God's use of language

The commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of your Lord God in vain" has always seemed one of the lesser of the Ten Commandments, to me. God wanted proper respect for his name, sure, but didn't he also elevate us to the level of co-heirs with him in his kingdom?
A few class periods ago, my worldview professor explored God's use of language.

• God created the world by speaking it all into existence.
• Jesus used language to perform his miracles. He spoke to the storm while the disciples cowered in fear. "Be still!" he said and the storm ceased.
• Jesus, on another occasion, verbally cursed a fig plant and it withered and died.
• God revels himself to us today by the Bible--the Word of God.

Somehow, there is this power contained within language itself. Although we use a language which is as broken as ourselves, there is a remnant of power within it.

• Paul writes that "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Rom. 10:9)
• "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move." (Matt 17:20)
• Adam's calling in the garden was to classify and name the animals.

I don't know what the implications for this ideas is yet. I don't know how it will change my writing or how it will affect my everyday speech. But it does explain why God is so concerned with the use of him name.

Freshman Writing

Now that I have started college and lived the collegiate life for a few months, I have discovered that you can become anyone you want. Once your parents drive away, no one who knows your history remains. You are only known and judged as you are in the present.
For me, this was liberating. My writing became aggressive in what I wrote about and my wit (aka sarcasm) is developing, or, I hope it is.
I am also writing for the college's student newspaper, The Bryan Triangle. To see examples of my reporting, you should read it there. Of course, I will probably post examples here as well. My writing has grown here because this is the first time where I was forced to write about several sport stories.

A Vision Through the Wide-Angle Lens, a review of the book "Engaging God's World"

During the 2008 Presidential elections, I was sure this nation would turn around for the better. I was rubbing shoulders with people from the Family Research Council and I was a passionate member of the Connecticut Family Policy Council, the Family Institute of Connecticut. In my mind and the minds of my chums, then Democrat nominee Barack Obama could not get elected because he was so bad for the country.


We were the youth. We were the new voice. Time and time again we were told that “they will listen to you; they listen to the young people.” So we spoke to fight against the red tide of culture. Dare I say it? We were young, and we thought we were invincible.

But history tells a different story. We failed. Or, that is how it felt like. The subsequent days and weeks after the election of President Obama, I rethought my view on Christians in culture. I was so sure we were going to take it all back for God’s glory, but now we dropped that much more. Each battle was so costly, getting to the point where we were just a few years ago would now require decades of work. I went from a Christian who believed we could and should take back government and reclaim it for God’s glory, to something almost of a complete opposite.

The world was sinful, so sinful that we would never regain a toehold in the culture and we were too few to stop the decent into Gomorrah. The duty of a Christian in culture was to speak the truth and to warn them what is going to happen. Write letters to the editor, attend the public hearings, but all the while, knowing that they would overrule us, laugh us off, or hostilely condemn us. In short, I believed we were to make a half hearted attempt at stopping them, and then say, “Well, we tried.”

I swung from one extreme to the next. But I have found the middle ground from Cornelius Plantinga’s book Engaging God’s World, a Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. By looking at the core of Christianity, the gospel meta-narrative of creation, fall and finally redemption, Plantinga presents a vision of the principals a Christian should live.

In the first chapter, Plantinga introduces the idea of Shalom. Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, he says, is a state of eternal peace, larger than what we can satisfy. Every individual longs for this peace and strives for it in some way. “In the Bible,” writes Plantinga, “shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural need are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, all under the arch of God’s love. Shalom, in other words, is the way things are supposed to be.”

Christians have this longing and hope that things are better, that all we see in the here and now is not all of what we can find to satisfy us. Plantinga writes that “Biblical hope has a wide-angle lens. It takes in whole nations and peoples. It brings into focus the entire created order—wolves and lambs, mountains and plains, rivers and valleys. When it is widest and longest, biblical hope looks forward toward a whole “new heaven and new earth” in which death, and mounting, and pain will have passed away (Rev. 21:1, 4)…”

Plantinga shows that as our hope is wide, so is God’s creation. Plantinga quotes Daniel Migliore: “while the stars, the tree, and the animals do not speak or sing of the glory of God in the same way that humans do, in their own way the too lift up their praises to God, and for all we know, they do this with a spontaneity and consistency far greater than our own.” God doesn’t not only hear his glory lauded from the voices of humans, he hears it through all of creation.

