John Finkelde mentioned on his blog that he loves the 23rd of December….and wondered if he is the only one…he isn’t…I do too!

Isn’t the anticipation of something just as good as actually obtaining it?
Has not God designed us to be dreamers…to desire…to chase after?

I believe He has.

Last night I took the family to the ‘Nativity’ scene/drama in the city. It was awesome. Geoff Woodward (spelling?) from Metro Church and the evavenscent (spelling2?) Michael Battersby led the thousands of people gathered there in carol singing…I am friends with Colin, Michael’s brother, and we often joke that despite their obvious similarities, Michael is the outgoing one…he is! Colin is an awesome worship leader, but their style is quite different.

Michael and his team did a great job.

Then Ted Bull (ABC) basically read the story from the bible, interspersed with drama, real camels, and carols.
Seriously….no mention of Santa….candy canes or anything else.
Just the beauty of the nativity story, presented in a contemporary manner to thousands of non church folk…

What a blessing…..

There is a lot of ‘Grinchness’ around this time of year, let us not be among the green headed monsters….Let us instead celebrate this awesome time of year, an opportunity to reflect, to share our faith, to share our lives, to celebrate with famiy…..

I believe in a God who is exuberant, creative, fun, positive, visionary, celebratory…a God who commands His people to party…COMMANDS THEM!!!

Let us throw off those things that bind us..and Celebrate the King’s Birthday.

We assume that we rule our lives, but we can’t even hold our breath.

I miss my dad.

He was a non communicative, dysfunctional father…..who I hardly knew…..

but I miss him like crazy.

I wish I could ring him up and ask him about how to change an oil filter, even though I know how.

I wish I could play squash with him, and go easy on him, because when I started thrashing him, he no longer wanted to play…..

I wish he was here to give presents to my kids…because he was GREAT at that…..

If your dad is still alive, no matter what he is like…don’t take him for granted.

This is an interesting blog….
here he defends Rick Warren and makes some good points…..

“No stranger to getting flamed by church people indignant over his writings and methods, Warren is now getting flamed by some very vocal supporters of President-elect Obama because he (Warren) is pro-life and against gay marriage. Shocker, I know.”

“Here’s the thing: Warren is not saying anything outrageous for a Christian minister. He is simply, as most evangelical Christians do, saying that babies should get to live and that homosexual behavior is sin. That he is getting branded a radical hatemonger for these things should tell us a lot about the culture we live in, which — PAY ATTENTION HERE — doesn’t care if you’re a cool, goatee-sporting, social justice loving, Obama voting Christian. If you simply follow the Bible’s counsel about life and sin, you’re Hitler.” (Source)

It was really interesting to me that Obama mentioned ‘gays’ specifically in his presidential speach.

This is not a gay bashing site….there are plenty of them around, and this is not one of them.

But a Christian minister should stand up for something, namely that the Bible is true…and God does not like sin……..Rick Warren is probably one of the sharpest Christian minds of our generation, and when interviewed, I have not seen him slip up. I dont think he did in this context either….but what he said may very well be offensive.