Researchers insist they can tell someone's politlcal affiliation by looking at the condition of their offices and bedrooms. Messy? You're a lefty. A neatnik? Welcome to the Right.
According to a controversial new study, set to be published in The Journal of Political Psychology, the bedrooms and offices of liberals, who are generally thought of as open, tend to be colorful and awash in books about travel, ethnicity, feminism and music, along with music CDs covering folk, classic and modern rock, as well as art supplies, movie tickets and travel memorabilia.
Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to surround themselves with calendars, postage stamps, laundry baskets, irons and sewing materials in their personal spaces, according to the study. Their bedrooms and offices are well-lighted and decorated with sports paraphernalia and flags—especially American ones.
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
This past weekend I finished up our series in Transit called The Real Deal: What it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. The outlines for the other two talks are here and here.
This week the title was "Just Do It."
Intro
Big game of shoe chaos (hadn't done a game in awhile so it was fun to play!)
Opening Illustration:
Three Legged stool - the stool doesn't function right with just one or two legs. We need the third leg to complete the stool so that it can DO what it was created for.
Transition:
So it is with our spiritual life. KNOWing God and BEing the gospel are not enough to be who God wants us to be. He wants no part of our selfish spirituality that simply gathers religious knowledge or self-centered spiritualists. We must DO in order to fulfill our mission on earth.
Text: James
Body:
Text: Micah 6:5-8, James 2:14-26
Mainly stuck with the Micah text and asked this question, "What does it mean to do good?"
Act Justly - Fight for what's right for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Illus: Superman - Fighting for truth, justice, and the American way.
Love Mercy - Caring for those who no one else cares about.
Illus: Lonely kid at school befriended by other kids who saw his need.
Walk humbly with God - All of this can only be done when we choose to daily follow Jesus so as to know Him, be like Him, and live as He did.
Illus: Parker and Sarah holding my hand in dangerous places
I found this interesting post of "a Swedish adman and former CEO Dag Soderberg [that] is leading a team called Illuminated World that's reinterpreting the Bible as a magazine - complete with sidebars, coverlines, and subheads. He's using the straight text, for the most part, but embellishing it with Bennetton-style photos and pull quotes." The Book: New Testament is being backed by the American Bible Society and is another interesting endeavor pursuing new avenues to communicate the truth of God's word. It has a Fall 2008 release time frame. I would love to see how they handle the text. But I will also be intrigued as to how they use photographs and imagery to communicate, highlight, or enhance the words.
Here is the organization's mission statement that is putting this project out there for the world:
"To introduce today’s audience to a revolutionary contemporary Bible, one that encourages dialogue and is culturally relevant, readily accessible and easily digestible for any reader regardless of religious, economic, racial or social background.
Illuminated World does not support or endorse any specific religion. We have no religious agenda. It is simply meant to be a unique vehicle for reacquainting today’s reader with the most important historical text ever written and capture the greatest story ever told as no one has seen it in 2000 years."
Here's a link to the FAQs. I love stuff like this. It's so out of my normal box.
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Maybe one of the more addicting games out there. The game is called Pointer. You use your mouse to navigate a series of mazes that get progressively harder with each passing level and world. Don't start. It's like computer mouse crack cocaine. So terrible addictive. I got to level world 3 level 5 in about 10 minutes and then the wheels came off. Argh!
Hot Pockets were on the menu today at DECA (Dayton Early College Academy), the charter school I work at. So in honor of that classic food item and great lunch room cuisine, I give you this outstanding comedy moment.
Is this the year that 100 years of curses, jinxes, Leon Durhams, goats, and Bartmans are turned around? Here's to my Cubbies making a great run in the playoffs, an appearance in World Series, and finally bringing the mantle of World Champions back to the North Side, the great windy city - Chicago!
It all starts tonight at 5:30 cst with Dempster vs Lowe followed in subsequent games with the arms of Zambrano, Harden, and Lily (not to mention Wood out of the bully). The fate of destiny rest in those hands, elbows, and shoulders.
Talk #2 in "The Real Deal" series on what it means to a real Christian, an authentic follower of Jesus.
Intro:
A series of "Would you rather..." questions design to get kids moving and thinking. Questions such as:
Would you rather BE the smartest person in the world or the greatest athlete?
Would your rather BE blind or deaf?
Would your rather BE rich and miserable or poor and in love?