However, God gave human kind, his own image bearers, and a special task of ruling over this creation. This is not a narrow mission of stewarding the environment. “According to a widespread interpretation of this mandate (or is it a blessing?),” says Plantinga, “God’s good creation includes not only earth and it’s creatures, but also an array of cultural gifts, such as marriage, family, art, language, commerce, and (even in an ideal world) government.”

But just as creation was wider and bigger than what some may think, sin is more pervasive. The human psyche didn’t develop a duelist nature, or a cancerous growth; the effects of sin infused every cell and action of Man—there is no escaping the gas of brokenness.

But as our sin was greater, so was God’s common grace. God still infuses his providence and his acts throughout the meta-narrative so that it will not fall into complete chaos. As Plantinga writes, “What is striking, once more, is the persistence of God’s grace. God refuses to let the shipwreck happen. So the prophets tell of God’s judgment, and they foretell the exile of his people. But they also see God’s salvation on the horizon, and they want it with the whole force of their hearts.”

Once we adopt God’s worldview, we must become initiated into Christ’s family. This initiation, as taught by many churches, is in the form of baptism into the Church family. Plantinga says, “Before the Red Sea, an Israelite was a slave to a foreign power. After the Red Sea, an Israelite was a liberated Child of God… … Christians get baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…”

After we have been reformed, the mission turns wider. Our hearts have been reformed, but all of creation is still contaminated with evil. Plantinga spends the rest of the book discussing how the Christian should be the redemptive force in the world which brings a small part of Christ’s shalom to this earthly world.

The overall message of Engaging God’s World was inspiring. Having caught myself in a period of despair when I saw more of my own sin and failure than the savior, this book showed me a perspective I desperately needed—a big vision, something valuable in this life to eagerly strive for.

The book helped me so much; it is hard to see the imperfections of it. Every Christian should understand that every aspect of their life has worth and meaning to God. Although this book was aimed primarily to Christian college students, a thirty-something who comes to the decision to follow Christ should understand that the faith is not compartmentalized.

Plantinga could have gone into greater depth in two areas. First, he never addressed the first step of redemption. Where is the discussion on becoming saved? In a book which explores the meta-narrative and the broad strokes of Christianity, a discussion on how a person becomes saved should have been included. Instead, Plantinga addresses baptism and the community within the Church. Necessary and critical, but these steps are step two and step three.

Secondly, Plantinga should have explained the scriptural basis for his vision of heaven. He believes that the earth shall turn into heaven when Christ finally returns. He says “My reason for thinking so is that scripture appears to teach not only that there shall be a new heaven and earth, but also that it shall be this earth, renewed. In Revelation 21 the city of God descends to us. We do not go to heaven; heaven comes to us.” This is a very wonderful idea which I find very attractive, but I must approach it critically before I accept it. Plantinga mentions one biblical reference, yet never actually quotes it. Before I accept the idea that this earth shall be renewed and experience shalom at the coming of Christ, Plantinga should have provided stronger references back to the Bible.

Yet Plantinga has given a vision. By going back to the meta-narrative of Christianity, he shows a movement larger than us which will give us fulfillment in this life—something worth living for. Plantinga has given “a Christian vision of faith, learning and living.”

Will We Be Facing Hyper-Inflation?

OK guys, I think this is very, very important to understand. Tell me what you think.

Trail-Building with the CTFPA

Several weeks ago, I volunteered with the Connecticut Forest and Park Association (CTFPA). We were blazing a trail in Berlin across a town owned park, Bicentennial Park. Covering this event for the local newspaper, I brought along my camera and captured these shots. Enjoy.

Volunteers Clearing The Trail at Bicentenial Park

Volunteers Swarming Over the Boardwalk and Bridge

Building the Bridge Across Hatchery Brook

Painting the Blue-Blazes Along the Trail. Every Five Years Blazes Need To Be Repainted

The Trail Is Done. Tools and Volunteers Rest.

