You might be shocked by the fact that I would even bring this up, but to give you a better idea of why I am interested in this topic, let me start off with a joke.

There was a man who died and went to Heaven. Once he got there, Peter gave him a tour. They went to the throne room, the man saw his mansion, the whole shebang. On the tour, they passed a walled off city that was separate from the rest of heaven. Peter didn’t say anything about it, and so the man decided to ask.

“Who lives there?” the man asked.

Peter answered, “Oh, that’s the [insert denomination of choice]. They think they’re the only ones here.

While this joke may have gotten a few chuckles, the sad truth is that many Christian groups have what I call “exclusive theology,” or theology that is based on only their group going to Heaven or the “fact” that other groups won’t be going to Heaven. It actually makes me sick that division runs within the church so deeply that people are excluding their own family from the benefits that they have the right to inherit.

So, I want to give some facts about who will be in heaven. To some of you, this will be old news. To others, you may be startled that I would say such things.

• There will be Catholics in Heaven
• There will be Protestants in Heaven
• There will be Orthodoxes in Heaven
• Some Popes will probably be in Heaven, but not necessarily all of them
• There will be at least one person you would have never have guessed will be there
• There will be someone you expect to see who is not there
• All races will be represented
• All denominations will (probably) be represented–>I say probably because I don’t know about every single denomination that has or will exist, but I would guess that, if not all, then most will be
• There will be people in Heaven who only use the KJV translation
• There will be people in Heaven who hate the KJV translation
• There will be people in Heaven who have never read the Bible
• There will be people who have every single verse of the Bible memorized
• There will be people who used musical instruments in worship (before you laugh at this one, I was actually told I was going to Hell for going to a church that used instruments)
• There will be people who have never been to a worship service that had instruments

This isn’t nearly an exhausted list, but I think you get my point. Yes, different groups of Christians will have differing opinions in theology. But can we all agree that we are one body in Christ? We all believe in the same Jesus. Isn’t that enough to be able to actually work together instead of tear each other down? Should we keep each other accountable? Definitely, but it should be out of love, not trying to prove whether or not one side is right or wrong.

The 8 yr old was having a really hard time because he was getting bored with the stuff he had to do in his room, but because he had a contagious skin problem, he couldn’t leave his room. He was sad when it was time for me to leave, and when i peeked into his room later, he was crying. I’m sure he was homesick and feeling alone because his parents weren’t there with him.

The 2 yr old was happy to see me, and I think she remembered me from last week. We were looking at a Disney Babies book, and in part of the book, Goofy was trying to catch a fish. So when ever we got to the pages with a fish, we would both suck in our cheeks and made a fish face. She was so cute, and it was surprising to see her make that face. I think she was saying more words this week, too.

From Scripture, we know that if you are a child, you might as well be a slave because you have no authority. However, a son has authority and responsibility–whatever the son says might as well be coming from the Father. In fact, when Jesus is called the Son of God, He is being called the mature Son of God, who has authority. Notice that Scripture never calls Jesus a Child of God.

We are to become like Jesus, doing everything He did (and more). To truly be like Jesus and to do the things that Jesus did, we have to have authority. The only way that was can gain that authority is to grow up and no long be a child, but become a son. The way to grow up is to feed yourself meat, that is the Word of God.

We are co-heirs with Christ, and yet we act like servants. We get the same inheritance as Jesus, yet we ask God for things as if we are a nuisance. It is time to GROW UP so that you can be trusted and take your rightful place as a son.

[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

- Galatians 5:22-23

I recently read this verse for the first time in quite a while. Sure, I memorized it years and years ago and even know a song to go along with it, but it has been a long time since I actually thought about this verse and what it means.

Fruit–the result, the signs that a change has occurred, the proof of life. In nature, the purpose of fruit is to spread new seeds. The fruit of your own life is the same. People will notice how you treat people and how you respond to different situations. If you have the “fruits of the Spirit,” you plant good seeds into the people around you. But, if you have bad fruit, you will plant bad seeds. And of course, there is the possibility of producing no fruit at all. Mark 11 serves as a pretty good warning as to what will happen to those who do not produce fruit. Of course, no fruit is still probably better than new fruit.

