This morning I was reading about how King Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem and I found myself really missing that city. The history alone makes it noteworthy, but I miss it in a way that is deeper than that. It is the city of my spiritual heritage, the city that my Savior looked forward to traveling to to celebrate the feasts that foreshadowed His coming and His sacrifice .

When I think of Jerusalem I can’t help but think of Jesus walking the ancient streets and going up the southern stairs to the temple mount to pray. It is a city that I am connected to, a city that every Christian is connected to, a city of new peace. This morning I miss that city. This morning I am praying for the peace of Jerusalem.

I have been visited my other mother at the Hospice today. Staring death in the face has gotten me thinking about how easy it is to lose priorities and the constant need to fight to keep the right priorities.

It seems odd to me that we often lose site of what is most important considering how short life really is. I know I will be doing so priortizing after this weekend, can’t wait to spend some time with my family!

Hello readers, I haven’t blogged in months, not totally sure why. But, I did want to send out a quick update that I am still alive. That this week we our third child was born, and that one of these days I will dive back into the blogsphere. Thanks for hanging in there, let’s have some conversation soon.

Pastor’s will fail you, I should know, I’ve been one. This is not to say that pastor’s are bad, they aren’t, but they are people, and people fail. I think too often we put pastor’s on an unhealthy pedestal and then when it turns out that they have the same flaws like everyone else and they hurt others the same way that everyone else does, we are somehow more offended, as if a pastor should be super human.

I hate to admit, but many pastors have failed me over the years. I have watched men I respect preach messages with clear non-biblical motives while sprinkling in just enough scripture to fool most people into thinking its a Biblical message. I have served pastors so wrapped up in themselves and their world that they lacked time and focus to really help in my development as a Christ follower and leader. I have had pastors that lacked any Kingdom mindedness because they were only interested in their small part of the world.

The truth is this. Pastors are still people, and people (all people) screw up and act selfishly at times. All pastors will hurt someone that they are trying to lead, that is an irrevocable truth. So, we must not put our hope in pastors, we must put our hope in Jesus. He will not fail.

It is good to have people that we look up to and respect. It is good to sit under sound Biblical teaching. However, our main source of inspiration to love God, our main source of learning about God and our main source of how we connect with God must always be God Himself. He is our source. There is no pastor or leader that can properly fill that role.

Pastors will fail you, Jesus will not. Follow Jesus.

Last week I posted an update on Twitter and facebook that read “Confession: at the end of the day I am often more interested in entertainment than in spiritual development. A sad fact that must change.”

A good friend pointed out that this is the problem with American Christianity and after mulling it over for a little while, I’m inclined to agree. Which brings me to several questions and observations.

• How have we taken our relationship with our Creator so lightly that we have the audacity to choose to watch TV when we haven’t even said hello to Him all day?
• Why do we feel entitled to rest at the end of the day by spending hours being totally unproductive? Does productivity during the day mean that the evening must be unproductive? That is ridiculous, no one “deserves” anything, we are not entitled.
• Why do I have such an insatiable desire to be entertained all the time, to the point that I actually avoid silence? You might do this too. When is the last time you rode in the car without the radio on purpose?
• Is my desire for constant entertainment a reflection of how truly self centered I am at heart? Or is it a shield that keeps me from thinking too deeply and having to deal with some of the sin issues in my life?
• America’s addiction to entertainment is clearly unhealthy and will continue to lead us down a path that is very far from God.
• Christians should not forsake “secular” entertainment just too substitute it with “Christian” entertainment. The problem is not the message of the entertainment, but the medium itself and what it does to our thinking.
• Churches that focus their meetings on entertaining their people are doing their people a great disservice. Following Jesus has nothing to do with being entertained and everything to do with forsaking distractions to follow Him.

Thoughts?

I read an article yesterday about mega churches, check it out here.

There was one part of it in particular that I thought was interesting:

One of the big attractions of megachurches, the study found, is that they offer savvy consumers an opportunity to pick and choose their level of commitment.

“Part of the attraction of the megachurch is that it provides a way for folks to shape their spiritual experience to best meet their needs,” said Scott Thumma, the lead researcher.

Any thoughts on this?

Discuss…