Bad Candy

Well, Halloween is just around the corner. For some this holiday will get them excited, others will get nervous. It may mean dressing up in a gruesome, bloody costume, or something like a princess or fireman costume. Of course there will be your superheroes such as Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and new on the scene, Ironman. Some will forgo the trick or treating for church fall festivals or celebrations of Reformation day, the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg (if you have no clue what that's about and want to know, contact me and I'll be glad to discuss it with you).

While all of those activities mentioned above vary in how they are carried out, what's the one thing they have in common. Candy! Ok, celebrating reformation day with candy may be a stretch, but it could happen. :)

One of my favorite comedians is Tim Hawkins. Stephanie and I went to his live show 2 years ago with another couple and had a blast. Here's his take on bad candy he got as a kid:


There's not many people that don't like candy. If you were like me growing up you went trick or treating, either in your neighborhood, a church, the fire station, police office, or a festival. What did your parents say about the candy? My parents said they had to go through the candy to see if any had been opened or damaged. They told me the horror stories of people poisoning and putting dangerous objects in the candy. While that may be true, for the most part I think my parents wanted to take inventory and pick out the good candy for themselves. Being responsible parents, we do this as well...just to be sure it's safe.

Now, thinking about Halloween and potentially poisoned candy made me think of the more serious effects of eating candy. Being a Christian, I believe in a real devil, Satan, who wants to deceive and destroy us. As scripture says in 1 Peter 5:8 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". Sometimes he roars and makes himself known, at other times though he's more cunning and deceptive in his approach. How does he do this? Well, sometimes by offering us candy. I hope by now you know that I'm not talking about snickers or kit-kats. So many times we see something that looks great, sweet as candy, pleasing to the eyes. The problem is that there's poison in it that we can't see. We only realize this when we've taken a bite, or possibly eaten the whole piece. We usually don't think about the consequences of eating the candy, we just choose to, because we want to. To make it worse our friends are eating the candy and it seems ok. On top of that the tv and the internet says it's ok as well. Then after we bite, whether it's at that moment or days, weeks, months, or even years later, we realize there was poison in the candy. We can blame our circumstances, our friends, tv, or the internet, but the truth is that it's our desires that caused us to take a bite. James 1:14 says "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed". If you notice I'm not saying what the 'candy' is because I think it could be different for each person. I am saying that it's not something outside of us that's the problem, it's us and our desires.

I ask that each of us look out for the poisonous candy out there that may tempt us to take a bite, because after all....it may contain poison.

Bill Cosby and humor

Growing up we used to watch a lot of the Bill Cosby show. There were other shows that we watched as well, but not many stood the test of time. I may do a post later of shows that I watched, as I travel down memory lane. While we choose not to watch a lot of tv in our house, we do find ourselves occasionally watching re-runs of the Cosby show. It's amazing how much fun you can have with clean comedy (meaning no reference to drugs, alcohol, sexual content, offensive language, and violence). Thinking of the shows that are currently on tv, there's not much on like that anymore. I wonder why? Could it be that many people simply do not want to watch these type of shows and therefore they're not produced? Possibly. The desires in us tend to want to live 'on the edge' and we tend to be bored if those desires are not met. We would probably say that we don't want to watch shows with that kind of content, but do our actions speak otherwise? How many times do we turn the tv on just because there seems to be nothing else to do? Unfortunately, this is also the time when we turn our thinking off and allow ourselves to be 'entertained'. The reasons we choose to watch something is no longer if we can learn something or if it would be of benefit, but rather 'Is it fun?'.

I love humor. I love to laugh. I believe God loves humor too. I believe that the reason we love to laugh and love humor is because we are made in the image of God.

What is your view of humor?

Watching this clip with Bill Cosby made me think back to watching the Cosby show as a kid and also watching it with Stephanie, Justin, and Katelyn. I have no idea how old this is, but it has to be at least from the 90's. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It's ok to have fun with the south as long as you live in the South. :)


Gotta love Bill!

