Are you a fundamentalist? A one-question quiz

Quiz:
When I am presented with a new idea or proposal, my first question is more likely to be …
___A. Is it acceptable to my religious/ideological community or belief system?
___B. Is it possibly true, valuable, and worth exploring?

If you chose A, you’re probably a fundamentalist, and probably shouldn’t read my new book because it will only get you in trouble. If you do decide to read it, don’t let your fundamentalist friends know. Hide the book in a brown paper bag, and only read it in private.

If you chose B, you’re curious, and I think you’ll enjoy my new book.

<<The above is taken from Brian McLaren’s blog!!!>>

This tongue-in-cheek quiz from pastor and author Brian McLaren’s blog caused me to pause and sigh, “Dear God.”  It appears that he is advocating that we should not test that which we hear or read against what we believe to be in alignment with our faith.  What?  A Christian pastor, who is gaining popularity as having a “new” approach to Christianity, suggesting that we should not reject something because it does not align with our belief system?

1 John 4:1: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world…”

Hebrews 13:9: “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings…”

The entire chapter of Ephesians 4.  Actually, just read the whole Bible   It is all about the separation of right vs. wrong.  Not according to human standards, which are constantly being redefined, but according to God’s standards.

One of the great examples Jesus gave was that he referred back to the Old Testament Scriptures constantly throughout His ministry.  He called on people to know and understand the teachings of the prophets so that they would not be deceived when (not if) they heard teaching that was misleading.  I urge and caution all those who truly seek to follow Christ to test everything – especially anyone who claims to have a “new” angle to Christianity – to test, test, test what the Word of God says against the teaching.  Not just a part of the Word of God… the whole of the Word.

In our current society there are many churches promoting Brian McLaren as having a modern day relevance to old fashioned, fundamental Christianity.  I do not read anywhere in Scripture that we are called to be relevant.  In fact, Scripture says just the opposite.  We are to stand out from those who are following the ways of darkness and reveal His light in every situation we encounter.  This will only happen if we are grounded in the Truth.

This doesn’t mean we bring our Bible everywhere we go and smack people around with it.  (That’s not Biblical)  But it also does not mean we compromise our beliefs just to soften Christianity.  We have to test what we hear and read against God’s Word.  That, combined with the internal wisdom of the Holy Spirit, is the only way we can ensure we are following the narrow path that leads to salvation.  A faith that is “relevant” and a faith that is “uncompromising” unfortunately don’t go hand-in-hand.  Which faith do you have?

Tomorrow I will address how the words Uncompromising and Love work together in our faith.

Peace.

~kp

For the next 2 hours, people that previously looked like they were about to keel over from either exhaustion or boredom became animated. Smiling. Cheering. Finding it very easy to make small talk and initiate conversation with the show attendees. Curious, isn’t it?

Why do companies invest thousands of dollars in product, materials and time to stand on concrete floors for 3 days with hundreds of other vendors? (It sure isn’t for the perks of drinking trade show coffee.) They do it because trade shows provide a prime opportunity to make a face-to-face connection with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of prospects with whom you may not have otherwise met. What impression do you want to give them about your company?

You can have the best looking booth, the most eye catching signage, and a prime location on the trade show floor… but if you look like you’d rather be anywhere else but working in that booth, your impression will fall flat. I was amazed to hear of the dramatic difference in attitude of the various vendors when the hockey game was on. If they had showed that kind of life and personality for the other 15 or so hours of the trade show, people may have left with a very different impression about their products.

Not all of the vendors fell into this category. My husband was quite impressed at the energy and passion that the client he went with showed to each and every person. And there were a few others like him. But for the most part, many did indeed appear to be wishing they were elsewhere. And it showed.

Don’t waste your hard-earned marketing budget on a trade show unless you plan to demonstrate gold-medal enthusiasm to those who come. Let your passion, not your exhaustion, shine through and just like Team Canada – you’ll have victory.

Peace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is doubt, faith ;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Beautiful rendition of Sinead O’Connor singing:

Peace to you.

