I was talking to my good friend Dennis McDowell today about the current instability our country is going through. Economic bailouts, fuel crisis', unsure presidential candidates, increasing unemployment... times are tough, no question. And being in the church it's becoming much easier to see the spiritual fallout and influences easier: both Holy and unrighteous alike. Looking at these times through a lens of history and not of culture brings to light a new perspective.
From a military viewpoint, the smartest and first attack on an enemy usually occurs within the scope of a balance between "well defended" and "high priority". For example, yes, killing the leader would be the highest advantage, but getting to that person directly is almost completely unrealistic (unless you're Jason Bourne, in which case NO ONE is safe). At the same time, destroying their Mario Kart controllers, while it might prove easy with a electrical surge, wouldn't prove to have an enormous impact (unless you're Greg Varney).
It need not be understated that our enemy is really REALLY crafty and good at what he does. Therefore, the initial attack on us as a society and as individuals should be considered this "perfect first strike". And that attack, I've begun to notice, is on our hope. Our hope in this country is waning at an alarming rate. We've got no hope in our economy, we have no hope in our fuel reserves, we have no hope in our current job market. In fact, because our hope is beginning to lose it's grip, we've suddenly shifted it to the current presidential candidates; a move which has ALWAYS proven to be a good one (see: sarcasm). Should either candidate win by a landslide, the poor soul would immediately be seen as the great hope of a nation. And like all people who wear this moniker, they immediately prove us wrong. Thus leading us into further hope recession.
So I challenge everyone reading this: hold tight to hope. Defend it regardless of the current circumstance, regardless of any future circumstance (and there will be more). Hold fast to the hope our faith allows us and in the God who authored victory. The love of Christ has outlived instability and fear itself for millennia. And in His promises and foundations we may be able to offer real hope to a culture which is in dire need.
+ Christian
Monday, October 6, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
The Last Ice Man in Town
I'm not sure where that phrase came from, but being "the last ice man in town" is a great way to determine if your small business has a chance in your town. The idea is this: 100 years ago the way people got ice was that it was delivered to them. It came in huge blocks and guys would bring them around in trucks. You would store the ice in your "ice box" and it would keep your food cold and you could chip away at it if necessary to put into your drinks. The invention of the air compressor and modern day cooling devices meant that everyone didn't need ice deliverers. However, occasionally people do need ice delivered and they need it to happen quick. Therefore, if you're the last ice guy in town, you can sell some pretty expensive hockey flooring.
Same idea applies to small business. What can you do, and where is the need? That's the most fundamental principle to a successful business. If you can do what no one else can, and you can do what people need, you can charge for it. A bad business principle would be to open up a brand new electronics store next to Best Buy. "We've got one of those. Who are you?"
Now for the spiritual part. How many religions are based on works? Islam, Buddhism, Native-American Rain Dancing, Hindu, Wicca, modern day Judaism.... this list goes on forever, because every "religion" finds it's definition as a "set of principles and actions whereby man relates to God(s)". Christianity, to my knowledge, is one of the only ones that is based almost entirely around relationship (ancient Greek mythology was as well, but since we've been able to scale Olympus, sort of destroys the framework). Jesus made it clear: either He knows you or He doesn't. Under this scope it also makes it clear why other religions would dislike us so much. Jesus doesn't make you really do all that much, besides lay down your life for Him.
Last thought: the simplicity you find in following Jesus doesn't speak to blandness. It speaks to order. It doesn't need the bells and whistles of a diet, routine, schedule, alter, building, country, hat, robe, necklace... it speaks to you where you are. You either will accept Christ for what He did, or you will reject Him. And that is far more important than which way East is. Come to think of it, I believe Christianity is the only religion you could successfully practice on the moon...
+ Christian
Same idea applies to small business. What can you do, and where is the need? That's the most fundamental principle to a successful business. If you can do what no one else can, and you can do what people need, you can charge for it. A bad business principle would be to open up a brand new electronics store next to Best Buy. "We've got one of those. Who are you?"
