Useful Tools

Ah MySpace, the tool of the stalker future.



I’ve had a personal MySpace account for about 2 years. I began posting my religious thoughts on that MySpace a few months ago and saw my stats soar. I decided I wanted sort of a separation of my personal page and my postings on faith and religion to be fair to both. I understand some of my personal friends do not have the same belief system that I have.

I also understand that I want my messages to reach as many people as possible without them knowing intimate personal details of my life and family for safety reasons. Being a “Soldier for Christ” can cause uproar if given the opportunity. I don’t believe my life, or my family’s lives, to be in any danger and I seriously doubt the possibility of it ever occurring, but if it makes my wife happy then I’m all for it.

On to the new MySpace –

I've decided that I'm going to write my religious blogs on a weekly basis, sort of like a sermon. Since I started writing, I've felt like this is something I should be doing. It appears to be my calling, if you will.

My main priorities are simple.

1. Lead people to God.

2. Show everyone that just because their own personal beliefs may not match a particular church’s belief, doesn't mean that they are alone or wrong.

3. Show everyone that just because they disagree with a particular church belief, doesn’t mean that they believe in God less than the church members.

I suppose now would be a great time to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me already.

My name is Joe. I've been married 4 years to my beautiful wife Chrissy and have an adorable eight year old daughter, KK.

Simply put, I'm a regular guy. I've made a lot of mistakes and I'm sure I'll make many more. However, I honestly see life as a learning experience. I don't belong to a specific denomination. I see myself as a Christian, plain and simple.

I am an ordained minister. I was ordained on February 25, 2008 from the Universal Life Church in Modesto, California. I do not claim to be an expert on religion and have only my life’s lessons as training.

In some of my past blogs it may seem as though I only put other churches down. That’s not the case at all. I believe almost any one that preaches Christianity is preaching a great message. It just seems to me that some churches have lost sight of the original goal. Bring God to everyone.

I truthfully hope that sharing my views brings as many people to God as possible. I hope that what you read here, you will share with as many people as you can. If I didn't do a good enough job at explaining myself please feel free to message me about any questions and this goes equally to my blogs if you would like to discuss any of my blogs.

You can reach me through MySpace by clicking here
or
email me - myowncrosstobear(at) gmail(dot)com

Sincerely,
Rev. Joe

We've Evolved

The other day while watching the news, which is not something I do frequently, the main story caught my attention:

“Florida is debating on whether to include Darwin’s theory of evolution in the educational system” – Eflux Media

As soon as I heard the reporter, two things came to mind –

1. The First Amendment - This is the political and legal idea that government and religion should be separate, and not interfere in each other's affairs which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… “.

With that being said, how has this become an issue?

Public schools are primarily state funded. It doesn’t seem fair to take evolution out of a school funded by the government. Each of these students should be able to choose for them self as to whether they want to believe it or not. If the parents believe their child shouldn’t be taught this theory, then a parental waiver could easily handle the decision.

2. Why do Christians feel that evolution didn’t happen? I am aware that the Bible states in Genesis Chapter One that God created the Earth, sun, moon, man, animals, and vegetation in seven days. My question - do you think that God’s days are a definite 24 hour period? It seems after much research that we owe the 24 hour day to the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and Medieval Astronomers. The book didn’t say each of these days took him a standard 24 hour time frame, the book only suggest one day.

I believe that both creationism and evolution are plausible theories.

I personally believe that God did in fact create the world however; I also believe that evolution did occur. God created the world in 7 days so the bible says, but what if God’s days are life times to us? That would mean this could have taken place over hundreds or even thousands of years which would make evolution completely logical, even to Christians.

My wife and I were discussing this the other day and the best way to put it is time is irrelevant. My wife explained to me "Let’s say you’re sitting on a park bench and you see a mother frantically calling for her child and looking all over the place for it now when you see this it has only went on for a minute but that minute may seem like a life time to that mother".

I can remember many times where people say I've been praying for this my whole life and my prayers where finally answered today. To that person, they have been praying for a life time and God finally answered the prayer. What if it wasn't a life time for God? For all we know, this was just a couple of minutes ago to God and he answered it as quickly as he could.



As usual I welcome thoughts on this subject and will do my best to respond back as quickly as possible.

Seperation of Church and Money

Recently I had to attend the funeral for a close friend of my wife's family. I have never really liked going to funerals but I must say, this one was very well done. Unfortunately, that's not what the blog topic will be today. The whole time I was in the church, I couldn't focus on what was going on. I was honestly blown away by what was going on in my head. The church was actually causing me to sin. As most people know envy is one of the seven deadly sins. This church was causing me to be very envious.

I couldn't help it honestly. Everywhere I looked in the church, all I could see were big screen televisions, huge speakers and some of the most beautiful decorations.
That's when it hit me. I've seen many churches like this around our area. My mind then posed a very serious question…. Why would anyone buy this much stuff for a place that is meant to teach humbleness, good will towards men, and most of all charity to those who are not as well off?

It just really blew me away just to think that maybe for the price of two of those speakers we could bring the Lord to starving children in Africa; for the price of two more we could build a school for them and probably feed the whole village. Let us not forget the hundreds of people who are starving here in America.

I also thought about some of the self righteous stuff I've heard in the past. “The reason we don't help certain people the reasoning being that they don't believe what we believe.” Honestly, I want someone to show me in the Bible where it says we should not help people because they don't share the same belief. If I remember correctly the Bible says we should show good will towards all mankind, not just the ones who believe what we believe.

Matthew 9
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I know I have said in the past that I honestly believe that some of what the Bible says is the way that the people reading thought it was supposed to say however; I believe that this part is the truest thing in the Bible. The Bible doesn't say that Jesus didn't help someone because that person didn't believe what he was teaching. If I am correct it says that he cared for them the same or more.

It seems that I may have strayed from my main point. I am by no means saying that because a church has really nice things doesn't mean that I think that the church is wrong that the church is any less a place of worship.

Luke 15:3-7:
3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

What I am getting at is I believe better things could have been done with this money I think if they would at least put half of it on to spreading the Lord’s name and our beliefs that just maybe more people would come to know God. I also understand that just because we go out there and spread the word that not everyone is going to change their beliefs I honestly don't care if the majority doesn't come to God because I believe that if we get just one person to believe that it was money well spent.

Please remember: I'm just sharing my beliefs with you so as always I am going to end this blog like many others: if you don't share my beliefs my opinions please feel welcome to share that with me. I honestly do want to hear them.

God bless