Love–Paul wasn’t talking about eros, romantic love. He was speaking of love that is a verb, love that causes motion and action. Jesus dying on the cross is probably considered the greatest act of love. If we are to follow His example, we should be willing to die for others, as well. No, this doesn’t mean that we all go killing ourselves, but it does mean we others before ourselves, and not just the people we know and like.

Joy–It’s hard to describe joy. Once you experience the joy of the Lord, there’s no going back. A lot of people would maybe define it as happiness, but it’s more than just being happy. I think one of the biggest differences is that happiness is an emotion, whereas joy is a lifestyle. Also, joy is contagious, whereas happiness is not necessarily. Also, you can be joyful no matter what happens, but happiness is fleeting.

Peace–For me, I think peace is a lack of chaos. I think about how Jesus calmed storms with just one word, peace. In our everyday lives, peace has several different ways of manifesting itself. The first is that if you are truly at peace, then the annoyances of life don’t bother you. You don’t get angry when people cut you off in traffic, you don’t get upset when there is a long line at the grocery store, and, more importantly, you are able to handle crises and emergencies, like death or illness. Peace is a lifestyle where you choose to acknowledge that there is chaos all around you, but you don’t let it infect you. The second way that peace manifests itself is in the way it spreads. Peace really does calm the storms of life. In stressful situations, if you remain peaceful, the others around you will feel at ease, as well (I have experienced this). Also, in cases of disagreements, the peace of Christ can save friendships, marriages, and, I believe, even prevent wars.

Patience–Patience goes right along with peace, and it’s an outlook that you choose to have about life. Patience is being able to wait without complaining. Whether you are waiting in a long line at the store, waiting for test results from the doctor, or waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises, patience allows you to breathe easy and know that regardless of how long you have to wait, the answer will come. I truly believe that patience is one of those fruits that people really take notice of, especially in Western culture, where people expect to get what they want when they want it.

Kindness–Being kind is a concept that gets emphasized to children, but never to adults. And, as adults, I sometimes think we forget what it means to be kind. In my opinion, kindness has to do with the intentions of our actions and the tone of voice we use. It is purposeful and sincere. Kindness is not the same as being nice. People are nice because they have to be, whereas people are kind because they choose to be.

Generosity–Some translations use the word goodness here, but I think generosity is more appropriate. My idea of generosity is giving even when you have nothing to give. I think about the starving woman who gave Elijah her very last bit of oil and flour. Giving him that bit of food meant that she and her son would not eat and starve to death, but she gave it to him anyway. God saw her generosity and blessed her with oil and flour that would never run out.

Faithfulness–Faithfulness could be described as doing what you said you would do, or maybe as staying true to God and to others. If you make a promise to God, keep it. If you make a promise to a friend, treat it as if you were making that promise to God, and do what you said you would with the same expediency.

Gentleness–When people think of being gentle, I think that most thoughts turn to being careful, like being gentle with a baby or fragile object. However, in terms of actually having gentleness, it’s much more than being careful. Gentleness is a softness that you choose to have when you interact with other people. It moves thoughtfully and slowly, whereas anger moves rashly and quickly. In fact, I believe that “slow to anger” is a sign of gentleness.

Self Control–I think that self control is not allowing your emotions to be the sole guide to your actions. Of course, most people talk about anger being the main emotion to control, but it certainly isn’t the only one. For some, its the feelings of attraction towards another person. The Bible tells us to guard our hearts, which means to not let your heart become attached to just anyone for which you feel an attraction. This form of self-control is very difficult for a lot of people, myself included. Other people need self control for sin, whether that be spending too much money, spending too much time watching TV or on the computer, or lying.

A lot of these fruits are very similar, and they are definitely all related. The main point about them is that we cannot have these qualities by ourselves. Sure, we can have maybe one or two, but not all of them, and not to the extent that we should have them. Just like this verse starts out, the only way to have these qualities is to have the Holy Spirit in us and guiding us. The Spirit gives us the grace and ability to be all of these things.

