Monthly Archives: June 2005

Acting on Your Faith

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I was looking for the answer to the question of whether faith has increased in the US since 9/11 and possibly decreased again.

Along the way I found this blog entry which is talking about the amount of time people spend at church versus listening to Christian music, reading religious books, etc. I think it’s good that folks spend more time doing that than in church. Church is only six hours a week, one for some religious groups. I want more time than that thinking about God.

I’m not sure what it means, but in 2004 according to this article Barna said that 79% of Americans opposed removing the Ten Commandments. (Ha! And you thought the Supreme Court represented the people?) And 84% wanted to keep the phrase “In God We Trust” on our money.

This article says that Evangelicals, while only 7% of the population, were the most likely to act differently because of their faith. You would kind of expect that, because, based on the definition of evangelicals I found at a Wheaton site, one of the four tenets that describes an evangelical is that their faith impacts their living.

The US Has Too Much in Common With…

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Azerbaijan.

I got this email from a prayer group. Read it and weep. I did.

M-W- and his wife S- “are missionaries in Baku, Azerbaijan, (a predominantly Muslim country) with Campus Crusades.  During the past year they have suffered persecution in the form of a corrupt judicial system.  It seems as if someone high in the government has been paid off, and as a result, the Supreme Court there has taken their house from them.  The W- bought and paid for the house in full a year and a half ago. “

And our Supreme Court agrees that such a thing is right. If the government wants your house, the government has your house.

Beliefs

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Barna syas that only 33% of all Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists in the US believe that Christ was without sin.

That’s kind of scary, since Catholics are the ones most going to church according to adherents.com with 12% of the US population attending a Catholic church on a weekly basis.

55-73% of Baptists, non-denominational, Assembly of God, and Pentecostal church members believe Jesus is sinless.

This was in 2001. I wonder whether it has improved since 9/11, or whether there was an upsurgence and it’s going back down.

Largest Church?

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Religious Movement’s Website says that Willow Creek church is the second largest church, after Second Baptist in Houston, with 17,000 people in church every weekend. So they are saying that Second Baptist is the largest.

Christian Unplugged in an editorial by Voice of the Martyr said that Willow Creek is the largest church in America. And they weren’t too happy about it because a Muslim was in the pulpit.

According to Forbes, in 2003 Lakewood was the largest church in America. Then World Changers in Georgia. Second Baptist of Houston is 5th. Willow Creek is 8th. There are no Catholic churches included in the survey. Saddleback, home of Rick Warren, was 10th.

Lakewood Frenzy

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Michael Spencer, Outing Joel Osteen came up when I was looking for the largest church in America. It was not what I was expecting.

I’ve been to Lakewood. It’s not what I am seeing on this website.

Aaronimo’s Xanga Site has an article on the problems with Lakewood, specifically the communion service there.

My response to that article:
I have been to Lakewood. I am not a member there. I have been to church when they were having communion.

Lots of churches- Baptist, Church of Christ, Assembly of God, among others- pass the elements around. They also use grape juice, which is unfermented wine, for several reasons. But it is “fruit of the vine.” And, because of recovering alchoholics, it is a useful alternative to wine.

This woman was probably not stating the church’s belief, but hers, concerning the bread and the wine. It may have been her understanding. Which she wouldn’t feel she couldn’t give you, because she does go to the church and she does take part in communion. I wouldn’t say it is a good choice for a proof of what the church as a whole believes or teaches.

I did not hear anyone say that the bread would heal you or that the juice would forgive you.

I also went to Lakewood’s site for their explanation:
This page states what Lakewood believes about Communion. Specifically “WE BELIEVE…in the regular taking of Communion as an act of remembering what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross.”

Other thoughts related to Aaronimo. A pastor is another name for a preacher/an evangelist. It is not generally used as the pastor/presbyter/elder of the NT. Pastor is actually a use of the word shepherd, so you would think it would refer to elders, but it doesn’t commonly. My church has a pastor who is the preacher/evangelist. The elders are other people.

Just because I call a pig a rose, doesn’t make it a rose. Just because I call an evangelist an elder, doesn’t make him an elder.

Children’s Books

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The Common Room has a poste on reading and re-reading children’s books.

I was very interested. So I went to look at it. I read the comments as well.

We didn’t have much money, so we went to the library a lot. And I didn’t re-read books much then because we were always moving and the new library had so many new books. (In NC, my brother got to pick what books the librarians should order because he read so much there and was there so often.)

I don’t know what age the “children” were. But here are some books I loved.

Wrinkle in Time– I was introduced to it by my teachers in fourth grade. I have no idea how often I read it, but I have read it aloud to my boys.
The Five Little Peppers–I loved this book in fifth grade. Of course, I was also reading all my mother’s romance novels, too, but…
anything by Zane Grey–I started reading him in third grade and didn’t quit until I was about 30.
anything by Louis L’Amour– I think I started reading him when I was in sixth grade, maybe seventh, and I haven’t quit yet.

One set of books which I wish I had read when I was a child is the Narnia Chronicles. I read them for the first time when I was twenty. That same week I finished reading them for the fifth time. Needless to say, my kids have already been introduced to them.

What Type of Homeschooler Are You?

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Quizilla has the quiz on this topic.

I found the answers very strange. I mean, yes, I have antiques, books and more books, and Great-Grandma’s endtables to decorate my house, but those are three different answers.

