Returning to Northern Missouri

Hopedale Youth Project Eternity (HYPE) took a little break from our study of teens in the Bible and I got to share a few optical illusions and talk about deception--mostly self deception. It's weird how we can deceive ourselves. I mean, how can we lie to ourselves and be convincing enough that we believe the lie to be the truth? When you put it that way, it sounds impossible. And yet, we are skilled enough that we do it quite often. We also talked about following Jesus; about being disciples and about making disciples. It was a little bit of a continuation of Sunday's Bible study lesson.

*****

This weekend will find me travelling north to Trenton MO once again. I'll be spending Sunday morning at Shelburne Baptist Church and Sunday evening at the Baptist Student Union (BSU) on the campus of North Central Missouri College.

Sunday evening will be the Thanksgiving dinner that the BSU puts on every year and will be the third time that I've been asked to come and entertain and share the gospel with the students that come to dinner. Even though the day is a long one (9+ hrs of driving, morning service, evening dinner and several hours in between), I always enjoy the interaction with the students. Besides, I would drive a great distance for the opportunity to preach on any Sunday--anytime.

It's always nice to be asked back to a venue. Of course it does mean having to come up with some new effects to share. On the plus side of that, it's only a two year college so the audience rotates through quickly. I'm sure that at least one person will have a fun time (I always do)!

*****

I will get back to the apologetics next week. I think that I'll make that a weekly topic on sharing why you can trust what the Bible tells us about God, Jesus, heaven and hell.

John <><

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Under the Weather

I don't know if it's fall allergies or if I've moved to a sinus infection/cold. In any case I'm definitely a bit under the weather today and not in much of a mood to keep up with the daily blogging for November.

So I'm going to give myself a pass on writing today and just share a couple of sources for the phrase "under the weather" with you.

I've always enjoyed finding out how phrases and sayings came to be so here are just a couple of possible origins for "under the weather."

site one
site two

Back at it tomorrow.

John <><

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Who is Jesus? ...and Why Should I Follow Him?

I suppose that it is fair to address those two questions before we ever get around to discussing the things that Jesus taught. If we are not first convinced that there was such a person as the Biblical Jesus of Nazareth, we certainly are not going to get very far discussing the teaching or authority of what is perceived as a fictional character.

It is fair to ask if there are any ancient texts other than the Bible that give evidence of the life of Jesus. The answer is a resounding, "Yes!"

Even without looking at specific texts, we know from the history of Rome that the followers of Jesus were slaughtered in the Colosseum as entertainment for Nero and the citizens of Rome. If this Jesus never lived, a lot of people died for nothing.

Okay, you can say that many people can be caught up in false teachings and false prophets and these delusional Christians truly believed in the imaginary Jesus. After all, still today there are many that think of God as imaginary.

So, is there evidence outside of the Bible that testifies that Jesus was a real person and did the things that the Bible (and His followers) claims He did?

Fortunately, once again, the answer is yes.

Probably the earliest writing (and the best preserved writing) is from a Jewish slave to a Roman officer and later servant of Caesar Dominitan. Flavius Josephus wrote Antiquities of the Jews and is considered to be an authority on Jewish history. In addition to this writing, there are nine other (ten total) non-biblical texts from non-Christians written within 150 years of the life of Jesus. By comparison, there are only nine that mention the Emperor Tiberius.

The Quran, written 600 years later, also refers to Jesus. But the Muslims do not believe in the divinity of Jesus, only that he was a prophet to the Jews to direct them towards the future prophet Mohammed.

Lee Stroebel's A Case for Christ and Norm Geisler's and Frank Turek's I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Athiest are two good reads that cover evidences of Jesus and his fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.

The evidence is strong that the person of Jesus existed and even that he performed many miracles.
Next we'll take a look at the divinity of Jesus.

John <><

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Go ... Make Disciples

Yesterday's youth group Bible study was centered around the final command that Jesus gave in Matthew's gospel; the command to make disciples.

I think the main problem among evangelicals today is that we cannot teach the things that Jesus taught unless we know them, and we cannot know them unless we are first disciples ourselves. Too often, we claim to be "saved" by Jesus but we have no designs to become students of his life and teachings and therefore, we are unable to fulfill his command of making disciples.

I offered a challenge; an opportunity to the young guys in our class. I offered to study the life and way of Jesus with them in a personal way. Whether we actually meet or work through studies via e-mail, Facebook or some other venue, we will look at the things Jesus taught in his stories, sermons and way of life. I know that Sunday School is supposed to fill that purpose, but let's be honest -- it's pretty light and only for an hour per week.

Fair warning: Many of those lessons may find their way to Out of My Hat.

I'm going to encourage my non-believing friends to continue to read these posts for two reasons.
1) Jesus taught some good stuff.
Even if you choose not to follow Him as Savior and Lord, you can learn a lot about how to live peacefully with fellow human beings.

2) I think that Christians often get this backwards. We tend to want people to choose to trust Jesus as Savior and then we'll teach them the things he taught. I think that if we will just teach Jesus and his ways (make disciples), the Holy Spirit will move in their hearts to bring about true followers.

