Experiencing God

I love church...at least I love what it is supposed to be. Lately, I have found myself asking the question, "Did Jesus die to creat this?" It seems that every week this question gets a little stronger in my heart. I dont want this to be a church bashing session, but I do want us to consider where we are and where we are headed. I refuse to accept that Jesus paid such a huge price for us to meet once a week, sing a few songs, talk to a few people on a superficial level, and listen to a warm and fuzzy message for 15-20 minutes. I dont think He died for me to have a great experience. I want to explain that last statement. I do believe that there is great satisfaction and great experience in God, but I fear that we have fallen in love with the experience of church, a stirring message, or even singing. There is nothing wrong with these things, but they are not the end. We have fallen in loving with songs without falling in love with our Savior. That is false worship. We are seeking experiences at church (experiences that will eventually leave us dissatisfied). We need to come to God and experience Him for who He is, and stop seeking what we think the experience should be. He dictates the experience, not our church programs, our songs, or even our past experiences. This all suppose to be a springboard for discussion, so I will stop here even though I have much more that I want to type. Let's talk. Please comment, disagree...if you want you can even yell.

Top 5 Christmas Movies and a new classic

I think that I should start this off on a very serious note. As we approach Christmas, we cannot help but think about a few classic movies that remind us of Christmas. The all time great is clearly "Its a Wonderful Life." I want to suggest that we have come accross a new classic when it comes to Christmas movies. The movie Elf is an up and coming classic that I believe could possibly belong in the top three of all times Christmas movies list. I am willing to give "Its a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th street" first and second, but when it comes to 3rd place I nominate the movie Elf. I know that a case can be made for "A Christmas Story," "Charlie Brown's Christmas," or even the claymation Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (How is that word spelled anyways); but despite all of this I think that I willstand to my vote for Elf as #3. I will simply close with this...If you disagree with this you probably smell like beef and cheese and sit on a throne of lies.

My First Blog

What am I thinking? Me on a Blog? Would I dare to put thoughts on the internet for all unsuspecting people to stumble across? I realize that in trying this I will probably expose my foolishness and stupidity by many incoherent thoughts strung together; and that my lack of self-discipline will be plain for all to see by my sparse postings. Who knows...this thing might work. Hopefully there will be a combination of foolish and deep conversations. I know that I dont have anything really to offer here, but I hope to be sharpened by others contributions and the discussions that follow.