Berlin’s Congregations Join During National Day of Prayer

Residents in Berlin Gather to Pray at the National Day of Prayer

About 30 people gathered at the Worthington Ridge War memorial Thursday evening to simply pray.
The event brought together four churches in Berlin; Bethany Covenant Church; Berlin Congregational Church; Kensington Congregational Church; and Wellspring Church. Members of the congregations were observing the National Day of Prayer.
The participants prayed for seven areas of American life. There were prayers offered up for the well being of the three distinct institutions in America today: Government, Churches and Families. Guidance was sought for the areas of life which influenced those institutions: the military, the media, education, and business.
When asked about the importance of the National Day of Prayer, Bob Switzer, a pastor at Wellspring Church who led the prayers for the media and churches said, “For me, it’s about relationships. There are the relationships with the churches; we are standing together and publicly saying we’re desiring a relationship.” Switzer also pointed out that in the act of praying for culture and government; the people are recognizing the relationship they have with those areas and institutions. Finally, he said that “It’s publicly showing the relationship we have with God.”
The prayer group was a part of a national gathering of prayer services which have been officially occurring for the last sixty years.
In 1952, President Harry Truman signed a measure declaring a National Day of Prayer. Later, in 1988, Ronald Reagan made the National Day of Prayer the first Thursday of the month of May.
This year, Governor Jodi Rell signed an official statement regarding the National Day of Prayer. It read, “It is fitting that we should give thanks for the freedom and prosperity enjoyed by this State and our Nation and pray for continued guidance and comfort, which has been graciously bestowed upon this Nation since its inception.” It continued, “I, M. Jodi Rell, Governor of the State of Connecticut… …urge all citizens to observe this day in ways appropriate to its importance and significance.”

Note: This was my first time attending my town's prayer event; in past years, I have attended the event at the State Capitol. My town's service was so much better than the one at the Capitol. It's eloquence was in its simplicity. Having brought along my camera and notebooks, I covered the event. This piece may be published in my town newspaper, however, I didn't get paid for it, hence the publication on here.

Deer Skull Photoshoot

A couple days ago, I found this old deer skull in our garage. For some time I was meaning to take pictures of it, and I finally got that chance. I learned a few things, especially about breath control and using a support. Over half the pictures I took were fuzzy. Here are a few of the dramatic ones.

Physical Education Majors Aren’t the Only People to Benefit from Exercise

The first day of college has arrived at the state university. Students are walking across campus to check out the coffee shop. Others are finished moving into their dorms and are meeting the people they will tolerate for the next four years. One student beginning her freshman semester is Cathy Unschuld.
She doesn’t stand out from the crowd, because she is the crowd—she represents the quintessential college student.
Cathy has always had a good life. She was an average student in High School and she had a wide circle of friends. As a teenager, she participated in the occasional walk for charity, played pickup Ultimate Frisbee, but she didn’t let health get in the way of life.
Her plan at college is to get a degree in psychology, and work as a teacher after college. She is serious. Some punks may go to college for the parties, but she knows the cost of college, and she is going to work at this. Cathy has taken a heavy course load this freshman semester; she wants succeed at college.
Let’s see how her life goes the first semester.
After the first week of school, Cathy is letting out a deep breath. Her course load is Tough! She wisely declines the offer of some new friends to attend a party over the weekend to study. All her time is spent on classes and studying—nothing else.
The second week leaves Cathy a bit baggy around the eyes. She is keeping up with the load, but the long term stress is catching up with her. Friday morning she stumbles into the cafeteria needing energy and a pick-me-up and but she has no appetite. The donuts, frosted flakes, and sweetened coffee are what she can get down right now.
By the fourth week, Cathy really begins to feel terrible. Her eating habits have stayed the same. And the course load, she has managed to get most of the studying done as well as all the assignments. But it’s a stone wheel which is slowly grinding her away.
She thought that she might have needed to get out, to do something different, so she attended a party, but this Monday morning she looks at herself in the mirror through a blur. She is tired, discouraged, and the beginnings of freshman fifteen are showing itself around her hips. Lying on her un-made bed, she lets her troubles weigh down on her. There is a test tomorrow, she is dropping behind in English and she just feels blah. “Was I ready for college?” She wonders to herself.
Cathy’s health has gotten in the way of her life. Too much stress and an unbalanced lifestyle has left Cathy tired and burned out. She tried to eat her way out of it, but the greasy, sugary food only made her worse. Now, her education is suffering and her goal of becoming a teacher is put at risk.
After complaining to her roommate about how burned out she is, Cathy’s roommate looks up from her textbook and says, “Y’know Cathy, you don’t have to be a Physical Education Major to benefit from some exercise.”
Many freshmen find themselves in Cathy’s predicament. Faced with adult decisions and responsibility, they drop their health to try to fit everything in their life. However, a healthy lifestyle helps them through college.
Even if Cathy could find the time for another class, it is too late in the semester to participate in a sport, but Cathy has found other ways to get active.
She joins the pickup games of Ultimate Frisbee in the evening. On the weekends, she walks through the college town, poking into the small shops and experiencing the bustle of humanity. Before, she would hop in a car to the movie theater and she hardly glanced at the town.
In the spirit of staying healthy, she even tried the special in the cafeteria and found she likes kale.
In short, Cathy pushes herself hard. When she pushes her body through exercise, school isn’t that hard anymore. Her body is used to working at rigorous speeds and running from class to class isn’t’ that hard anymore. She sleeps better and she can manage her life.
Making her life a healthy one, Cathy has widened her life. Instead of hermiting herself away in the library to study, she is getting out more and experiencing her college life.
Cathy has learned her lesson. Operating in the modern world is hard work. To sail through life, she will incorporate the healthy habits she has developed in her life after she earns her psychology degree. Teaching a class of students is hard work too, but it won’t be that hard. After all, running the dog, bicycling to work, and the yoga class will prepare her to succeed far into the future.