Now for the spiritual part. How many religions are based on works? Islam, Buddhism, Native-American Rain Dancing, Hindu, Wicca, modern day Judaism.... this list goes on forever, because every "religion" finds it's definition as a "set of principles and actions whereby man relates to God(s)". Christianity, to my knowledge, is one of the only ones that is based almost entirely around relationship (ancient Greek mythology was as well, but since we've been able to scale Olympus, sort of destroys the framework). Jesus made it clear: either He knows you or He doesn't. Under this scope it also makes it clear why other religions would dislike us so much. Jesus doesn't make you really do all that much, besides lay down your life for Him.
Last thought: the simplicity you find in following Jesus doesn't speak to blandness. It speaks to order. It doesn't need the bells and whistles of a diet, routine, schedule, alter, building, country, hat, robe, necklace... it speaks to you where you are. You either will accept Christ for what He did, or you will reject Him. And that is far more important than which way East is. Come to think of it, I believe Christianity is the only religion you could successfully practice on the moon...
+ Christian
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Evolution and the ultimate creation argument
The basic way in which I have learned to hear from God is that when He speaks, I listen. That entails two things: 1) I don't control the content and 2) I don't control the schedule. He speaks, I listen. That said, I've found that His wisdom doesn't really care for my time table. I mean, let's face it; the guy is busy. If He can take the time out of His schedule to talk to me, I'd better be open to hearing.
Last night was one of those moments (which by the way are becoming more and more frequent for me). It was during the [r]nation service at church. I began thinking about evolution... and I just lost 8 of you with that sentence.
My understanding of evolution is what I consider to be a very main stream viewpoint. The universe and all existence found itself in a perfect combination of heat, mass, density and pressure and exploded from a central point in space. From there, all existence as we know it was formed or at least set in motion to be formed. One of the things that erupted from this perfect cosmic M-80 was earth. Now earth was unique because it had fluid water and it spun it's orbit around a star with such a perfect proximity that the water never really froze completely and it never really boiled. Nice and constant; perfect for something to start moving.
A couple of microbes and bacteria began to procreate (bow chicka) and over time, like, TONS of time, they began to take on different forms and families and genetic mutations. Throw in some meteor hits, a couple of dinosaurs, some monkeys and BOOM: in about 10 million years, you've got yourself some humans. So that's the long and short of what I know about evolution. We just happened.
This argument makes sense, at least on paper. Math is finding a tough time to prove it, but looking at some turtles and birds in the south pacific - ok, I get it. Maybe. But it also doesn't make sense, for reasons I won't go into here. The main premise I want to make is this: technically under this viewpoint, humans are just like everything else. Really, we aren't any different from bacteria or planets for that matter. Specifically, we aren't any different from monkeys. We're just advanced monkeys. This is where the argument fails.
If you're a Christian, or if you believe Jesus did what He did at all, including for the reasons He did what He did, then the argument that we are all the same is now void. See, just the fact that God did anything, anything AT ALL is a miracle unto itself. The fact that He even noticed us enough to show Himself as a cloud by day was a big deal. But He didn't stop there. He took Himself, and made Him us. He turned Himself into us. And according to His words not mine, He did it so "...that we might never die, but instead join Him in eternal life." So what are we saying by totally agreeing to evolution? God saved the advanced monkeys, but not the basic ones?
By agreeing to the concept of Christ as a savior to the world of men, you are agreeing to the premise that men are different from other things. And if men are different, and I mean TOTALLY different, then God's ultimate sacrifice automatically validates our differences (dude, God changed His form, abandoned heaven temporarily and ripped the cosmos in half just to have a shot at saving us from nothingness). The evolution argument suddenly seems just a bit flat, regardless of how already scientifically hopeful it is.
Yet science still is valuable. It gives us medicine, let's us see ourselves physically for who we are on the inside and even describes the universe in a language we can relate to. So to have one or the other (science or Godliness) is not the case. Instead, one should speak to and validate the other.