For many Christians, it’s easy to describe a Spirit-filled life just by the presence of spiritual gifts, or even just by the fact that a person has accepted Christ as their savior. But to end there is to ignore the type of lifestyle we are to have. Yes, we need spiritual gifts. But if we do not have love, joy, peace, etc, then how are we to use them?

My first feelings about this obviously were about the victims and their families. Three women died, and one of those women was a single mom. Sodini accused 30 million women of rejecting him, siting his lack of fulfillment as their fault, and then decided to take that rage out on innocent women whom he didn’t even know. As a woman, of course this makes me angry. How could it be “Woman’s” fault that he hadn’t had the kind of life that he wanted? And why these women? Not that it would have been any better, but it would have at least made more sense if he had sought out women that he knew.

Now, my thoughts have turned to Sodini. He raises some interesting questions. What kind of life did he live that have such strong feelings of rage? How does your life get so bad that it isn’t worth living anymore? What happened to him that made him believe that no one (especially no woman) would ever love him? I’ve known plenty of people who didn’t find love until their 40′s or 50′s, plenty more who remarried at that age or older, and plenty of people who never married, but still had full lives.

It really does make me sad for him that he couldn’t find one thing in this world to live for, and that he had so much pain, that he decided the only way to feel better was to make other people hurt, too. Sure, it’s easy to say all sorts of terrible things about Sodini, which may or may not be true. But what about the other Sodini’s out there?

I was watching the news this morning, and they were talking about how police were looking at his blog to see if they could find warning signs, mainly so that they could try to prevent something like this from happening again. Because they are the police, I know that they were thinking about protecting the innocent people (which they should be). As a Christian, I wonder, what is my purpose in these situations?

The Bible is pretty clear as to how we are supposed to treat our enemies and those who are the forgotten ones of society. We are supposed to seek them out and treat them as if they were our own family. I emphasize “supposed” because this is one area that I and about 90% of Christians I know (and know of) fail horribly.

I want to take a moment to stop here an apologize and repent for all of our shortcomings, failures, and hypocrisy (including my own).

Some are better than others at finding the hungry, poor, and sick. But the lonely and forgotten? Forgotten seems to be a good description because we have forgotten them. How would Sodini have been different if someone, anyone, took the time to make the effort to befriend him? How would this story ended if someone had told him about Jesus (the real Jesus), and his heart had been healed of its hurts and pains? Would Sodini have acted differently if he knew that someone loved him? It wouldn’t have needed to have been a romantic love, but the kind of love that says that a life is important.

So, here is my challenge for you, for myself, and for every person who calls themselves a Christian. Do you know anyone who is lonely? Love them. Do you know anyone who is hurting? Love them. Do you know anyone who is angry? Love them. Do you know anyone who has been rejected or abandoned? Love them.

Before you start feeling self righteous, I’m talking about the kind of love that is an action–love that moves with purpose. A love that makes the effort to touch those whom no one else will touch, to talk to those whom no one else will speak to, and to build relationships with those whom no one will befriend. I’m talking about the kind of love that Jesus lived.

If you are not sure what this would be like, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look at the people Jesus spent time with. He lived with twelve uneducated men, he ate with those whom everyone else hated, and he loved those whom everyone else despised.

Also, if you want to know my personal thoughts about any of these books, then let me know and I’ll blog about them!

Because I can’t disclose who this child is, I will just call her Baby. Baby is maybe two years old, but it’s hard to tell since she can only say a few words. She doesn’t really eat solids (she got noodles in her mouth, but she didn’t know to swallow). But the most heart breaking part is that it seemed like her mom isn’t there very much. It’s easy to to talk about how bad this mom might be, but I don’t know anything about this family’s situation. It maybe that her mom is working two jobs just to pay the bills and that’s why she isn’t there.

