For as long as I can remember, I've always been fascinated with the bigness and awesomeness of God. Don't get me wrong, I'd be the first to tell you how grateful I am that God's been a faithful friend to me through thick and thin. Yet I've never wanted to stop there. Something keeps pressing me on to explore, encounter, and yes...even fear God. Maybe it's in my genes, or passed down somehow in my family's lineage. My family's name is of Scottish derivation. A few years back I discovered that the motto incribed on my family's crest reads, "Dread God." Hmm. Maybe there's something to that.

Well anyway, I often find myself getting impatient with people who only want to view God as some sort of warm-fuzzy diety -- a comfortable "friend" who always lends a shoulder to cry on, always committed to making them feel good inside.
Yuuuk! I don't want a sissy God like that! I'm not interested in a God that has lots of empathy but lacks any real power. No ma'am -- no wimpy God for me! I want to love a God worth fearing.

Why are we afraid of fearing God?

Over the last decade, this little devotional book has led me through some of the most amazing spiritual retreats and times of extended prayer that I have ever had! Organized to use in conjunction with the liturgical year, or however the Spirit leads, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants is chuck full of deep insights and profound anthologies from a wide variety of devotional sources. It also includes 12 monthly retreat models -- indispensible for those new to the practice of personal (or group) spiritual retreats. You know, it's available in an inexpensive paperback version, but believe me, you'll want to splurge for the nicer one -- it'll last a lot longer. Check it out!

Yep! It's Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, and I'm thoroughly enjoying an ice cold glass of peach iced tea! Did you know that Crystal light (makers of the lemonade mix) also make an absolutely delicious peach tea? Don't let the fact that it's sugar-free scare you off -- everyone absolutely loves it! Check it out at:Crystallight.com or at your supermarket. Bye! I'm off for a refill...

Which character in this painting best depicts what your posture toward Jesus was like this week? Are you happy with that? If not, what would you like to do differently?

If you haven't heard, Holiday Inn has launched an amnesty program for guests who steal a total of 500,000 towels each year from their hotels. In exchange for amnesty, guests must tell Holiday Inn their story of how they've used their stolen towels. For every story they receive, the hotel conglomerate will donate $1 to charity.

As a follow-up to my earlier post on "confession," I thought the comments from a Holiday Inn spokesman were very interesting:

"This really is lighthearted. It's just a way for people to come on, tell us their story and relieve any lingering guilt they might have about having a Holiday Inn towel in their linen closet."

Hey! Anybody want to come clean?

Normally we think of the term "unequally yoked" in reference to a believer being married to an unbeliever. But this morning I kept thinking about married believers who are part of completely different communities of faith. Is it right for a couple to do this? Is it advisable? Remember those words of Ruth?

Ruth 1:16 (GW) But Ruth answered, "Don't force me to leave you. Don't make me turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

I've been thinking a lot about the ancient practice of confession lately. In fact, I even started a thread on TheOoze entitled, "The Power of Confession." When I came across this painting, it really grabbed my attention. Be careful! The artist's intended message may be deeper than you realize.

I was cleaning out some stuff today and ran across this newspaper article someone gave me about 10 years ago -- I laughed as hard this time as I did back then! Here's the Associated Press article in its entirety:

20 naked Pentecostals crash in Louisiana
Family left cash, clothes, cars along the way, Police say

VINTON, La. -- Police were surprized when a driver wearing only a towel got out of a car, then got back in and sped off. They were stunned when the car hit a tree and disgorged 20 naked people.
"The Lord told them to get rid of their belongings and go to Louisiana. So they did, plus the license plate off their car adn came to our gorgeous state," Vinto Police Chief Dennis Drouillard said.
All 20 were from Floydada, Texas, about 550 miles from the southwest Louisiana town of Vinton.
Driver Sammy Rodriguez and his brother, Danny, both said they were Pentecostal preachers, Drouillard said.
Floydada Police Chief James Hale said he had been looking for the Rodriguez family since Tuesday night, when relatives reported them missing.
The family left six cars, abandoning one in Lubbock and a second in San Angelo and a third in Galveston, along with clothes, pocketbooks, wallets and other belongings.
The chase in Vinton began after a campground owner called police. A Calcasieu Parish deputy stopped their car, and a man wearing only a towel got out.
"When the officer went to ask what was going on, he jumped back in and took off," Drouillard said.
They sped down Vinton's main street until the car hit a tree. Fifteen adults, as old as age 63, piled out of the 1990 Pontiac. Five children, as young as 1 year old, were in the trunk.
The car was totaled, but the injuries all were minor, Drouillard said. "I guess when you're packed in that tight, there's not much room to move around."
Rodriguez was booked with reckless driving, flight from an officer, property damage adn several minor traffic violations, he said. He was kep in custody.
Authorities said the entire group was released into the custody of a Baptist church nearby, where they awaited relatives.

Another horrible occurance of workplace violence took place in Chicago -- and it got me wondering...are we really trying to help people understand why God allows suffering?

As those "who believe in God", shouldn't we at least try to help people understand why there is pain and suffering in this world, and that it's not because God is some sort of malevolent being that gets its kicks from huring people? Doesn't being the light of the world and the salt of the earth include challenges such as this one? Sure, there are times when we all just shake our heads, dumbfounded. But is that all we can do? Is that all we should do?

It was John Wesley who often asserted that "there is no holiness, but social holiness." Jesus certainly believed in reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised -- in fact, he seemed to focus his ministry there. Why is it that believers today just don't want to "get invovled?" Have Americans SO bought-in to the whole separation of church and state thing, that they refuse to "mess" with society?