The number of people that watched the Super Bowl last Sunday was in the ball park of 100 million.  I was one of them.  It is also estimated that thousands of pounds of guacamole and salsa were eaten.  I also contributed to that figure.  Super Bowl Sunday is my favorite sports day of the year.

Millions of people rooted for the underdog New Orleans Saints to finally win the big one.  A city that has experienced the horror of natural disaster, and is still rebuilding, rallied behind their beloved Saints.  Catching the Who Dat fever, I too, hoped they would do it.  And they came through.  One of the many contributing factors to the win came in the form of kicker Garret Hartley.  As the first field goal kicker in history to hit 3 FG’s over 40 yards in a Super Bowl, he kept his team scoring and kept momentum going.  He had to go deep – and came through each time.

I’m going to take that “going deep” football phrase and shift gears to apply it to our faith life.   Before you switch off thinking that “Yes, I’ve heard the ‘Go deep with God’ message before,” I’d like you to stay with me a minute.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I bet you haven’t thought about it in quite the way I’d like to present what it means to go deep in your faith.

One common usage of going deep means that we ‘know more.’  That we have more Biblical knowledge and are really good with applying relevant scripture to life situations.
Another is that we believe that going deep relates to our spirituality.  That we have spent  much time reflecting on what we really believe and are in touch with our values and how they influence us.  In other words, we really have good knowledge about what we believe.

Yet another application of the term can relate to the amount of time we spend in prayer.  We all know people who we would call “pray-ers.”  The time they spend praying may give us reason to believe that they have a deeper relationship with God than someone else.

My friends with whom I consider to have deep friendships know me well.  They know how I think, what I like, what drives me nuts, my history – and I know the same about them.  We have knowledge of each other.  So definitely going deep does have a component of knowledge.

I also have friends with whom I spend much time.  We talk, we laugh, we communicate – so going deep does have a component of time spent together.

But is it possible to know a lot about someone, spent time together and not have a deep relationship?  I think about some of the people who were around me when I spent 8 – 5 every day in an office.  We had knowledge of each other’s lives and spent a lot of time together – but there was no depth.  So what was the missing component?

I’d like to suggest that it was the amount of my heart that was invested in the relationships.

Here is an example.  The guy that sat three offices down from me had a wife named Ellen.  He had two boys ages 8 and 10 and he was an Iowa State alumni.  He drank tea (not coffee), played golf on weekends, shopped at Harry Rosen’s and wanted to go parachuting some day.  We joked about college football; I ribbed him about being a “candy pants” for not drinking coffee, and we occasionally had lunch together. (We both loved Schlotsky’s sandwiches).  To an outsider, it may have appeared that we had a depth of friendship with each other.   However, when I got a new job, I left the company and never had contact with him again.  My day to day life was not any different and I doubt that his was either.  We shared some knowledge about each other and time together during the work day – but was there depth?   I’d say not.  So this begs the question, why?  If time spent together and knowledge do not automatically equate to depth, what does?

I don’t mean this to sound harsh – but there was no depth because my ability to get through my day did not matter whatsoever on my work buddy’s presence (or absence) in my day.

How much of my existence is reliant upon someone else?  THAT is where going deep takes a radically new meaning.  I have true depth with friends whom I call often throughout the day because I value their input into my life.  I can’t wait to celebrate good things with them.  I need to pray with them over not-so-great things.  I rely on them emotionally to get me through a struggle.  Those are my deep relationships.  When I think, “I can’t wait to tell _____ about this…” – I know we have some depth.

So what does going deep with God have to do with this?  I might have knowledge about God and the Bible; I might spend time praying to Him; but if I can live my life making decisions without involving Him; I have no depth.  If I don’t seek out what His Word says on a matter, and simply give my own opinions; I have no depth.  If I can do my own thing and just touch base with Him later; I have no depth.

Here is the lesson in this:  You can do a quick check of your depth of relationship with God by asking yourself – How much of your day can you get through without relying on Him?  The more that you rely on God to get through your day – the good, the bad and the ugly – the deeper your relationship.  Your reliance will come as you seek to do nothing short of making decisions that will please Him.  The more of your heart invested in that – the deeper you’ll be.  Bible reading and prayer are key components of it – but if you do not want to walk in a way that pleases Him, those things on their own won’t do much good.

