The confused role

I started writing this post in a kilt. The traditional garb of the Gaelic warrior. I felt a connection to those long faded memories of warriors. The Scots fought in WWII in their kilts and routed Germans in their fierceness. They fought off the English for years in the cold highlands of Scotland.
I did several Google searches for "kilt" and found it fascinating.
Until very recent men wore unbifubricated garments and in some countries they still do, just not in America (the western hemisphere).
No I don't have a camo kilt. It's a utilikilt mocker.
Our youth today are bombarded with sex. It's has worked its way into everything around us. It drives advertising, whether it is overt, or subtle. We also want to sanitize our gender play. No guns, dolls and dress up are for both boys and girls. We can't accept that we are inherently wired completely different. Girls want to nurture and boys want to hunt and conquer. By the way, that's no girly man in the picture, that's all masculine man competing in a Scottish games.

This is our confusion.

How do we clarify?

Well as I wore my kilt and let the visions of Celtic and Scottish warriors battle an intriguing idea came to me. We as a church have not come to the place where we celebrate boyhood and manhood. Do we take time as men to interact with the boys, man-to-male? Do we mentor them? Who teaches the boys at church? Men? Or is it a few dedicated older ladies? How about our teen boys. At the time they most need men and are stumbling along fledging away from their parents, who is reaching out to them? When they come of age, do we celebrate their manhood? Many cultures have a coming of age celebration. The Jewish boys have a bar miztva. The Aborigines have a walk-about. The Native Americans had a vision-quest.

Perhaps we need to reach into our deep past and create a modern-day celebration of manhood.

Here's some interesting links about rites of passage: Circle of Life and Rite of passage. I do not necessarily espouse their beliefs or opinions.

I just finished reading Jon Krakauer, "Where Men Win Glory" a biography of Pat Tillman. "Pat Tillman walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the Army and became an icon of post 9/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, he became a tool for the White House propaganda. Thus a legend was born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerably more complicated, than the fiction sold to the public."
Spoiler alert: This is a raw telling of war and life in war. It as much a political statement against the American leadership at the time as a biography.
Krakauer quotes Lee Harris' "The Suicide of Reason" in the post script.

"The problem is not that Fukuyama is dead wrong; the problem is that he is half right. Unfortunately for us, the wrong half. In the West, we are perilously getting down to our last man. Liberal democracy, among us, is achieving the goal that Fukuyama predicted for it: It is eliminating the alpha males from our midst, and at a dizzyingly accelerating rate. But in Muslim societies, the alpha male is still alive and well. While in America we are drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin, the Muslims are doing everything in their power to encourage their boys to be tough, aggressive, and ruthless... We are proud if our sons get into a good college; they are proud if their sons die as martyrs."

What do we want for our boys? Good college and a comparable lifestyle, or do we need to shun the status quo and foster in our boys adventure, courage, discipline, ruggedness and devotion to follow God's call, even to martyrdom?

October is Persecuted Church Month

I came across a number of items of importance that you should know about:

October if Clergy Appreciation month. Hit the jump to find out more.

October is also Persecuted Church month. It is a time to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. We need to pray for them. Find out more at Voice of the Martyrs. Teens need to know that Christians around the world face death and imprisonment for their faith. Check out the Underground Reality inside Vietnam. DC talk is still going strong at JesusFreaks.net. They've got a great interactive map right on the home page to see what's going on around the world.

Anti-blasphemy resolution impact brought to forefront

(Photos by Reuters/Eric Thayer)

International (MNN) ― The United Nations Anti-Blasphemy resolution is drawing the ire of mission groups.

Carl Moeller with Open Doors explains that in application, "This anti-blasphemy resolution is mostly seen to be putting a 'chilling effect' on Christian work and outreach around the world, and that is a very troubling development for us."

Free speech advocates say the non-binding resolution is being used to intimidate believers and spread Sharia law. Adopted in 2007, Resolution 62/145 reads in part: It "notes with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities in the aftermath of 11 September 2001."

Despite the good intentions, Moeller says, "The reality is that wherever Christianity and Islam come into relationship with each other in the culture, the net effect has been for Christian evangelism to be silenced or to be intimidated through this act."

Though it has little teeth in law, the act has been reviewed and passed more than once. That gives it some kind of authority and often emboldens militant Islamists to use it as a club against Christians.

In effect, it is a shield for the fundamentalists who retaliate against perceived offenses. Moeller says the resolution passes under the guise of protecting religion, but it actually endangers religious minorities in Islamic countries.

That's why he's urging prayer. "The slope is so slippery because everything that purports to criticize Islam is considered 'blasphemy.' Anything that promotes another religious viewpoint, like Christianity, is considered 'blasphemy.' It really becomes the ultimate weapon against free religious speech around the world."