I'll end with 3 quotes, and they were made by geniuses. The first two were made by a stark atheist:
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special."....... "The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired."
~ Steven Hawking
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
~ Albert Einstein
+ Christian
Last night was one of those moments (which by the way are becoming more and more frequent for me). It was during the [r]nation service at church. I began thinking about evolution... and I just lost 8 of you with that sentence.
My understanding of evolution is what I consider to be a very main stream viewpoint. The universe and all existence found itself in a perfect combination of heat, mass, density and pressure and exploded from a central point in space. From there, all existence as we know it was formed or at least set in motion to be formed. One of the things that erupted from this perfect cosmic M-80 was earth. Now earth was unique because it had fluid water and it spun it's orbit around a star with such a perfect proximity that the water never really froze completely and it never really boiled. Nice and constant; perfect for something to start moving.
A couple of microbes and bacteria began to procreate (bow chicka) and over time, like, TONS of time, they began to take on different forms and families and genetic mutations. Throw in some meteor hits, a couple of dinosaurs, some monkeys and BOOM: in about 10 million years, you've got yourself some humans. So that's the long and short of what I know about evolution. We just happened.
This argument makes sense, at least on paper. Math is finding a tough time to prove it, but looking at some turtles and birds in the south pacific - ok, I get it. Maybe. But it also doesn't make sense, for reasons I won't go into here. The main premise I want to make is this: technically under this viewpoint, humans are just like everything else. Really, we aren't any different from bacteria or planets for that matter. Specifically, we aren't any different from monkeys. We're just advanced monkeys. This is where the argument fails.
If you're a Christian, or if you believe Jesus did what He did at all, including for the reasons He did what He did, then the argument that we are all the same is now void. See, just the fact that God did anything, anything AT ALL is a miracle unto itself. The fact that He even noticed us enough to show Himself as a cloud by day was a big deal. But He didn't stop there. He took Himself, and made Him us. He turned Himself into us. And according to His words not mine, He did it so "...that we might never die, but instead join Him in eternal life." So what are we saying by totally agreeing to evolution? God saved the advanced monkeys, but not the basic ones?
By agreeing to the concept of Christ as a savior to the world of men, you are agreeing to the premise that men are different from other things. And if men are different, and I mean TOTALLY different, then God's ultimate sacrifice automatically validates our differences (dude, God changed His form, abandoned heaven temporarily and ripped the cosmos in half just to have a shot at saving us from nothingness). The evolution argument suddenly seems just a bit flat, regardless of how already scientifically hopeful it is.
Yet science still is valuable. It gives us medicine, let's us see ourselves physically for who we are on the inside and even describes the universe in a language we can relate to. So to have one or the other (science or Godliness) is not the case. Instead, one should speak to and validate the other.
I'll end with 3 quotes, and they were made by geniuses. The first two were made by a stark atheist:
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special."....... "The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired."
~ Steven Hawking
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
~ Albert Einstein
+ Christian
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
VOTING!!!
Ooooh oohhh!! I got another one! TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY!!! WORLD DOMINATION IS AT HAND!!!!!! Eh hem........
You should register to vote, in case you haven't yet. For realz. Go here-------------------> VOTE
HA! Just kidding. It's actually here. No seriously, this time it's legit. And you should flippin' go to church too! Maybe even this one. My gosh people, the last time we just trusted in humans, this happened. I mean seriously, voting isn't enough! You wanna see what just voting without Jesus involved gave us?! EXACTLY! I mean, that was his campaign ad!
To recap, you need voting AND Jesus... I wish I could start singing "You Are Not Alone" by my boy Mike Jackson on all of your computers right now. Cause you're not. Alone that is.
+ Christian
You should register to vote, in case you haven't yet. For realz. Go here-------------------> VOTE
HA! Just kidding. It's actually here. No seriously, this time it's legit. And you should flippin' go to church too! Maybe even this one. My gosh people, the last time we just trusted in humans, this happened. I mean seriously, voting isn't enough! You wanna see what just voting without Jesus involved gave us?! EXACTLY! I mean, that was his campaign ad!
