presentsense

Advent conspiracy

Louis CK says what I've been thinking...

This is funny and true...

South Carolina man gains another way to talk to his wife, head asplodes

Dateline: Fort Mill, South Carolina
11/11/08

A South Carolina man just found out the limit of human ability-to-keep-one's-shit-together, when he introduced his wife to the online micro-blogging service Twitter.

"Everything was fine, and then -pop- a little gasket must have let go in my skull," the man said in a phone interview from the mental hospital he just checked into. "There I was, I had just updated my status in Facebook, when my gmail got a note that my wife had sent me a private message in Facebook. While I was replying to that message, my gmail notified me that she had commented on my Facebook status. As I surfed over to read that comment, gmail chat beeped at me and told me that she needed the lyrics to a song or a recipe for tripe or something, and then she tweeted on Twitter how much she loved me. And then my bowels let go."

The man is resting comfortably in his suite at Lazy Rainbows Mental Hospital. He can be reached via Twitter, Facebook private message, Facebook Wall, Facebook comment, Gmail chat, Gmail, SMS, cell phone, his office phone which forwards to his cell phone, US Mail, carrier pigeon, certified courier, semaphore, and Cherokee smoke signals. Until the lithium kicks in.

Now is the time for change - for me anyway...

Background link: Dutch Sheets pretty much says we're in deep trouble now...

My Friends,

I too, once and for all, consider myself post-charismatic. I am absolutely sick to my stomach to think that we have devolved as a movement - yea a church - into seeing the world through first testament language. I know some wings of the church have always had this view, but I thought we were different. We are not. We still think God gets us to do things through fear and threat of punishment. When we feel that God treats us this way, we start to treat others the same way. Will there ever be a time when loves rules? Seriously, is there any hope?

For this reason, I refuse to include myself in this "we" anymore. I know a lot of people - people who I think are good people - who call themselves Charismatic and who listen to the counsel of others based upon whether or not they are also using this label. If it was ever unclear, I officially quit this game.

I am not walking away from the Lord . If anything, I am walking towards Him even more, because I believe that He is moved by love, not judgment. I believe we live in a world of fallen people whom God loves anyway. When I find something to do to show love to people, I do it. When I find reason to judge them for their sin or stupidity, I choose to love them instead. If it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict, I think he'll do a better job without my help.

And if I am wrong and our nation 'goes to hell' or gets judged based on this election, it will only be one in a long line of charges that can be leveled against it. Genocide. Theft. Forced Labor. Ignorance of the poor (the true sin of Sodom). Destruction of the Earth. Wasteful consumption. Greed. Racial hatred. Idolatry. I don't think a case can be made that this "great nation" is not also guilty of everything on that list, and more besides. The audacity it takes to arbitrarily proclaim God's judgment of this nation because of an election is truly beyond the pale.

With love for all,
Eli Renner
founder of Ex-Charismatics For Jesus.

OK, so you voted, so now what?

Every 1461 days, as an American, you have the privilege to cast a vote for the highest office in the land. It's important, of course, but as a Christian, if you are one, what you did or didn't do today should not be the end. It's not time to take a nap. The Kingdom of this world is still warring against the Kingdom of our God, and of His Anointed One, and YOU still have a role to play. You can still vote. You vote every day.

You vote when you help your neighbor, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you feed a hungry man, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you love people who hurt you, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you take in strangers, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you love the unlovely, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you give into fear, and you vote when you don't.

You vote when you hold on to what you have, and you vote when you don't.

A vote is a choice, and we all make choices, some large and some small, every day. In reality, the sum total of those daily votes is what will matter when our lives our judged at the end. Who we "voted for" in the dozen or more presidential elections  we have the privilege to participate in, will be far outweighed by the choices - votes - we make on all the other days of our lives.

Don't stop now.  Keep voting.

A Prayer for today

Good morning, America...

Your day may include a trip to the polls to cast a vote today, and you may not. Regardless of your plans, I think it would be good for us all to remember today, wherever we are, to pray. One way to do that is to follow the model Jesus offered (and I'll paraphrase...)

Our Father, who is in Heaven,

Your name is holy.

May you truly become our King

May your will be done

Here in our reality,

As it is in Yours.

Today, we only ask for the things we need...for today

Please forgive us what we owe,

As we forgive those who owe us

Don't take us down paths of temptation,

Instead, lead us away from evil.

For You have the authority, and the power, and the glory, from now on. 

You always have.

Amen.