Open Doors is raising awareness, Moeller adds, because "people need to get involved with organizations that are standing up to draw attention to the anti-blasphemy laws...to make true religious freedom a hallmark of international religious liberty and not a sham of anti-blasphemy laws that the UN is passing."

If you're in New York or Pennsylvania this is for you (My apologies, if you're else where, it may be to far.):
Pastors' Conference with James MacDonald On October 28th.

Family Life invites you to attend a one-day Pastor’s conference with Dr. James MacDonald (Lunch will be served). The event is free and will be held at The Family Life Center in Bath, NY. Check-in begins at 8:30 am and the conference starts at 9:00 am. Registration is necessary. Please call 607-776-4151 or 800-927-9083 during regular business hours to pre-register for the event.

This years conference we are excited that the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, NC has offered a give away package for a Pastor and spouse to either the 2009 Pastor's Institute or Leadership Institute (dates TBD). The package would include one night's lodging as well as meals and materials.

God's Fireworks

In ancient times they were considered omens. Some cultures saw them as bad and some good. I think it's easier to think of them as God's fireworks. In this case, I didn't even see it with my own eye! I've enhanced the image, so you could see it better.
It reminds me of how small I am and how big God is. He's taking care of us each day at a time.

Psalm 19

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

God is so big, and so good to us. He's still holding the world in the palm of His hand and has not grown weary or old. To me, there are no accidents (just convergence - that's for another post), there are divine appointments. I actually had two pictures back to back of a meteor! Two meteors, wow!
This summer take time to get away from the busy life, get away from the lights and see the awesomeness of what God has created reflecting the awesomeness of Him. Take a drive out into the country on a clear night, and gaze up into the open heavens.

C.S. Lewis wrote "Perelandra" the second book in his Space Trilogy. The king and queen there, the first man and wife (an Adam and Eve typology for you theological seminarians) were facing a very difficult temptation with the introduction of humans in the form of an evil physicist and his rocket.
Ransom, the main character is transported by "spiritual" beings to Venus to deal with mess that is about to occur, which will corrupt another planet forever. In essence Venus is a second Eden.
In Perelandra, the king and queen could not fathom looking beyond the golden dome of the sky to see the naked heavens and the greater universe that they live in.
It has a great ending, but I recommend reading the trilogy in order for it too make the most sense and even though they can stand alone, their is a far greater story by bringing them together.
Get out and enjoy our naked heavens, where God is the master artist who paints in fine strokes, the wonder and grandeur of the universe.

The Power of a Name

I was reading in Mark 1 about Jesus casting out a demon.

21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

25"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

What's in the power of a Name? Jesus knew this demon, because He had created it as an angelic being. They knew each other intimately from before Satan's rebellion, and casting out of heaven. The lines are blurred from the natural to the supernatural: Jesus sees the man, controlled by the demon, and he sees the demon, a rebellious angel. He speaks to the demon, and they converse briefly. Redemption for angels was not in the plan.

In today's world, this conversation between Jesus and the demon may have been like this:
"Jesus, what do you want from us? Please don't send us into eternal condemnation yet. We know who you are, even in the human form."
"I wanted to esteem you, but you rebelled. For you there is no hope. Do not speak my name. Leave that man, for him there is hope, there is salvation through me. Your time has not yet ended. My Spirit is over this man, now."
Upset, but grateful the demon still had it's life intact, it shrieked and came out of the man in search of another host.

God is intimately knowledgeable of His creation, for though He spoke it into existence, each creature is uniquely made by Him. Each creature is designed and brought to life to worship God. Sadly, not all have wanted to return His love.

Whose name do we whisper? Whose name do we draw power from? Whose name do we obey? Who do we listen and heed when He calls? Do we obey because of love, or because we are compelled by His power?

Listening or Speaking?

Get all the advice and instruction you can, and be wise the rest of your life.
--Proverbs 19:20, NLT

Do we spend more time talking, sticking the word in edgewise, fighting to get a word in, so that we can be heard? Elaine has really enjoyed being pregnant through the first two trimesters, enjoyed it, because she is looking to what is coming, not the uncomforts of now. She has been getting weekly emails about pregnancy. One of the hot topics in pregnancy is naming the baby. There are megabytes consumed on the spelling, and people arguing in the blog on how to spell a name.

I just picked up a book from the library, "The Cult of the Amateur" which is about the internet: blogging, video posts and such. Everybody has a voice, but nobody is listening. The internet is the new interactive TV!

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7
There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven...
A time to be silent and a time to speak

Now that I have spoken what's on my mind, it is time for silence, that I can learn and be wise.

Are you too busy speaking to listen?