Would your rather Be gossiped about or never talked about at all?
Trans:
Who do we want to be? What do we want to be? These are huge questions that you are beginning to ask yourself. Last week we looked at who and what you have to know to be a real Christian or authentic follower of Jesus. This week we are going to look at who we have to BE and to do this we are going to use the word gospel as an acrostic and see some biblical ideas about what it means to BE the Gospel.
G: Be Generous - Text: John 3:16
O: Be Others S: Serving - Be a Servant (these two letters were this one point). Text: Mark 10:45
P: Be Powerful - Text: Romans 1:16
E: Be an Example - Text: 1 Corinthians 11:1
L: Be Love - Text: 1 John 11-20
Conslusion:
Be Jesus! Know Him. Be like Him. You and I may be the only honest, real, loving, authentic, powerful, servant, example of "Jesus with skin on" that your friends or family or school may ever know.
I'm going to try something new here on Held Up High. I'm going to share with those that intentionally and accidentally drop by my messages that I share on Sunday mornings for Transit, the middle school ministry of the church I attend.
The first series of the fall is "The Real Deal". It's all about what it means to be a real and authentic follower of Jesus as a middle school student.
Talk #1: "Are You In The Know?"
Intro
Divided them into guys and girls and groups and have them debate on whether or not it's hard to be a Christian. The I had them share their thoughts on whether or not they feel it's hard to be real or honest about your faith. Then I had them paint a verbal picture of what it looked like to be a real Christian
Transition:
In my opinion a real Christian or authentic follower of Jesus is someone honest and open about who they are, their life and their relationship with God and others.
We are going to look at three areas over the next three weeks that are important to find out what it means to be that kind of person. Those areas are: know, be, and do.
Passage:
Matthew 11:25-30
I gave the context of the book of Matthew and this particular passage. I went on to share that this passage communicates some helpful insights about what we should KNOW as authentic followers of Jesus.
1. Know God 2. Know that life will be hard 3. Know that you are not alone
I unpacked each of those points with illustrations and explaination.
Warning and conclusion:
All this comes with one thing we must be careful of...knowing for the sake of knowing - to look smart, spiritual, or gain the approval of others. If this is what knowing is or the kind that you and I are striving for then it's B.S. and worth nothing to God.
So how about you? What do you really know about God? Will you take him up on his promise (read the passage!)? Do you need to know the One who loves you and died for you and now lives for you? For in knowing God and his son, Jesus, we can take what life throws at us knowing that kindness and goodness will ultimately win out in our hearts as we get to know the Gentle and Humble One.
This week in dV8, the student ministry at the church I attend, we had an amazing group of people in sharing the story of a country - Uganda - and its children. The group is Invisible Children. What an amazing group of humble, thoughtful, and passionate people who are burdened to see change happen in a war torn country where children are being captured and converted into soilders.
"In the spring of 2003, three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. What started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims.
The film was originally shown to friends and family, but has now been seen by millions of people. The overwhelming response has been, "How can I help?" To answer this question, the non-profit Invisible Children, Inc. was created, giving compassionate individuals an effective way to respond to the situation.
We are storytellers. We are visionaries, humanitarians, artists, and entrepreneurs. We are individuals part of a generation eager for change and willing to pursue it.
As a non-profit we work to transform apathy into activism. By documenting the lives of those living in regions of conflict and injustice, we hope to educate and inspire individuals in the Western world to use their unique voice for change. Our media creates an opportunity for people to become part of a grassroots movement that intelligently responds to what's happening in the world.
But our work extends beyond our borders. In war-affected regions we focus on long-term development, working directly with individuals and institutions that are eager to realize their full potential. Through education and innovative economic opportunities, we partner with affected communities and strive to improve the quality of life for individuals living in conflict and post-conflict regions."
It's a great organization full compassion and justice for a people with limited resources that is desperate for any people to listen to their story, hear their voice and take up there cause. I hope and think that today some of our students will take this back to their friends, student councils, and schools and say, "We have to help!"
My prayer is that our students will respond out compassion and obedience as to how God might be leading whether big or small. Stuff like this can not only change a life, but change a campus and a country.
Are you looking for some cause to wrap your arms, your school, and/or your ministry's arms around? How might you or them get involved? And once you do...how far will you go?