Have a great week.
Share the simple message -- "God loves you" and "Jesus died for you."
...and study to teach the deeper messages of the Bible; become a disciple of Jesus.

John <><

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Lazy, Dreary Sunday Afternoon

It's raining in the Ozarks this afternoon.

It feels like a good day to do ... well, nothing.

I've sent Veterans' Day texts to my Navy brother and Army National Guard (retired) sister and called my dad (Navy). Thanks to any of you readers that have also served in our country's military forces.

Now I'm just putting off working on rearranging the garage clutter so that I can actually get my car into it before the winter sets in. I also have the continuing project of getting all of my magic stuff into place in my room in the basement.

I have also been inspired to make a deliberate effort and regular writing--not just blogging, but writing articles, short stories, devotionals, maybe even a start towards that book that is fighting its way out my head. I always come away from our monthly writers' meetings thinking that I need to write more. This month it's a little bit different, though.

Our guest speaker Ethan Bryan, author of Run Home and Take a Bow, really managed to paint a different picture about writing. For him, writing isn't something that he likes to do as much as it is something that he has to do. It is his calling. I think that I've been ignoring the fact that there is a God given need to write that also resides in me. It's been buried under the things of what I want to do and what I have to do. You have those things, don't you? Things that you are putting off for the day when you have the time for them? Maybe it's time to make the time for writing. I guess that means less time on Facebook and Twitter. I guess it means less time watching mindless entertainment on TV. I guess it means that I need to make good use of the time that I no longer spend watching baseball (only 140 days until Opening Day 2013)!

So in addition to publishing daily (at least for Nov.) here at Out of My Hat, I'm going to work on just writing. We'll see where that takes me.

What is your calling?
Have you been putting off the thing that is inside of you and is struggling to get out?
Have you been telling God, "I don't want that gift. I'm not going to use it?"

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice really -- get busy living, or get busy dying." Shawshank Redemption 

John <><

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Writing

Today is our monthly meeting for the Ozarks Chapter of American Christian Writers.

These monthly gatherings of committed writers always inspire me to write. I've been trying to force myself to publish something every day this month here at Out of My Hat. It may not look like I'm actually writing every day since I sometimes write in the morning one day and then late at night the same day for the following day's post. I know that I can schedule each post to appear at a set time, but I usually just hit "publish" when I'm finished writing.

Today is a cheap post.
I'm just taking the day off from the post election rantings as I join the rest of the country in a collective head shake and sigh as we watch the posturing begin anew in our nation's capital.

I'm sure that readers of Out of My Hat are also readers of various other blogs or internet news sources so you have probably read countless articles analyzing the successes and failures of the various campaigns, as well as the breakdowns of the voters and the effects of the billions of dollars that were spent on advertising.

In any case, we can rejoice that the political ads are history, until the next time...

Moving on to more pressing matters: the holidays are upon us! Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day. It is a festive time of year and we ought to set aside the things that divide us and enjoy the food and festivities of the season.

Deer hunters are in the Missouri woods this weekend. I wish you all success in thinning the population so that I don't have to make a personal contribution to the effort by hitting one with my car. Be safe, friends.

I'll leave you with a link to a song from the latest CD from my friends at Calling Glory. (I've been listening to them as I write.)
John <><

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Clowns to the left of me; Jokers to the right...

Now that the 2012 elections are over and our duly elected reprehensitives head back to DC to continue with the ever maddening partisan gamesmanship, is it time for the reasonable Americans that find themselves center-right, center-left or pretty much in the middle and without representation to form a solid, moderate third party?

I'm not talking about a fringe element of the left or right like the Tea Party. I'm talking about an organized party of reasonable thinking, define the problem/find the answer kind of citizens; the kind of people that are willing to put the good of the country above party controlled agendas.

There are Independents that fit the bill, but the problem with Independents is that they are ... well, independent. They go to DC and then have to chose whether to caucus with the Democrats or the Republicans and are very limited in what their small, reasonable voices can do to influence the power of the larger party.

What if centrists (still with extremes of center-right and center-left) could come together enough to oust the extremes from both sides and actually--what's the word I'm looking for here--oh yeah, govern!
How cool would it be to actually have legislators that legislate, executives that execute and enforce that legislation and judges that judge?

I know that there are many of us that feel stuck in the middle without a representing voice in DC. We aren't liberal enough to feel comfortable with many of the views of the Democrats and aren't conservative enough to go along with the Akin/Mourdock/Walsh/Ryan anti-science, govern by my religion philosophy of legislation. If we cannot find reason within the two parties, I say it's time to forget trying to reform them and it's time to replace them.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to go about bringing on such a political revolution. There has to be somebody with the same thoughts that can unite those of us that are political centrists into an organized movement of citizens that will speak for the real majority of Americans. If you think that is possible; if you think that is necessary then share this post far and wide. Let's begin a moderate movement that can break the gridlock that impedes the governance of our great land.

John <><
(Share it with your representatives, too. Maybe it will stir them towards getting something done.)

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