Fighting the Feilds of Strawmen

Today, we face a field rife with enemies. Hordes and hordes of them, each of them with a secret plan, an evil motive which need to be stopped before they invade our houses, take over the country, or plunge the world into chaos.
Like zombies, they mass together and invade us in hordes. They can be found everywhere, preying on our minds.
Beware of: the Straw man fallacy.

Get your pitchforks and torches folks! Distroying this one will be easy!

We must resist and fight this menace. Left unchecked, it takes our minds and makes it so that we cannot think. Thankfully, there is an anecdote, like a zombie, it flees when sunlight is shined on them.

The straw man fallacy occurs when the arguer sets up or assumes a simplified position which his opponent holds. Rushing upon the position with weapon raised high, the arguer hacks and chops the argument ‘til it lies destroyed on the floor.

I remember watching one congressman giving a speech on the floor of congress during the debates on Healthcare. He was distorting the Republican’s version of healthcare to the point where he was making a fool of himself.

“This is the Republican’s plan” he ranted. “DON’T GET SICK!” And if you do get sick, DIE QUICKLY!”
He repeated his point a few times (for laughs I hope, because he wasn’t doing himself any favors if he was serious) and then he sat down.
Can we move forward with such arguments? Can we come to agreement when one side is demonizing and simplifying the other side?
It’s satisfying to totally destroy someone’s argument. Sometimes, we want that so badly, that we misrepresent the other person’s side. Setting up a straw man, and blowing it up. Sure, it’s easy—that is why we see it all the time.
We are intelligent people. Sometimes the world isn’t simple and the arguments aren’t easy to refute. But we must not stoop to use straw men. Instead of giving a show of acting heroically and slashing the straw figures of our enemies, or, worse, become captured by the hordes of straw, let us do battle on a different side of the field, the field where the real people meet, where hearts are engaged and truth is discovered.

Debate Advice

Two days ago, a chapter of my life closed--the chapter of Team Policy debate. Last Wednesday regionals finished with an awards ceremony, and I went home with a box full of useless papers. I learned many, many lessons on argumentation and debate. Namely, the best debaters are not that different from the average debaters, and something else which escapes me.

Everyone should try debate. When I left debate camp last summer, I could feel the difference in my thinking. It was more analytical, sharper, and clearer. No, it wasn't perfect. I had a season of debate to hone it.

When I first saw a debate, I was overwhelmed. Here was my peers rolling words like 'solvencey' and 'inherency' off their lips like normal teens would use 'cool' or 'hip.' It took me several years from seeing that first debate to finally debate for myself. Debate is scary. The only way you will be able to do it is to jump right in, fully commit, and do it. Debate is a skill that you learn by doing.

I have been doing many tournaments lately. This is why I haven't been writing as much as I should.