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
This past summer due to school for me, no vacation time for Kelly, and a tight budget for us as a family we didn't take long vacation (which we love to do and really missed). However, we took some long holiday weekend trips to see some friends and had other friends come see us here in Dayton. Here is some of our relational tribe that helps make us strong and are a blast to be around.
The Pittsburgh Edition:
Lady Di
The Maslos
Michele Maslo (love this shot of her and Sarah watching fireworks)
I'm only a month late with this post, but it's all good.
So it is official: two kids in school. Well, one in school and the other in preschool, but that's relative b/c we are still hauling Parker from an institute of higher learning for 4 year olds. He loved this first day and everyday since. He especially likes the muscle room and show and tell. Here are a couple of pics from the first day.
"At its peak this once-magnificent church in Gary, Indiana had 3,000 congregation members. But like so many places in Gary it fell into disrepair as industry money dwindled in the region and social changes occurred. It was initially readopted by another congregation, then partially occupied by businesses, then finally abandoned and eventually burned."
What a sad story. But as I thought about it, this picture goes deeper as a metaphor for thousands of other churches in America: beautiful buildings and beautiful people who have abandoned the Churches mission and kingdom calling and become dead. However, we dress up these dead people and places with fancy buildings, slick programs, contemporary services, the right close, right friends, and right cliches all the while neglecting spiritually lost people, emotionally hurting people, and physically poor people around us.
But I can't leave it at that. It goes deeper. I know for me personally there are times when I dress up the recesses of my soul that I have abandoned with denial (I'm OK), distractions (I'll get to that later), or image management (people will ultimately measure me by what I do, who my friends are, and how much money/what kind stuff I have). I do this to give the impression that either I've got it all together or everything is going to be fine.
I'm so amazed and humbled that even though the Church may abandoned its Jesus creed or I may ignore the decay and destruction in my own life, God will never leave me or forsake me. He fights to keep the faith in me. I want to fight that fight with Him. I long to see the places in my soul and life permanently and authentically beautified and not temporarily doctored to appear pretty for those passing by.
...to bailouts. I may be naive or ignorant or both, but I am hoping and praying that no one bails out these banks. It's nuts. If we do this, we are as immoral as people who legalize abortions or believe in war as the ultimate way to peace. If we do this, we are burdening the American people in order to "rescue/enable" people who have been deceitful and fulled by greed. If we do this, we are robbing the poor, the needy, and our children of resources and education that can make a difference in their lives both now and in the future. If we do this, we grieve the hear of God.
I hope that you and I are writing, email, calling, etc our president, senator, and/or congressmen or women, to tell unashamedly that we will not stand by and let this administration or this congress do this to our country.
In light of that, here is more from my friend and personal political prophet, Ron Paul.
I was recently introduced to this song writer/worship leader, Matt Maher, a few weeks ago watching the Catholic channel EWTN on tv. He wrote the song "Your Grace Is Enough" arranged and made popular by Chris Tomlin. So tonight on my way home from class I heard him being interviewed on K-Luv (national christian radio). I loved his heart and his spirit and his passion for Jesus. When I got home, I downloaded his album Empty and Beautiful. Whoa. Stirring. Reflective. Passionate. Out-freaking-standing.
As I listened to the songs, I came to the last and title track: "Empty and Beautful". This song, it's lyrics, and music is like rain on parched land for me. Water to a thirsty soul in me. In light of my issues of depression and self-doubt about who I am, what I'm good for and do I have what it takes to do anything God sets before me, these words were huge.
I don't know how your day has been, how this season has been, or what has stacked up in 2008. I know some of our stories. Lost job. Personal failure. Addiction. Parental questioning. Disease. Depression. Marital and relational doubt with God, spouse, and/or friends. And a hundred others that we bring to the table each and everyday.
Have you had the longing to hear words when times of struggle have given you fits and you've wondered in your emptiness if anything or anyone would be able to fill it with beauty? I know I did and do. Words like:
"You fought the fight in me You chased me down and finished the race I was blind but now I see Jesus You kept the faith in me"
Whatever the case may be, maybe these words, this song be sweet for you as well.
Click here for a link to the lyrics. When the page pops up, just to the left of the lyrics is a box that says "Play This Song." It will take you to a another site where you can listen to the song for free. Play the song and follow the words.
My prayer for us today is that we would know and experience the love and grace of the One who strengthens, chases, and fights in us and for us so that our faith may grow and we might know God's glory.
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