Marriage

The following is a quote from Paul Tripp's book "What did you expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage":

“Your marriage may be good. It may even be great. You may have grown together in appreciation, respect, unity, understanding, and love. You may have learned where problems typically exist for you as a couple, and you may have learned how to solve them together. You may have identified places where you and your marriage need to mature. You may have created a lifestyle of honest communication and efficient problem solving. You may have forged a solid and enjoyable friendship between you. You may be able to look back and be thankful because you recognize what you once were compared to what you are now.

“But there is one thing that you need to accept: your marriage may be great, but it is not safe. No marriage this side of eternity is totally problem protected. No marriage is all that it could be. This side of heaven daily temptations are constant threats to you and your marriage. This side of heaven the spiritual war goes on. This side of heaven good marriages are good marriages because the people in those marriages are committed to doing daily the things that keep their marriages good. Things go wrong when couples think they have reached the point when they can retire from their marital work and chill out, lay back, and slide. Perhaps the greatest danger to a good marriage is a good marriage, because when things are good, we are tempted to give way to feelings of arrival and forsake the attitudes and disciplines that have, by God’s grace, made our marriage what it has become.”

We cannot coast through marriage. It's hard work. It's lots of daily attitudes and actions. It's not each person giving 50%. It's each person giving 100%. Is it easy, no. Do we often fail, yes. I can easily say that when we fail it is usually when we are putting our needs and time ahead of the other.

A few years ago Stephanie and I went to a "Weekend to Remember" conference by Family Life Today www.familylife.com. Did we go because our marriage needed help? Yes. Does our marriage need help now? Yes. The truth is that there is never a time when our marriage doesn't need help. When you think that your marriage doesn't need help, it means that it really needs help!

Personal prayer: Lord, thank you for Stephanie. She is a gift from you. Help us to allow you to transform our marriage. Protect and guard our marriage for your sake.

What do you think of rap?

This past Friday night, I went with my son and a friend to a rap concert in underground Atlanta. At this point you might say: Wait, I thought you were a Christian or why would you listen to rap, or why go to Atlanta? Well this was not your ordinary rap concert. It was a collection of artists under Reach Records. Some of the artist are Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashi, and Sho Baraka. This group is know as the 116 Clique taken from Romans 1:16.



The ride there was...interesting. I left work a little early telling my co-workers that I was going to rap concert in downtown Atlanta. The response was a few surprised and confused looks. In essense they were saying "Why would YOU go to a rap concert, and to top it off, why in downtown Atlanta?" I smiled back and said that it's a Christian rap concert, but not the cheesy stuff that you're probably thinking of. On the way there we stopped for food, according to our handy GPS we were supposed to do a few u-turns and turn 10 times in .5 miles, don't you love Atlanta? Somehow in God's Grace we saw a Wendy's, got our food and was back on the road. Then our handy GPS directed us toward 65 MLK Jr Dr, notice I said toward, not to. At this point I started to think of why I even brought the GPS. We stopped at a local BP to ask the guy behind the bullet-proof glass (not the counter) where the "Freight Depot" might be. He said in a friendly Indian voice "I don't know, I'm not from here". I just smiled, said thanks and spoke to some locals playing video poker on machines (although I thought that was illegal). They directed us more toward the capitol. We decided to park at the parking deck at the capitol and walk MLK. Thankfully, we noticed where many others were walking and found the "Freight Depot".

The concert lasted about 3 hours with each artist performing. The crowd had around 2k in attendance, mostly young (although there were a few older folks there), and was comprised of different ethnic backgrounds. There was jumping (lots of jumping), hands raised (again, lots of them) and little room to move. The whole night involved the artists using the stage and the platform they had been given to point people away from themselves and toward the God of the universe who had rescued them and gave them life. At this point you might be saying, but Kris, I don't believe that. I'm not saying that you do, I'm just saying that at the concert there were many people from different backgrounds gathered together to celebrate that belief. One speaker said "The world thinks we're crazy. There's drugs, sex, violence, and many other idols in this world that we create, but we're her on a Friday night worshipping the King". He's right, in the eyes of many, it would be seen as a wasted trip. What I appreciated most was what Trip Lee said. He quoted Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us".

