In the Zone

Lust is the dirty little secret of American advertisers and society. In advertisements, everything is for sale. Coca-cola makes you happy. Budweiser makes you popular and cool. The right investment firm will take care of your wants in your senior years. Drugs can provide your every need and heal any ailment. The right cell phone can finally put your life in order. Yet all these commercials and advertisements count on one thing - your lust. Every beer commercial has beautiful, scantily clad women to entice you to drink. Drink Budweiser and these women can be yours. Your lust for women leads to you believe that drinking beer will help you attain them. Forget diet, exercise, manners and personality. Just a case full of Buds and your lust can be satisfied. Or how about cell phones. Again, we don't see ugly people in these commercials. Handsome young men and beautiful young women laugh as they exchange texts, status updates and pictures of the "oh-so-hot" person on th...

It's Thanksgiving Eve.  That means, starting tomorrow, Christmas season will be in full gear.  Last year I waited until late in that season to put out this list, but decided this year to put together this particular post a little early.  What will follow is simply a list of books I've read over the last year.  It won't be exhaustive.  I will just hit the highlights.  Included with each book will be a link to Amazon as well as a brief review and/or description of the book. I want you to see what I've been reading, but I also want to provide a list in case you have a reader on your Christmas shopping list.  I hope this list helps you with a few Christmas presents this year. (By the way, as an aside, I got about half of these books for free on my Amazon Kindle.  You just have to keep an eye on the top 100 free books list.  I got three Francis Chan books for free over Easter weekend.) Happy Thanksgiving and an early Merry C...

When I was a child, I had these extreme cramps in my knees.  Every so often, when I slept, I would wake up in excruciating pain in one or both of my knees.  I couldn't go back to sleep it would hurt so much. My mom called them "leg aches" and said they were just growing pains.  They'd come and then go and recur every once in a while.  Eventually, as I got older, they went away.  I guess they really were growing pains after all. I vividly remember laying in my room at night, cradled into a fetal position and clutching my knee under the covers.  I'd rub it, thinking warmth would be the answer.  I'd try to flex it, hoping to shake loose any pain.  A few times I even blew hot moisture onto my hands and placed it on my knee, thinking it might bring relief.  Nothing ever worked. Those pains kept me up many a nights.  In those moments, it never occurred to me to thank God for my leg aches.  It never crossed my mind to be thankful for...

I love the show Quantum Leap. Yeah, I'm a science fiction geek and a bit old-fashioned, but I love the story of Dr. Sam Beckett going back in time to make right what once went wrong.  In the show, Sam Beckett is trapped in time, forced to live other people's lives until he can fix the thing that went wrong.  Once he does, he "leaps" into another life, having made his host's life significantly better. I've always liked the idea that mistakes can be fixed and that errors can be mended by simply looking back and fixing the past.  Unfortunately, that's just a television show.  While the idea is a nice one to ponder, it's not reality.  No one is going to "leap" into my life and correct the major errors I've made.  No one is going to reconcile broken relationships in my life.  No one is going to take back harsh words. Instead, that's my job.  I have to make right what once went wrong. In Matthew 5:25-26, Jesus warns us to sett...

I love Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday of the year. Some like Christmas and all the music and presents.  Some, oddly enough, go all out for Halloween.  They have a flavor for the macabre. Personally, I've always been a Thanksgiving guy.  It combines three of my favorite elements:  Jesus, football and food.  It's the perfect holiday.  You pray, give thanks, watch a big game and stuff yourself silly with turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.  (And in my house, green bean bundles.) While Thanksgiving has been commercialized (what American holiday hasn't?), at its core, it's a day of celebration, thanking God for all his provisions.  He provides for us, even when things aren't going well.  In fact, it's just as important to thank him during the dark times.  He may be the only light we have. However, we sometimes take Thanksgiving too lightly.  It has a tendency to become more about the foods, the games and the tradi...

As an American and a believer in Christ, I'm concerned for my country. Election results in Colorado, Washington, Maryland and Maine have given me pause when I see the American landscape.  For the first time I can remember, I am truly not proud of parts of my country.  In fact, I'm frightened. In Colorado and Washington, voters approved the legalization of marijuana.  Let that sink in.  In Colorado and Washington, you will see be allowed to legally obtain an illegal drug (according to the federal government).  Forget the war on drugs, Colorado and Washington voters decided to wave the white flag and surrender. In Maryland and Maine, voters approved same-sex marriage.  It was the first time a popular vote ballot initiative on same-sex marriage has passed in this country.  These four election results scare me.  When a country is void of morals and values anything goes.  When we erode core family values, it opens the floodgates to al...