Through the many debate tournaments, I learned some things through experience. They may help some people, other may just say "Duh... Dan, you were just supposed to know that." But if it helps you in your debate career, then this isn't a post wasted.

• Debates are won in the constructives. Why? Because that is where the arguments are made. The rebuttals only rebut and impact. Make your arguments powerful in the contructives.
• Debate is a competition with few rules. The ancient Greeks had few rules in their boxing matches. If I recall, the only rule was don't poke your opponent's eyes out. The only rules I know of in Debate is this: wear a suit, don't swear, don't kill your opponents, and talk about the resolution, and the judge is in charge. The rest is simply guidelines and ethics to win. (but the guidelines and ethics are so important, make them your rules to win.)
• the goal of debate is to convince the judge. Often, only one judge will be in the round. If one team can read the body language of that judge to figure out what kind of person they are, they will have an advantage over the other team because they can focus their arguments. Is the judge not flowing the arguments? Then you better make your arguments simple and concrete so that the arguments stay in their head. Does the judge seem laid back? Then go ahead and pull a few jokes. In short, do what you need to do to persuade that one individual.
• Use simple cards. The best cards in debate are ones which come from a credible source explaining why the reality is a certain way. Your top cards should be the cards which use simple language and which creates pictures in the listener's head. Better still is cards which uses original language or humor. These are the cards which remain in the judges head and they will understand.
• Yes, we are a bunch of nerds, but we still have glitches in logical thinking. Watch for logical fallacies in arguments. This makes your rebuttals easier. Instead of explaining and creating a clunky argument, point out the fallacies. You don't have to explain that the EPA is a credible organization, that is silly, simply point out the Ad Homium fallacy. They attacked the person instead of the arguments the person addressed.
• Have fun. This may sound like crass advice, but it is true. If you don't have fun, you will become burned out. You will miss the joy of arguing and you won't learn as much. Try to have fun in every round. I brought a smile to many judges and opponent's faces when I said at the end of the round:  "and remember judge, vote green, Jackson/Green."

Happy Tax Day!

In celebration of Tax Day, I wanted to share this video with you. I don't know if I agree with all of the solutions they propose, because I don't know that much about the pros and cons of a flat tax. but they present an interesting solution to the bloated tax system.

Hard-Knock Journalism

A  list of Journalism pointers, learned through the school of hard knocks.

• A poker face should also be called a journalist's face.
• Being interviewed is as scary as hell. It's a stranger listening to every word you say and any of it may be taken and printed in a place your mom, your neighbor and your neighbor's parrot will read it. A journalist must constantly remember that fact.
• Better pictures and interviews take place when the interviewee is relaxed.
• A journalist must soffen the interviewee's defenses and get them to open up at the begining of the interview.
• During an interview, a journalist must be honest, impartial, probing and reassuring. This is a contradiction. This is why they call interviewing an art.
• "Talking to a reporter is a matter of trust"~My Editor
• Always fact check

Question of Journalist's Death Answered

Roger Shermon, the famous Civil War general, once remarked "war is hell." This was slammed into me today by the news story today. It's a collision of Journalism, civilian deaths, and difficult decisions. A word of caution, it's a graphic set of videos.

Here is the story as Al Jazeera told it:



CNN had a different take on this story told here. Thankfully, it add balance to this situation. On a side note, it's interesting to see how they each presented a different set of facts to paint the situation how they wanted you to see it.

I really don't have much analysis about this situation, except that war is much, much more complicated than what I used to think was. I knew it was complicated before, but it is something about actually seeing it that brings it all into focus.

I would love to hear your comments on this situation. Please comment below.

