7:02 PM
Matthew
I know of many people who, when under stress or worrying, will crack a joke. Soldiers in combat zones crack jokes to relieve the tension in the war zone, we do it at work all the time... It seems like everyone, everywhere is cracking jokes. I'm assuming that this either means that people are just having a good time, or, then are under so much stress that they are cracking jokes a mile a minute. A sense of humor is important. But shouldn't there be a time and place for cracking Jokes? Like at work, for instance, there's this old man who comes into the store every day, and says the same stupid thing: "it's about time you did something". The first couple of times, this was funny, but after about 1000 times, it's starting to really get on my nerves. But since this guy is a customer, we...
8:17 PM
Matthew
I belong to a church here in Florida, a non denominational church. It's a nice church, filled with nice people who are sincere in thier faith. But I've learned that non denominational churches are magnets for everyone who has ever been disgruntled at thier old church. The number of people at my church run the gamot from pentacostals to methodists to baptist to church of Christ... And worse yet, they bring all thier excess baggage from those denominations with them.As a result, the pastor feels like he has to make his sermons sort of "fit" the congregation where they are at. There are also a lot of former Roman Catholics, and anymore I think I know why. Sola fide isn't something that is preached in my church.Sola fide is the latin phrase for "faith alone". In the bible, faith is referred to...
7:16 PM
Matthew
This past Sunday night, my oldest brother passed away. He had a heart attack several months ago, one that was so bad the doctor's said his heart was only 17 percent functional. But by the power of God he survived and stymied the doctors.This all sounds kind of standard stuff that you would expect from a story like this one. A last minute miracle, a family in crisis... I know at least I've heard it a few hundred times. But I want to look at what really happened for a minute. I've turned it over in my mind for quite a while now, so I want to share some of what I've gleaned.First of all, my brother didn't remember any of what happened to him. Some of my friends from church had become adept at pointing out that "God did this to show your brother his power", but the only people who saw that...
the big test
Since someone, somewhere, has seen fit to deprive the world of Issues etc and take a huge bite out of confessional Lutheranism at the same time, I will not take up the mantle of working to see that those who did it answer for their actions.
