ace Hardware to rent a carpet cleaning machine and it had water in it still! Plus the wheels had lots of junk on them (almost like horse manure… but you know, don’t ask, don’t tell… . So I had to empty the thing in the parking lot before I put it in my trunk (so it didn’t spill all over my trunk) and clean the tires. Then went to WallyWorld (Wall-mart) to buy cleaning stuff, then went back to my place to start cleaning the carpets (got a good amount done anyway, but there’s more to do) and then left at 4:30 for a planning meeting for a camping trip I’m going on this weekend.

Of course, since I was up and moving all day, my ankle isn’t very happy with me. But I guess that’s life. So yeah, doing a camping trip this weekend. I volunteered to buy most of the stuff, so I’ve got a nice long list. Should be fairly easy to get most of it though, so it’s ok. Whatever I can’t, I’ll divvy up to others. There’s 16 of us going this time (9 guys, 7 girls) which is a LOT more than normal. So there’s of course a lot more than normal to buy too. Should be good times though.

Caving on Saturday (the 27th) was fun. Went to Cave of the Bells and had a grand time. However, it did take us a good-long time to find the place since the map we had wasn’t the best in the world. But now we know how to get there for the next time. We also didn’t get anywhere we wanted to, but that was ok. We STILL had fun (and I almost got stuck down there for ever and ever and are all willing to go again. Most important thing was that nobody got seriously hurt. Pictures of the cave (and some fun afterwords) are here.

Hmm… Jeremy was back for the weekend from San Diego, so it was nice to see him again. He’s re-joined the Navy and so he’s in training right now in San Diego and then will be going off to Kuwait. I’ll probably get to see him a few more times before he leaves, but it’s certainly quieter without him here (he was living on our couch for a bit). And another friend (Nathan) is leaving for the Navy tomorrow, but he’s just joined for the first time so he’s going to boot camp. Great fun!

Sarah (friend of mine from the Young Professionals group) left today for HER trip. They (her team) have a blog at trainingteachers.blogspot.com. So, pray for them and that everything will go well there. Good friends of mine (Wendy and Peter Smith) are heading to Thailand on Wednesday to work there (they’re missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators). And then other friends from Casas are coming back tomorrow from their China trip. *phew!* Lots going on for sure on that front.

And that’s about all I can think of. I’m probably missing stuff that I’ll think of later but this is certainly plenty for this blog anyway. Ooh, I’m thinking about doing a funny-a-day thing on here too with videos and pictures and stuff that I find funny. I’ve just gotta write some good code that’ll make it so people can watch it to their heart’s content, download the stuff, etc, etc… They just won’t be able to directly link to the videos from other sites. I think I know a good way to do it, just gotta implement it.

Until next time, have fun!

There’s nothing else like it. We don’t deserve it, but yet it was given to us freely as a gift so that we might live and have eternal life. For the longest time I didn’t want that gift. I refused to accept it and wouldn’t let God’s grace and forgiveness surround me. This was because I didn’t forgive myself for my transgressions and didn’t consider myself worthy. But I was missing the point. I’m NOT worthy, not ever but yet God has given us this gift. Yes, it’s ours to accept or not, but if we want it, it’s there for the taking and life is GOOD when you accept that gift.

So today I will be thanking God for the gift He gave me. For the new life He’s offered and remembering that He loves me no matter what I do. Yep, there’s those times He’s wondering what the heck I AM doing, but He loves me anyway and is just waiting for me to jump back into His arms and follow His plan again. God is GOOD. Thank you God for everything you’ve given me. I don’t deserve it, but I need it. So thank you.

AMAZING! Two blogs in one day. Well, two in one day if I finish this in 15 minutes that is and I should since this one is pretty quick…

What’s it about? Well, it’s another rant and it’s about Christians and cussing. Call me a prude, but I consider your normal four-letter words to be taboo still. And I think that as Christians, we should ALL consider them taboo too. Do they mean what they used to? No… But they do still cause people to take notice and are considered offensive. Movies can still be rated R because of the language in them (although, it does take more now than before), so why do so many Christians think it’s OK for them to cuss?

We’re meant to be the salt of the Earth. The seasoning if you will. That means we’re supposed to be DIFFERENT. It DOESN’T mean we’re to act the same as everybody else. Am I in that boat? Sure, I cuss at times. I know this, but the difference is that I don’t WANT to and I try hard not to. Sometimes it slips out (especially when everybody at work cusses all the time), but that’s just what it is. A slip, not something I do on a normal basis. Is that good? Nope, but I think that’s the best anybody can expect from anybody else (it’s all I expect from my friends…).
Anyway, just something for you to think about.

Today, I saw God do that in my life again with my job situation. Thankfully I had put my trust in him already and I’m leaning 100% (well, trying to anyway) on his understanding of what’s going on and ability to make everything work perfectly. And yep, it looks pretty perfect to me right now. I just hope I don’t screw it up!

I can’t give details right now because it’s not all done yet but it’s good news and I’m positive that it’s God’s plan. So that means I know it’s the right one. And THAT I can certainly live with.