Checking My Spiritual Signs

Recently, I have been asking myself the question, “So how are you, Dan, spiritually?”
“I’m saved, right?” I would answer to myself while running through all the sins I committed in the last two weeks in another part of my head “So everything must be fine.”
The question kept nagging me nonetheless and finally, another question came up: How do we determine how our spiritual well being? What do we look for?
Looking at this issue, I figure three methods of determining our spiritual state. Two of them lead to potential downfall and I have fallen into that kind of thinking at one point or another. Do we base it off how many times we didn’t sin, how many spiritual thrills this week, or something else?
If we are going to be good Christians, than we have to be good and not bad, i.e. sin. Although God doesn’t count it, we must keep a running tally in our head of the good and bad act we committed to determine where we are spiritually. Sinning more than usual? Hmmm, then you need work.
A legalist never really accepts the continual grace of God. For he must work not to break rules, and if he does break them, he thinks that God must surely be as hard on him as he on himself. “Sorry God, I screwed up again today. Forgive me, please. I don’t want to sin anymore. Thank you, amen”
We then have to try again, to do better. Then there is the focus on rules. The legalistic Christian will avoid the big sins by setting up a defense of rules, and then if they break those rules, a further wall of sub-rules to prevent them from breaking the first rules. When it is all done, a maze of rules binds the Christian in.
Rules, sin, legalism, and effort—the continual focus of looking at your sins is discouraging. Run from that. It creates emo Christians.
Another way a Christian may determine his spiritual health is to feel how he is doing. If the Christian determines his spiritual health by the “thrills” he gets, than that is equally corrosive.
When I was about eight or so, I remember hearing contemporary Christian music for the first time. I felt like really praising my Savior when that music of the spirit came on. I would raise my arms, and let the music be my praise to God. It had a beat and electric guitars and cool singers.
But when I listened to secular music for the first time (I had slow socialization growth), I caught myself raising my arms and singing whatever out. Jerking my hand down, I remember thinking, “Dan. What are you doing? This stuff isn’t of the spirit.”
The feel goodness can be often based on the externalities. Your spiritual health is based more on the quality of the worship band, or the charisma of the pastor or other feel good techniques than what is believed and taught. This is shallow.
The spiritual experience isn’t something I want to totally dismiss from the Christian experience; it is an important and wonderful part of Christianity. In addition, the rules and guidelines are important as well. The point I want to make is that they cannot be what we judge to determine who is a strong Christian.
So what determines spiritual health? Could it be the transformation? We were one way, and now that we have changed, the spiritual growth is determined by how much we are indifferent to the temptations of this world? What is the impact of that?
It also means we need to be improving, but that thought is a slippery slope into legalism if we focus on the rules.
No, Spiritual growth is determined on how much our eyes are on Jesus, how much we think about him, spend time with him, and desire him. It is a relationship of trust. If we look on him, through the failures of the flesh, and the dry spiritual times, we will grow.
No relationship is simply based only on ether rules or feelings. So to be very elementary about this, we have to ask the question, what does it mean to have a good relationship? Several things. To have a deepening relationship with someone means that you want to get to know them: how they react in certain situations, what they like and dislike, etc. I may be sticking my foot in my mouth, but the Bible says very little on the nuances of God’s character. We know the broad, generalizations, but we don’t know how God will orchestrate our life. We must spend time with him; talk with him to find that out for ourselves. We really cannot do this by hearing others talk about him.
You have probably experienced that awkward moment when you meet a close friend of your friend. Beaming, they inform you “Oh Dan has told me so much about you. It feels like I already know you!” But do they really? They might know a few of your quirks and they may make an educated guess about how you will react in certain situations, but they don’t really know you. They need to talk to you to hear your voice and spend time with you to discover your subtleties. The same goes with Christ.
Do you think that Jesus Christ can simply be reduced into a pile of cause and effect formulas? He is the most complex personality in the universe. Can we not try to discover that? Let’s stop examining our spirituality and instead focus on our Creator with worship—then and only then our spirituality is in the right place.

Speaking With Conviction

Two airplane pilots are waiting to land their plane at an airport:

Copilot: Look how the ice is just hanging on his, ah, back, back there, see that?

There is no response from the Captain. He tries again.

Copilot: See all those icicles on the back there and everything?

Captain: Yeah...

Copilot: Boy, this is a, this is a losing battle here on trying to de-ice these things....

A minute or two passes and then he speaks again.

Copilot: Let's check these tops again since we've been here awhile.

Captain: I think we get to go here in a minute.

But they didn't go in a minute. The ice was too thick and the plane crashed.

In this true-life situation, cited in a McGraw-Hill Communication text book, both pilots were trained and competent, however an urgent problem was ignored because the copilot watered down his message to his superior. This is an extreme example of a persistent problem in our culture.