HASH(0x8e574f4)
Mr. Potato Head You have your ideal of how things
should look, but youre flexible enough to allow
for change. You are not bothered by changing
methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an
eclectic combination of curriculum sources.
Visit my blog:
http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com

What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I found the quiz via The Thomas Institute

Bio Differences Btw Men and Women

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In his book Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow discusses the hormonal and brain differences between men and women.

Horomonal differences:
1. Men have more testosterone and so find it harder to sit still.
2. Their way of dealing with bad situations is to fight and get it over with.
Which means there is none of that covering up to fester or pretending there isn’t a problem.

Brain differences:
1. smaller corpus callosum
Which means they may have trouble with the reading aspects of worship: church oral readings, individual reading aloud, reading the words of the songs….

Why Men Hate Going to Church

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I don’t have the answers, but David Murrow, in his book, appears to think he does.

Most churches have at least 12% more women than men. Here churches means organizations, not individual congregations. (57)

That means that 13 million more women than men are in church on a given Sunday. (53)

The basic reason is that Men aren’t having their needs met at church.

There is nothing there for
risk takers.
fun lovers.
dangerous men in dangerous jobs.

Books I’ve Read: 370-383

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other:
The Purpose-Driven Life, which I didn’t find anywhere near as impressive as others have
Why Men Hate Going to Church, which was interesting. I will blog on it later.

romance:
Redwing’s Lady
Ramirez’s Woman
His Real Father
The Sheriff’s Daughter
Never Too Late
One Eye Closed
Worth Fighting For
The Eleventh Hour
Mommy Wish
Pregnant Protector
A Family for Daniel
Belonging to Bandera

Silly Yellow Magnets

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Ramblings of an Ordinary… said that he sees no point in the magnets on the cars. I’ve already been through this with Blackfive and would have commented, but you have to have a blogger account, and I don’t want one. So…

Yellow magnets. I got mine free. Someone took it off my car and I am sure they didn’t put in on their’s. But when I see other people’s, I pray for our soldiers. Every time I see a yellow magnet, I pray for our soldiers.

Letter to troops. I’ve written over 225 letters to guys I don’t know and would not recognize if they said hello. This is since November.

Packages. I’ve sent 135 packages to troops. Many of those I sent myself, with my own money. But many other people donated for and I sent out. Our homeschooling group got donations and sent packages.

Last week I sent five packages out to a group sleeping in a bunker under the sand. I sent wood chips. They asked for charcoal but there’s a carbon monoxide issue, so the PO said no. I sent peanuts, pecans, cashews. I bought them. I sent them.

Those yellow magnets can be a “cheap form of patriotism.” But they may not be.

Remember Vietnam? I do. Every yellow magnet is one person who is visibly, sometimes verbally, supporting our troops. I wish there had been some way to do that for the guys in ‘Nam. Maybe it wouldn’t have turned out like it did.

So Not Right

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The Supreme Court was so not right when they said that the government was allowed to steal people’s property for any reason whatsoever.

Mayor White, of Houston, said, “Of course that is terrible.” And then went on to say that it would be good to use the rule to get rid of some “blights.”

Oh, and the transportation system here, with their stupid trains, are talking about stealing people’s land to make more businesses around their train stops. But they have “no plans at this time” to do it.

God, help us all. And do something about the Supreme Court as well.

Books I’ve Read: 357-369

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As mentioned before, I am attempting to keep a list of the books I have read up on the net. Here are 357-369. Btw, this is day 170 of the year. So two books a day would be 340. I’m past that.

other:
Mission Alive!by Gailyn Van Rheenen
The Status of Missions in the Churches of Christ by Gailyn Van Rheenen
Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson
100 Little Dastardly Detective Stories– mediocre collection of third rate stories, mostly. Glad I only paid $1 for it.
The Life of Benvenuto Cellini- a much shortened story of his life, taken from the Autobiography, and nothing about the amazing animals/monsters which were my reason for wanting to purchase the book in the first place. But I learned about Cellini. Since I know his work, it is good to know something of his life as well.
The Discovery of King Arthur by Geoffrey Ashe

romance
Unconditional Surrender by Joanna Wayne
Tall, Dark, and Wanted by Morgan Hayes
Someone Safe by Lori L. Harris
His Case, Her Child by Linda Style

eromance
Thirty Days by Lillian Darcy
Degree of Innocence

Reader’s Digest interviews Tom Cruise

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This article talks about what Reader’s Digest agreed to in order to interview Tom Cruise.

From what I’ve seen and heard RD’s first comments, quoted in the article, are likely to be true. A religion wouldn’t need such a massive legal base to attack people who are talking about it if there weren’t something seriously wrong. If they were talking through their hats, there would be much from the opposite directions.

My Dog Name

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Vitamin Q has a post on boys’ names that don’t (or shouldn’t) transfer over to dogs.

So I went looking. I looked up “my dog Noah” in Google. But 81 was just too high.

Then “my dog Ron.” There were 34 but only 10 actually referred to the dog as being Ron. So 10 “my dog Ron.”

Three only for “my dog Ian.”

Neuron

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I was using Dark Maple as a template, because I really liked the presentation. But, despite what it looks like at the top, there is no search, no popup archive list, and I at least need search.

So I am switching to Neuron. I am not as fond of the look, but the usage is much better.

Both of these can be found at Alex King had a contest.