Whatever it takes; what is the world coming to?

I am currently sitting in the green-room off of our church stage during our 8:30 service this morning and just finished doing a little news surfing. I came across a story on cnn.com about a young six year old girl who won Hannah Montana tickets for writing the winning essay. However, the essay, which stated that her dad had recently died in Iraq was a lie. Haven't heard of this story...you should check it out.

The most unbelievable part of the story is the comment from the mom...."We did whatever we could do to win." Wow. What example does this set for your children; that you can lie and cheat to get ahead. Remember, this was not the essay of a 20 year old, but a SIX year old.

What is a bigger shame is that Hannah Montana (nothing against her) has such an influence that she is worth "whatever it takes."

My question to us as Christians is simple...does Hannah Montana, or sports tickets, or the newest movie or whatever have a bigger draw to our life than Christ? Would we do whatever it takes to champion Him? (note: I do not mean lying on an essay).

This thought takes me to a story in Mark 2 about four guys that literally did whatever they could to gain access to Jesus, even if that mean coming through a roof. They knew that their hope lied solely in Him. Do we feel the same? If it is sad that the example of lying and deceit is being shown to this young girl, then isn't it even more disturbing to know that Hannah Montana is worth that pursuit, and that this young girl, and maybe youngsters everywhere have more influence on the pursuit of unimportant things and they have no example of what it means in our culture to pursue and chase after our only Hope, namely, Jesus. We as Christians could perhaps learn something from this....do we do "whatever it takes"?

Resolutions

It's that time of year again. Resolution time!

What is it going to be this year? Workout more, spend less, save more, lose weight, find that relationship, eat healthier?

Which one are you choosing? I have not completely decided on mine yet, and will inform the blog-nation of my decision (do not judge if it is cliche).

This resolution stuff got me to thinking. Why exactly do we make these yearly resolutions? Are we just following tradition, or is their something about our lives that needs changing?

I looked up resolution in the dictionary and stumbled upon this; 1. that a resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something, and 2. that it is the action of solving a problem.

I found the pairing of these definitions pretty cool. We are faced with all kinds of problems; some may be situations we allow ourselves to be in, mindsets and attitudes we hold, habits we continually participate in, and grudges we hold to name a few. So this year, what are you going to do about it? Who do you need to forgive, what grudge do you need to let go of? What attitude do you need to change? What habit needs to stop? You decide - it's your resolution.

If you are making any New Year's Resolutions or have any cool resolution stories please share them in the comment section. It would be fun!

And Now he is in TIME

that's right ladies and gents...Rob Bell has hit TIME magazine.

Not a bad read - you should check it out. Rob Bell in TIME

Hebrew 4: Spring 08

My last installment (and final Minor requirement) for my undergraduate Hebrew is going to be REALLY exciting. We are going to be talking about topics such as:

- Genesis 1 and 2 (the two creation accounts)
- Psalms
- Job
- A Biblical (old testament) Approach to Abortion
- Proverbs
- History (Kings and Wars)
- The Exodus (if we have time)

I can't wait. Should be a lot of fun, a lot of good discussion, and consequently, a lot of blogging!