When we speak, we beat around the bush; we add doubt to our words with statements such as ‘I guess’ and ‘maybe’; and we fill our listener’s ears with “ums”, ‘likes” and “uhs”. We hesitate and don’t commit to what we say, and we ask our listeners to do the same. We don’t speak with conviction.

I cited above the extreme example of the copilot in the introduction, but the everyday harms of speaking without conviction surround us.

The listener has to make more effort listening to make up for a wishy-washy speaker. The listener needs to decide whether the message is important. And sometimes, the listener needs to figure out what the speaker is trying to communicate. If the listener doesn’t put more effort into receiving the communication, the message will be lost.

If the speaker does not speak with conviction, they hurt themselves and their message. Speaking with doubt will leave their ideas open to be challenged or dismissed. If every phrase is pithy and passionate, the speaker will be listened to and respected.

There is a question in Journalism; to what extent can you edit the quotes of your interviewees? Oftentimes, you have to edit regardless. If you were to write down exactly what an interviewee said, even the most learned, cultured person sounds like this: "well, uh, we've taken steps in that area, and, and well for example, we have a, have made a committee to oversee that step in the project. Does that make sense?"

A good journalist will edit the clip down to: "We have taken steps in that area; for example, we have made a committee to oversee that step in the project." Now the gentleman sounds like he deserves to wear his suit to work. By why couldn’t he speak like that in the first place?

The way the culture speaks today hinders. Speak with conviction. Rise above the noise.

Morality and the Market

I want to share this video I discovered on the Foundation for Economic Education's website. The lecturer, Dr Ronald Nash, explains the faulty thinking liberal Christians engage in when they think Jesus advocated for a socialistic economy. It is a good lecture, but watch it when you have a bit of time as it is almost 66 minutes long.


Morality of the Market from FEE on Vimeo.

Q&A with Brett Harris

(Note: This article first appeared in my Church's newsletter last March. Since many of you, my audience, are looking for, or going to attend, a college, I thought I should share this before it becomes completely stale. This is a very interesting article for me because this was my first time interviewing someone.)

Writing a bestselling book (Do Hard Things, Multnomah books), authoring the most visited Christian blog on the web (TheRebelution.com) and being much sought after speakers, Brett Harris, along with his brother Alex, accomplished a great deal. Their message to teens is to shake off low expectations and live to Christ’s glory- doing hard things that makes you grow. Having just begun attending college, Brett Harris sat down with me to discuss how college affects a God-fearing teen’s (also called a rebelutionary) pursuit of Christ. Here is our conversation:

Q As rebelutionarys moves off to college, their time that they had as teenagers becomes taken up. Does this hamper the rebelutionary’s ability to do great things for God’s glory?

A Absolutely not! . . . Absolutely not at all. It’s a way to prepare, a way to launch yourself into the rest of your life.

Q What would you say the attitude of a rebelutionary should be entering college?

A The first thing any young Christian should do is become surrounded by good believers and make college the primary season of primary spiritual growth.
A rebelutionary’s goal is to really learn. Priority will be actual preparation, not a good time, not school games . . . The goal is growth, not good grades . . . Life starts now, not after graduation. . . While in college, look for opportunities to serve God and make room in your schedule for that purpose.

Q Anyone can go to college, how do you go about it for God’s glory?

A The Bible says, “whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God”. For the college student, bringing glory to God involves more than just Bible reading, chapel, church, and other religious activities. It involves writing papers, investing in relationships, etc. etc.

Q So Christianity should permeate every aspect of your time in college.

A Exactly. When doing an activity, you should ask, “God, what is your purpose for this activity and how can I glorify you in the way I perform it?”

Q Now this question has been bouncing around in my head for some time. Do you find that as you set out to do a hard thing, it feels daunting, but looking back, you consider the thing which you thought was hard, not that hard after all?

A Doing hard things is like exercise. I began working out when I started coming to college. When I began, I could bench press 150 pounds. I could have said ‘great! I can bench press 150 pounds’ and just kept on lifting that weight without trying to build my strength. But that wouldn’t be beneficial to me. Being stuck in your comfort zone is bad, no matter how big it is. Alex and I could continue to write books and hold conferences. But that would be easy for us and we wouldn’t be growing. Right now, we’re focusing on the small hard things; we’re just going to be normal students. You do something, gain skills, build, to have the strength to do new things later on.