Regardless, it’s still so heartbreaking to see this little girl in the hospital all alone. I spent three hours playing, reading books, singing songs, and watching TV. She was so excited just to have someone to spend time with her. Leaving was really hard for me. Before I even got her to her bed, she knew what was about to happen and started crying. She would be alone once more.

Baby was just one kid in a whole hospital full of children. But she needed me. Many kids are lucky enough to have friends and family visit everyday, but there are an amazing number of kids (babies, even) who have no one. Yes, they see nurses and doctors during the day, and all who are extremely loving and patient, but, as much as they would like to, they can’t spend the hours that the kids need. I’m glad that I could be there for Baby for today. And I’m glad that I will be there for each of the kids I see every week. Yet, it’s hard to not feel like you should be there everyday.

Born to Change the Atmosphere

by Caleb Brundidge

In our English language we don’t really give the word “praise” justice. On the other hand, there are many words to denote “praise” in Hebrew which have more meanings than the simple word of “praise” in English.

Here are some popular uses of the word “praise:”

1. If your dog sits when you tell him to sit, you may praise him for his obedience.
2. If a salesperson goes out of his way to help you, you may want to commend him to his superior, which is a more formal, public way of praising someone, either verbally or in writing.
3. If you’re watching a performance and want to express your approval verbally or with applause, acclaim is the verb you’re looking for.

Laud and extol suggest the highest of praise, although laud may imply that the praise is excessive, e.g., the accomplishments for which she was lauded were really nothing out of the ordinary. Extol, which comes from the Latin meaning “to raise up,” suggests that you’re trying to magnify whatever or whomever you are praising, e.g., to extol her virtues so that everyone would vote for her. If you want to praise someone who has died recently, you will eulogize him or her, which means to speak or write your praise for a special occasion, such as a funeral.

Praise—give praise to God, honor, thanks, glory, worship, devotion, adoration, reverence.

All of theses definitions of praise are good and accurate, but if we want to praise the God of Israel we need to find out what is His definition of praise and what exactly does that look like to Him. To do this, it is helpful to look at the Hebrew definitions and get the full meaning of the word Praise. I will concentrate on two of the seven key words that relate to praise, which are Tehillah and Halal.

First let us look at Tehillah—to sing a new song, a hymn of spontaneous praise glorifying God in song, an interweaving of belief and joy, to sing in the spirit (this is the only Hebrew word used when the Word of God speaks of the Lord “inhabiting our praise”). This definition really spoke to me. This one is the best definitions of Tehillah. It is the combination of singing, shouting, dancing, clapping, and rejoicing before the Lord. If you express great and extravagant admiration to the point of foolishness in the eyes of the non-praiser or non-Christian, you are giving Tehillah to the Father. This is the kind of praise that God inhabits, dwells, or lives in (Psalm 22:3).

Second, let us look at Halal
Halal a primitive root; to be clear (orig. of sound, but usually of color); to shine; hence, to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively, to celebrate; to act madly, to act like a madman.

RAVE; “to talk wildly, as in delirium.” Someone who is delirious is in “a state of violent excitement or emotion. Frenzy. A more or less temporary disorder of the mental faculties, as in intoxication, characterized by excitement…”

Paul, when he said to “be being filled with the Spirit,” compared it to being intoxicated Eph. 5:18. Again, when the people saw the disciples after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, thought that they were intoxicated Acts 2:13-15.

RAVE: to express great [in an extreme degree] or extravagant [spending much more than is necessary; excessive; exceeding the bounds of reason; going beyond what is justifiable; unrestrained] admiration [to regard with wonder, pleasure, approval].

Halal is to be CLAMOROUS.
CLAMOROUS: “A loud and continuous sound.” Focused towards the Lord in raving, this would describe Halal.

Halal is to be clamorously FOOLISH
  Halal is to be CLAMOROUS.

David Halal God to the point that his bride was offended of his praise to God. David also writes about the Tehillah that this is the praise that God inhabits. Tehillah is about the manifested presence of God through His Spirit in you and me. You were made to change the atmosphere through your Tehillah and your Halal.