Are You Blessed...
That's great, but how do you develop a desire for righteousness in the first place? Righteosness is defined as "morally upright, or without sin." It seems to me that there has to be some sort of moral standard, or absolute that tells me what righteousness looks like. I believe that God teaches us what that is through Christ and the Bible. Without that then morality is just a subjective kind of thing that can be influenced by all kinds of situations.

I believe that you can only desire righteousness when you have finally become fed up with living in rebellion against God. When life is lived based on fulfilling your own selfish desires and those desire constantly lead you into heart ache, pain, or difficulty a person will call out and say "What is the point of all this, am I just out here on my own, who can save me from myself." That is when the promise of God starts to unfold in a person's life and they become transformed.

Remember God cannot be mocked. Lip service to God doesn't go over very well. He requires a 100% of your heart. You can't just give part and expect to be ok. Being with God has never been about being "ok" but instead it's about being made into the image of Christ.

So what keeps you from persuing righteousness?

posted by: J-Wild at: 11:34 AM -  0 comments

I Wish...

1. I wish I could spell.
2. I wish the mouse in my office would be caught!
3. I wish I was a better example.
4. I wish I could always be in shape without working out.
5. I wish Allison didn't have to work.
6. I wish God would completely heal Ira right now.
7. I wish more teens could have the courage of Alisha.
8. I wish I played my guitar more.
9. I wish I pursued God as much as he pursued me.
10. I wish Levi would stay safe forever.

What do you wish for... posted by: J-Wild at: 3:09 PM -  5 comments

Cool Jesus! NBC recently announced that its fall line up of shows would include a drama called "The Book of Daniel". It's about a pill-addicted priest who has daily conversations with Jesus. NBC is promising a hipper, cooler Jesus for a new generation. Was there something wrong with the old Jesus?

There are several other networks that are jumping on the "Cool Jesus" bandwagon. Check out the shows that are in production:

CSI: Jerusalem
Forensic investigators attempt to find evidence of Jesus' miracles and fail each week, only to invite the audience to take it on faith.

Look Who's Cooking
A Christ centered reality show from the producers of Fear Factor. Each week a Christian practical joker makes a non-believing friend believe that a horrible accident has occurred and one of them is going up and the other is going down. Simon Cowel guest stars as Jesus.

The Disciple
It's like a Christian Apprentice type program in which seminary students are selected from different denominations and are subjected to 15 weeks of inner-city mission work. The student who start to backstab and manipulate their way to the top get fired.

JC in the OC
A new church plant opens in Orange County, and a new crop of Jesus-centered young people begins hanging out in the local hot spots. These new teens wear shirts that cover their midriffs and pants that fasten just below the belly button. Later everyone learns that the "C" in "OC" stands for celibate at-least until marriage.

Nazareth
Tom Welling moves from the WB hit show Smallville to PAX where he plays a young Jesus who must keep his miraculous powers hidden until it's time to show them to the world. Young Jesus makes friends with Mary Magdalene (Hillary Duff) and Peter (Ryan Atwood) and is constantly pursued by King Herod's (Ozzy Osborne) spies.

FOUND
A group of 40 evangelical Christians get stuck on an island and immediately build a church to thank God for saving them. Drama unfolds when it's discovered that one of the survivors may actually be Catholic.

Pimp My Jesus
Xzibit makes surprise appearences to youth groups all around the country and takes their church van to West Coast Customs where it's totally tricked out. The vans are returned where the youth group can now cruise in style and pick up other teens for Jesus. He ends the show by handing the keys to the youth minister and saying "You've just been Saved"!

So of course all of this is made up except for the NBC show, that one is really coming. Jesus doesn't need us to make him "hip or cool" he does just fine on his own I mean his first miracle was at a party. He walked on water, raised people from the dead, understood that people mess up (see John 8:1-11), and he stood up to the religious "establishment". You know I am not sure that we need a "hipper, cooler, or more down" Jesus. Perhaps we should just stop and listen to the one we have already. Besides making Jesus "cool" is just a poor attempt to make ourselves cool. Jesus is the Son of God who came to seek and save the lost. He didn't care about his "image" he cared about his sons and daughters - us!

posted by: J-Wild at: 11:44 AM -  0 comments

What about this...
So this week I had a hard time thinking about what I wanted to blog about. I was going to talk about Carmelo Anthony's absolutely stupid descision to star in the underground video called "Stop Snitching". The video is actually a threat made to people who would go to police to turn in drug dealers or gang members. Anyway, that's not what I am going to talk about right now.

In the NY Times there was an article about Cheerleading. In Texas they have approved a bill that would allow state education officials to prohibit "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading routines. You can read the full article here. I am not currently in the whole cheerleading scene, but it's not hard for me to imagine some cheer routines that blur the line between athletecism and exhibitionism. The article references MTV, the movie "Bring it On", and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders as major influences on the current state of big time cheerleading. They should have thrown in the movie Orange County for good measure.

Anyway...don't you think it's amazing that the government has to step in to help curb "exploitive" routines done by cheerleaders? Where are the parents, squad leaders, and coaches of these teams? Why aren't they looking out for the integrity of the girls in the first place? Our culture has such a warped sense of what a young persons sexuality should look like and how it should be used. When are "we" going to stop hyping girls sexuality and start valuing their person-hood? I really believe cheerleading can do that. Allison, my sister Beth, and my sister-in-law Mary-Kathryn all love(d) cheerleading at their respective (Christian) schools. They had longer skirts than the PS kids and their routines were a lot less suggestive, but they still had a great time. I guess capturing that kind of modesty is what this bill is attempting to do, but I sure wish it didn't have to come to that. posted by: J-Wild at: 10:40 AM -  1 comments

Sorry so late... Sorry, I have been a little slow with the blog this week. I think we had a great Spring Break, and it makes me really excited about the summer. Allison wanted me to post a link to her scripture post on her blog. Check it out here.

We will be having PHAT 108 this week, so make plans to come. We will continue the guys / girls class on Sunday. Please remember to keep praying for Laura, Sophia, Joe, and Ira. Check on their progess at the Christ Church for Brooklyn blog. posted by: J-Wild at: 10:22 PM -  0 comments