At one point in my life, I only touched base with God at night for prayer time.  The rest of my day, I was on my own.  Now, I barely can get through anything without talking to Him about whatever is happening in front of me.  That doesn’t mean I am perfect – far from it.  I am a sinner, saved by grace.  But I have no doubt about my depth with God.  We go deep.

The Saints were victorious last Sunday – and fellow saint in Christ, I pray that you too will be victorious as you seek to go deep with Him. Cheesy parallel, I know, but nonetheless, I had to tie it back to football!

Peace.

Tracy loved Jesus.  He sought to model his life after Christ and I am confident that he is rejoicing right now with his Momma and His Savior.  Of that I have no doubt.  (not even a smidge of wonder)

What this made me pause and wonder about is, what happens to all of our oh-so-personal social networking contact when we die?   His last Twitter tweet was: “After tennis shoe bomber we had to take off our shoes in line. After underwear bomber, do we have to…?”  I chuckled out loud.  That thought will remain in cyberspace unanswered.  How long do these things hang out there?

He “followed” me on Twitter…Will my tweets just keep showing up in an inbox that will never be read?  Will people click on his name and, not realizing that he passed away, just figure he got ‘too lazy’ or ‘too busy’ to make any more humorous quips?  For how long might my blog posts wind up on an email server that no one will download?  Will people who never actually go onto his facebook profile to connect continue to invite him to Farmville and to join them in pillow fights?

It is bizarre to me, and has me feeling really saddened.   A couple of Tracy’s final status updates were:

(from December 26) “A few neighbors already have their Christmas trees at the curb…couldn’t wait at least through the weekend, Scrooge?”

(from December 25) “Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends.  Merry X-mas to my non-Christian friends.  Happy Holidays to my enemies.”

He was a funny dude.  He wrote a couple of books and we used a quote of his in Radical Love…Forever Changed. I’m so glad we did.  Anyways – not sure what point I have in writing tonight, other than a life lesson I will try hard to live by is to not wait for facebook to tell me to reconnect with someone.

Peace.

With the exception of the gold leopard broach with ruby eyes, most of the items appeared, in my opinion, to have some importance.  How do you get home without keys?  How do you see without glasses?  How do you read God’s Word without your Bible?

My son is allergic to peanuts.  I carry an epipen with us, in case of accidental peanut contact.  At first, I carried that epipen everywhere with me.  I wouldn’t let him out of my sight without knowing that someone in the vicinity had, and could work, the epipen.  Over time, I have relaxed my epipen intensity.  Often I forget it at home.  Some of our friends probably don’t even know of his allergy.  The further away from the tragedy of his first allergic reaction we are, the less hold it has over our minds.  The epipen could easily end up on the Lost and Found table, and I likely wouldn’t even notice.  Until a crucial moment when I needed it.

Our trust in God can be a bit like the epipen.  Initially, when we have a moment of crisis and recognize a need for God, we lean into Him continually.  We pray throughout our day, we talk to others about faith matters, we read the Scriptures that provide us comfort.  Then, as crisis subsides, we talk less.  We pray less.  We acknowledge Him less.  Pretty soon our trust in Him is on the Lost and Found table… and we are not even aware of its absence in our lives.  Until it is needed again, in another moment of crisis.

Here is a little something to think about… the amount of space you give God in your every day, non-crisis moments will directly impact your ability to handle crisis when it comes.  Don’t wait for crisis and then find out that your faith is on a table, in a church, 9 miles away.  Connect with Him now.  Your faith may feel like it is elsewhere, but He isn’t.  He’s sitting beside you, waiting and ready.

Peace.

P.S. Writing this has encouraged me to re-ignite my epipen diligence.  Matters of life and death should never be taken lightly.  Epipen AND faith both fall into this category!