Then he said "if you think that you're a righteous person, a pretty good peson, or even a good person then this isn't talking about you. This is for those who know they are sinners". He went on to talk about how our goodness, even after we trust in Christ does not earn us anything.

So yes, I went to a rap concert in Underground Atlanta, and enjoyed it!

Here's a sample of two of the artists that performed:








You might not be a Christian, or you might not like rap, but one thing is for sure, these guys are in love with their God and devoted to serving Him. They do not think of this world as their home!

A daughter needs a dad

Recently I read something about daughters being a gift from God and thought I'd share a portion of it that lists some of the things a daughter needs from her dad:

A daughter needs a dad...
to show her that true love is unconditional
to teach her that her value as a person is more than the way she looks
to teach her that family is more important than work
to show her that a man can be trustworthy
to be the safe spot she can always turn to
to teach her that a man’s strength is not the force of his hands or his voice, but the kindness of his heart
to be the standard against which she will judge all men
to help her take risks that will build her confidence
to hold her when she cries
to teach her she is important by stopping what he is doing to watch her

There are many gifts that we are given that we take for granted. Kids are one of them.

As I read this list of what a daughter needs I thought back to the night before when Katelyn, who just turned 5 in September and started kindergarten this year, was sitting on my lap, leaning back and snuggling while watching tv.

I wonder...how long will she do that.

As I am typing this she came into the office with a pair of blue earmuffs on her head singing a song. With the last one on the list in mind, I'm off to play with her and give her a bath.

My prayer: Thank you Lord for the gift of a daughter. Please help me to be the dad that she needs me to be.

blog?

In this post, I will be answering a few questions that I raised in the first post.

The first question you might ask is "What is a Blog"?

Well, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a blog is:

a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer

In other words, it's a place online where I can share what's going on in the life of myself and my family, it can include a video, picture, or song, or it can simply be words on the screen.

So, why read a blog?

Well, that could have different answers. I read different blogs for different reasons.

1)sometimes it's in order to keep up on current events (it's often more up to date than other sources)

2)sometimes it's to educate myself on a particular subject (you'd be surprised to find out what some people blog on)

3)sometimes it's to keep up with friends (they will update what's going on in their lives),

4)sometimes it's in order to see how some people come to a particular conclusion, even though I may disagree with them. I'll want to learn about how they have landed where they land on a subject.

So, why am I asking you to read my blog?

Good question. It's not because I think I know everything that's going on. It's not because I feel like I'm the expert. It's mainly because I want to share what's going on in my life. This could be family related, work related, church related, sports related, or something completely different. In this fast-paced technological environment we tend to not take the time to share what's going on and I'm hoping that this can be an avenue where we can stay connected. So whether it's something that's funny, sad, joyous, or painful I hope to share with you. A lot of what I will post will likely just be sharing what's on my mind. Now that does not mean that everything that happens will be shared. That does not mean that there will be a consistency to the posts. There may be a few posts that are within a relatively short time frame and then some that are a long time apart. Simply put, this blog is going to be something that I will put some time into, but will not take away much family time or become an idol. In many ways I hope that this will enhance family time and eliminate idols.

That brings me to the last question. Why did I name this blog "This world is not my home"?

Well, simply because I do not believe this world is my home. I believe that everything in this world will pass away. Sounds sad in a way doesn't it? Actually, I think it's optimistic. When you look at the pain and suffering in this world, the murder, rape, cancer, hate, and everything else that is evidence of a fallen world, the fact that I believe that all of that will be made right in my mind is hopeful. That does not mean that there are not things to be enjoyed in this world. But they are to be enjoyed in their proper context. Hope that makes sense.

Welcome to my blog

I want to welcome you to my blog.

After reading blogs for some time now, I have decided to start one. You may ask the following questions: What is a blog? Why read them? Why do I have one? Why would I want you to read mine? Why did I name my blog "This world is not my home"? These questions are good questions that deserve an answer. I look to answer these and others in my interaction with this site. I do not expect everyone who reads what I write to agree with me. The only person I agree with 100% of the time is myself, and even sometimes that's not the case. :)

I invite you to read, reflect, and interact as I write and share.