Q So if you continued with the conferences and the books without growth you would be hypocrites to your own message.

A Yes

Q How has the Rebelution changed since you have published your book?

A It has grown. More people are accepting the message, including secular people.

Q How does the rebelution change as the teenagers who have heard the message move into work and college?

A Hopefully, the Rebelution causes a momentum and mindset that carries into the rest of life. God’s principles apply not just to teens; it applies to all Christians of all ages. We have received feedback from adults, home school moms, business professionals, and all sorts of people. Everyone, not just teens benefit from this message. Alex and I wrote to teens because we were teens at that time and that was the audience we could speak credibly to.

Scientists Find Disease Which Affects Us All

In the past years, scientists have been gradually discovering a host of mental disorders and addictions. Most recently in the wake of tiger wood’s sex scandal, medical researchers in a lab not so far away have announced that they have officially identified a sex disorder. Other physiological addictions include drug addictions, drinking and gambling. Back in the 1970’s, homosexuality was thought to fall into this group but was later discarded with scientific consensus.
Now scientists have discovered a unifying disorder which they have dubbed Humanus Vis “this is an exciting time in the realm of medicine and science” says Dr. Todd Gurry, one of the researchers to discover the disorder. “It means that theoretically the person who has a sex addiction will eventually be treated in the exact same way as a person with a binge eating problem” Scientists are still discussing which disorders are fall under the unifying disorder, but it looks like the final list will be huge. “Even compulsive cheaters and liars can fall under this disorder,” says Dr Gurry.
Patents have found comfort when their doctors told them that the problems that have plagued them for years, and even have ruined their lives, are not their fault—it’s the result of the problems of their mind.
The medical researchers have already begun to solve the next problem—to find a cure for this disorder. “It won’t be easy, as most everybody is affected to some extent,” says Dr John Walden, another researcher with the project, “but when we do find a cure, the potential for the human race is enormous!”
Researchers must solve an apparently impossible puzzle: find a way to change the human mind so that complete healing can occur.

What Shall We Do With The Pope?

Headlines slapped across newsfeeds today announced that the recent development of the Catholic Priest child molestation scandal rocking the world links the Pope to the subsequent cover up of the sin. For a decent video clip on the story, click here.
Don't the Catholics consider the Pope infallible? If so, what does that mean? To quote catholic.com:
"The Catholic Church’s teaching on papal infallibility is one which is generally misunderstood by those outside the Church. In particular, Fundamentalists and other "Bible Christians" often confuse the charism of papal "infallibility" with "impeccability." They imagine Catholics believe the pope cannot sin. Others, who avoid this elementary blunder, think the pope relies on some sort of amulet or magical incantation when an infallible definition is due.
Given these common misapprehensions regarding the basic tenets of papal infallibility, it is necessary to explain exactly what infallibility is not. Infallibility is not the absence of sin. Nor is it a charism that belongs only to the pope. Indeed, infallibility also belongs to the body of bishops as a whole, when, in doctrinal unity with the pope, they solemnly teach a doctrine as true. We have this from Jesus himself, who promised the apostles and their successors the bishops, the magisterium of the Church: "He who hears you hears me" (Luke 10:16), and "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matt. 18:18)."
The Catholics believe their leader's teaching is true, and I assume this is something akin to Divine Inspiration, but the leaders are still sinful men. Sin isn't something that is rare; it is something that is expected because, hey, we're all human. But what separates the Christian from the non-believer is what they do after they sin.
Currently the world is dancing over the body of the fallen Catholic Church, gleefully pointing out the hypocrisy and deception in the church. I must admit, although I can go head to head with a Catholic on the matters of faith and theology, I still believe that they are part of the Universal Catholic Church. It saddens me to see fellow brothers fall.
The Papacy, now more than ever, must not show the world a pompous apology ceremony. It must return to the heart of Christianity; to recognize that there has been sin, to fall publicly--with the world as its audience--at the feet of Jesus, and show the world what it means to become restored through the blood of Christ.

A Fun Lession on Economics

I saw this video a few weeks ago and I thought it was a fun way to present economic principals. If you would like to see it,click here. Just be warned, though, it's a nerd's video.