When I began blogging in 2006, the primary way I found new blogs was through the homepage of the blog service that I used at the time, Toadfire.  All of our blogs looked the same, had the same color scheme and 3 main features: recent posts, search and comments.  Since then, the process of finding new and interesting people has become as easy as grabbing my morning coffee.  Nearly every day I come across a new blogger who, like me, just loves to write.  Sites have become extremely interesting because the average Joe & Jane with a keyboard can build his or her own creative online home to house their content.

I want to share three tips for blogging.  Well, not so much for blogging – but for setting up your site.  As a blogger, I desire to build relationships with the people reading.  Some bloggers’ sites do this well, others not so much.

1. Have a place on your site where you clearly state your purpose for writing.  Even if you write about “anything and everything,” you should still give readers a snapshot of why your perspective on “anything and everything” is different.

Bad example:  “I write about whatever comes to mind”
Good example: “Perspectives from a big-city girl”

2. Pick colors and background images for your site that fit your purpose.  If your purpose in writing is to explore the deeper issues of life, a background that has puppy dogs and kitty cats sends a conflicting message.  Yet I quite often come across this very kind of confusion.  It is hard for readers to connect with you if they aren’t quite sure who you are.

3. Avoid the temptation to go widget-wild!  Widgets provide the bling for your site.  They can add so much value – but know when to stop.  I came across a site today in desperate need of widget-intervention.  The purpose statement indicated that the writer works for an ethnic publication.  Here are the widgets on his home page:

• NASDAQ ticker banner
• International time clock
• Randomly generated “US Bill of Rights” statement
• “Word of the Day”
• Posts from other bloggers (not the links, post summaries)
• “The latest in Iran”
• 4 advertisements for health and weight loss products – yes, 4
• Calendar
• Two twitter links
• ABC News Updates
• Popular sports headlines

As I explored his posts, some of the content did indeed relate to human right issues, the financial state of the nation and the world, popular culture and media – so I could connect the dots with a little work.  Here’s the thing…. most people aren’t going to work at it.  They will decide in the first few seconds if your blog is something that they can relate to or not.  They will decide if the overall look and feel of the site draws them in or adds confusion.  If your site looks like a mess, readers will think that your thoughts are a mess.  And they won’t come back.

You will gain greater satisfaction from your writing  and will find it easier to be consistent if you follow these three solid suggestions upfront.

Stay focused and keep writing!

Peace.

It is a running joke in our home and among our friends that the Parkers have cereal for supper more often than any family in the neighborhood.  The joke is really directed at me and my lack of ability to carry out a plan to make a supper meal.  I have good intentions.  I purchase meat with every desire to make a meal out of it.   However, here’s how it tends to go down:

6:30 am: I take the meat out of the freezer and set on the counter.

6:31 – 8:45 am: Spend the next 2 + hours making lunches, showering, feeding kids breakfast, drinking coffee, yelling at kids to hurry up so we aren’t late for school, walking to school and walking home with my 3 year old in tow.

8:46 am: Head downstairs to get the slow cooker to get dinner started.  Phone rings, so I come back up.

9:25 am: Hang up the phone, check email and head back downstairs.  3 year old calls out that she needs to “go pee!”  Come back up.  Notice one (or maybe all) of the boys “missed” the toilet in the morning so I wash the bathroom floor.  Check email.  Check facebook.  “Like” a bunch of witty status updates from my friends.

10:00 am:  Make some needed website changes to a customer’s site. Phone rings again.  While on phone receive urgent text from husband.  His truck is dead.

10:45 am: 3 year old wants snack.  While getting snack I notice the meat on counter and head back downstairs to get the slow cooker.  Step in something sticky at bottom of stairs.  I go into laundry room to get wet rag.  Clean up sticky mess.  Open the washing machine to throw wet rag in, notice a washed load that didn’t get switched.  Open dryer and see load waiting to get put away. Take dry clothes out, set on deep freezer, put wet clothes in dryer, Grab load of towels and get wash going again.  Check email – respond to stuff and look up clever Martin Luther King quote for my facebook status.

