Mental Musings

I wrote this while I was in seminary. I never recorded the music, but you can read the words as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Bethlehem Manger © 1992 Steve Poole VERSE ONE They looked to you, O Bethlehem A birthplace for the Savior, But all you had to offer them Was straw placed in a manger. CHORUS Lift up your voice, with praises sing, Listen as the joy bells ring, Today is born the Christ the King! Born to die, new life to bring. VERSE TWO Then came the shepherds full of fear To see the promised Savior; They bowed their knees and shed a tear, To see Him in the manger. VERSE THREE The wisemen came, each from his place, With gifts to give the Savior; A light shone bright on every face, As they peered in the manger.

Click title above to watch this video. I think the title of the song says it all. Video is not great, but it is worth listening to the song.

I have read “The Golden Compass” and recently read “The Subtle Knife.” These are not books I would recommend for my children, but they are books I would recommend that Christians read. Why? Because these books show how the world reacts to God as a result of horrible atrocities from those who claim to speak for Him. These books can help Christians better understand the reasons that the world distrusts and even hates the Church. The Church has a very long, negative history and most Christians have done very little to repair this sordid past. Consider what the average non-Christian knows about the Church. The Church went through a period that could be defined as the acquisition of wealth (many churches throughout Europe look more like museums than worship houses). The Church had a period of tyrannical rule culminating in the reformation when the Church was known for killing those who did not have the same beliefs (many pilgrims came to North America to escape such tyranny from other relig...

Emperor Marcus Aurelius of the Roman Empire, who served from AD 161 until his death in AD 180, once made a brilliant observation about the majority. “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding one's self in the ranks of the insane.” Sometimes what society calls normal seems to resemble lemmings plunging to their death from the cliff face of Political Correctness. The Liberal Elitists have perfected the craft of shaming others into silence. They bundle their world domineering goals into sad little dishrag tales of doom and gloom. When clear minded commoners attempt to point out the fallacies of their theories, the liberals pin the "radical, right-wing swine" against a wall of bigotry and hatred for their fellow humans. Dare to disagree and you are dressed in the disease of the hatemonger, or worse, the Christian moralist. As more of the commoners among us wipe the crust from our eyes and the cobwebs from our minds numbed by decades o...

The boys and I went to RA Camp this past week. We had a great time and some interesting experiences. The boys got to enjoy canoeing, archery, hiking, crafts and wild games. The camp was held at Wometo (stands for Women and Men Together) which is only about 20 minutes from our house. We stayed in a nice, air-conditioned cabins with 5 bunk beds each. We had 18 from our church in two cabins and another 5 cabins of boys from other churches around Maryland. On the first day as one of the other counselors (David) and I were sharing a canoe, one of the teenagers who help at the camp decided to lob apples in the pond in order to splash us. We would catch the apples or pick them out of the water and throw them back at him. David leaned out a little too far and rocked the canoe dangerously to one side. I leaned the other direction just as he quickly leaned that same direction. You guessed it, we tipped over. Swimming in water over our heads, we managed to get the canoe up righted and climb back ...

If you seem to be spending too much time online, then maybe the new Second Life Church is for you. Second Life is an online virtual reality world and the Second Life Church has been built inside by LifeChurch , a multi-location church. Check out the links above to learn more about Second Life, LifeChurch or Second Life Church.

My in-laws forwarded a prospectus from their pastor about his vision for their church during the next ten years. I can agree with almost everything he has to say. He showed a great desire to reach the lost and made a personal commitment for witnessing to the lost. The one main area that I disagreed with him was his statement about worship being a primary tool for reaching the lost and unchurched. Worship is not for the lost, it is an act of love by believers directed to God. When we gear worship for the lost, we are not worshipping, we are performing. The lost rarely accept Christ because of a worship service. That mentality is a holdover from when many lost people accepted Christ at tent revival meetings. Church members who look to those “glory days” fail to understand that most of the work in witnessing to the lost was done by evangelical teams prior to and during the revival. Try getting these same church members to join you in visiting a lost persons home and they most likely will ...