To recap, you need voting AND Jesus... I wish I could start singing "You Are Not Alone" by my boy Mike Jackson on all of your computers right now. Cause you're not. Alone that is.
+ Christian
A Necessary Advancement
Hi. My name is Christian Reese and chances are you already know that because really, to be honest, at this point the only people seeing this are my friends. I tend to be like most people in that I don't jump into a new technology until EVERYBODY already has, which is why the development of this blog has only just now found life. The beautiful part is I'm the consultant for new technology at a local company. Wow, I'm already rambling....
So this blog is now created and for the moment it's been for only one reason: I saw something that caused me to want to say something publicly. I subscribe to a blog called Church Marketing Sucks, a website dedicated to the usually horrid world of church marketing and overall image. A recent poll on their blog asked church staff what the most obvious result was in their churches since the beginning of the current economic struggle. The number one answer? "Offerings are down". A few years ago this would have been a boring poll. But now, to me at least, this is a great snapshot of the current times.
I haven't always been a giver, especially when it comes to church. I tithed when I could, which is to say I gave of my excess. Lovingly, God placed me at The Rock Church in Asheville, NC where I got my senses straightened out. There's nothing loving or generous about giving when you don't have to think about it. It's the proverbial tossing money toward a birthday at work. Real giving occurs when it costs you. Like it pulls from you. Like, it costs you. We don't like that. Which is why most people don't give.
Yet God is really clear on the issue. Give, and He will give to you. You give, He gives (more than He already does, by the way). Better yet, you give, He blesses. That's an awesome idea. And that never comes with a contingency plan. Again though, it has to cost you. It's not about giving in the harvest; it's about giving as a lifestyle. Giving when your blessed is like going to church or praying when you're blessed. The more I think about it, that's actually a bit redundant.
So the challenge has been set forth at The Rock. An initiative we've coined The Generosity Experiment. Till the end of the year make it priority to tithe and be generous to God's House and the people in your world. "Test me now in this," God tells us. So, let's test Him. Better yet, let's prove Him right. Economic crisis or not - generosity, blessing and abundance are lifestyles. And if we can so easily turn them off, then what's the point of building our lives on them.
+ Christian
So this blog is now created and for the moment it's been for only one reason: I saw something that caused me to want to say something publicly. I subscribe to a blog called Church Marketing Sucks, a website dedicated to the usually horrid world of church marketing and overall image. A recent poll on their blog asked church staff what the most obvious result was in their churches since the beginning of the current economic struggle. The number one answer? "Offerings are down". A few years ago this would have been a boring poll. But now, to me at least, this is a great snapshot of the current times.
I haven't always been a giver, especially when it comes to church. I tithed when I could, which is to say I gave of my excess. Lovingly, God placed me at The Rock Church in Asheville, NC where I got my senses straightened out. There's nothing loving or generous about giving when you don't have to think about it. It's the proverbial tossing money toward a birthday at work. Real giving occurs when it costs you. Like it pulls from you. Like, it costs you. We don't like that. Which is why most people don't give.
Yet God is really clear on the issue. Give, and He will give to you. You give, He gives (more than He already does, by the way). Better yet, you give, He blesses. That's an awesome idea. And that never comes with a contingency plan. Again though, it has to cost you. It's not about giving in the harvest; it's about giving as a lifestyle. Giving when your blessed is like going to church or praying when you're blessed. The more I think about it, that's actually a bit redundant.
So the challenge has been set forth at The Rock. An initiative we've coined The Generosity Experiment. Till the end of the year make it priority to tithe and be generous to God's House and the people in your world. "Test me now in this," God tells us. So, let's test Him. Better yet, let's prove Him right. Economic crisis or not - generosity, blessing and abundance are lifestyles. And if we can so easily turn them off, then what's the point of building our lives on them.
+ Christian
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