11:30 am: Three year old has to pee again.  Now she wants to wear a dress.  In her room I notice a half eaten granola bar on the floor.  Pick it up.  Get the vacuum.  Clean her floor.  Clean all other bedrooms & hallway.  Notice toys all over living room preventing vacuum capability.  Pick up toys and put them away.  Find chocolate milk spilled on small boy’s sheets.  Pull sheets from bed.  Check email.  Get distracted by news of Taco Bell founder’s death… read a bunch of articles related to nachos.

12:30 pm: Three year old wants lunch.  Notice meat on counter.  It’s now thawed so I put it in fridge.  Hand 3 year old a cold hot dog, bowl of carrots & yogurt.  Head downstairs to get slow cooker.  Notice laundry room door open and a load of laundry sitting on deep freezer.  Carry it up and put it away.  Take another load down and switch everything. Check email.  Remember I have book club tonight.  Call husband to remind him.  Check email again.

1:30 pm:  Three year old calls out that she’s spilled her soda.  Soda?  Clean up mess she made from boosting an open can of pop from the counter.  Get three year old some juice, granola bar and raisins for snack.

2:00 pm:  Time to start think about going to pick boys up from school.   I remember that my oldest boy has tutoring after school.  Drats!  Car has no gas.  Stop for gas on the way.

2:30 pm: Pick up kids, drop son off at tutoring.  Go to post office to mail Christmas cards to our parents (yes, in January), pick up milk from convenience store and then get coffee from Tim Horton’s.

3:45 pm: Pick son up from tutoring.  Go home.  Kids ask for snack.  Open fridge and notice – THE MEAT!  Too late for slow cooker now.  Plan to do a stir fry instead.  Give kids snack and check email.  Phone rings: call from my mom.  Spend 10 minutes wrestling with Polly Pocket and her ridiculous rubber clothes.  Three year old is happy.

4:45 pm: Husband calls – reminds me that we have to pick him up from work. (truck is still dead).  Load everyone in van.  Drive to the office – drive back home.

5:35 pm: I remember that oldest boy has piano at 6 pm and I have book club at 7 pm.  No way can I make stir fry and have everyone eat it in 10 minutes.

Cereal anyone?

Jana is my sister’s friend.  (By default, I consider her my friend too, even though we’ve never sat in the same kitchen to share a cup of coffee.)  She has a book coming out in March called Who’s That? Discovering Orlando One Interview At A Time.  I imagine it will be as wonderfully down to earth and engaging as her website and blog posts.  I was cruising her website today and came across an interview she did with a guy named Doug Rhodehamel.  Doug is an artist.  A recycler.  A beautifier.  A magician who can create things that make you smile out of common items.  Here’s a little tip:  Any time you find something that brings a pure-of-heart smile to your face, you know you have found treasure!

Jana conducted a terrific interview with Doug on her blog site and I recommend you check it out. Jana and Doug both ooze with love for what they do.  It comes across in their words, in their photos and through the overall ambiance of their work.

At the end of each day of creation God attested, “It is Good.”  I imagine Him stepping back with a satisfied smile on His face as He makes His declaration.  What causes you to do the same?  I pray that you have time built into the schedule of your life to do more of those things.  If you can make it what you do for a career you will have found treasure of your own.

~ Peace.

P.S. Burrow Press is a new publishing company that is pumped to help emerging, talented writers, particularly from the Orlando area.  Check them out!!

I sit here feeling such a heavy heart for those who are in serious need of aid right now.  Don’t just make the comment “My prayers are with the people of Haiti” – I encourage you to really, truly pray for the people of Haiti.  Here is an opportunity.

I invite you to pray with me for those who are currently, right at this moment suffering the tragic aftermath of this earthquake.  I invite you to post a comment with your own prayers.  The prayer team of For the Sake of ONE Ministries and I will read them and join you in your prayers.

God – you are Jehovah-Shammah.  The God who is there.  We know you see those who are in pain right now.  You see those who are hurt, who are suffering, who are afraid.  Allow them to feel your presence and peace in the midst of their pain.  Bring aid and healing to those who are alive.  Thank you Father that you will answer our prayers and the prayers of my brothers and sisters who are also desiring to pray for Haiti.   Amen.