I was tempted to write a deep thought about the significance of crowns in the Bible, but for some reason another thought seems like it would be more useful for us. Crowns are used to designate someone as being a ruler or, in some cultures, a god. Basically, crowns are used to show that someone is very important.

We don't often see someone wearing a crown these days, sometimes a girl with a tiara. We do many other things though, to make ourselves appear important and to make ourselves stand out. Sometimes we use our clothing style, or lack of (seriously) to get attention. Sometimes we make a public spectacle of how smart we are, or we act like a complete fool publicly so that people will notice us. Sometimes we show off our grades or sports accomplishments. Sometimes we even act very spiritual so that people will think that we're "good" Christians. I think that it is good to be proud when we do something well, but sometimes we get carried away.

Crowns, as they were intended to be used, were placed on a persons head by someone else. Kings received their crown from their fathers for example. Of course throughout history kings have overthrown each other and in a gesture of pride, have crowned themselves.

I think that God's desire for us is that we not attempt to get noticed or to try and look important. I think that this is why Peter (1 Peter 5:6) was led to tell us that we should be humble and let God exalt us when He decides that the time is right. Most of us don't walk around with crowns on our heads, but we should be mindful of our inner desires to be noticed. God desires that we be appreciated and honored, but it is best if He places the honor on us. It means more coming from Him than when we do it ourselves.

So, Jim Denker requested a blog on Coke. I am a Pepsi guy personally, but I am currently trying to avoid soda completely. This is why it was so funny to me when I discovered that Coca-Cola was originally marketed as a medicine. How weird is it that something that we once considered good for our health is something that we now know will rot your teeth and give you a pot belly. Of course, when it was marketed as a medicine they didn't expect people to fill up 44 ounce cups of it at their local convenient store everyday.

So the deep thought is this. Sometimes we have the tendancy to take something good and use it recklessly. I think chocolate is a wonderful gift from God, but we end up with issues if we eat it constantly. We also don't always have the best grasp on what is good for us. Just like Coca-Cola didn't turn out to be that amazing of a medicine, we often think we are on the right track to happiness, but we find out later that God really has a better option. This is OK, its part of life. I know some guys who get angry easily and think that what they need to do is run a mile or wail on a punching bag to get their anger out. That sort of works, but it doesn't solve the issue in their heart that causes the anger. As we grow as Christians, God wants to show us that he has better medicine. He wants us to sit with him and allow him to speak to our hearts when our emotions flair up. Just like I, as a adult, am losing my interest in 44oz cups of soda, I believe that God will lead us to his better remedies for us a we grow up in him.

What do you guys think about this? Do you have any examples of things that you thought were good that turned out to be kind of a letdown?

This is my friend Sarah Macdonald. Now you can google her and find her picture. I decided to write a short poem about Sarah since poems often more clearly portray feeling and emotion.

Sarah Mac, she's got your back
After soccer she eats a snack
Upon her head, her hair is red
And when she talks, you hear what she said
She gives announcements to Faith Extreme
And at Middle ground she blows off steam (?)
She likes to smile and say hello
She's not too short, but still will grow
Now you know who Sarah is
And that I'm not a poetry whiz.

Wow, that was beautiful. Everyone memorize this poem and recite it to Sarah at school tomorrow.

This is a blog about two requested topics, rubber chickens and Ryan's hair.
I don't know how many times I've heard someone say that they think God has a sense of humor. To be honest I always kind of feel awkward because they are usually talking about some funny looking animal and the fact that God wouldn't have created aardvarks if He didn't have a sense of humor because their just so funny looking (I know that was a run-on). Sometimes I imagine what the aardvarks would say about us. The other times people say that are when some super ironic event has just occurred. For instance, "It's my wedding day and it's raining. Wow, God must have a sense of humor!" I usually can't go there with them. I figure that the rain is also watering thirsty plants that through an amazing process are going to end up supplying us with oxygen. I just can't chalk that rain at the wedding up to God pulling a practical joke.

I was seriously stumped as to what I could write about rubber chickens. "They serve no God given purpose" I said. I mean, God didn't create them, we did. That's when it hit me. God gave us all a sense of humor. I don't know anyone without one. I may not understand their sense of humor, but its definitely there. If we are created in God's image, and we all love finding funny and ironic things in life and we like to talk about them...God must have given us that urge as an expression of Himself. So maybe we are supposed to laugh at aardvarks and rained out weddings. I mean, think about Ryan's hair...

We all know that we live in a free country. Little kids like to remind us of this when you tell them not to scream in your ear or something like that. "It's a free country!" Well next time remind them that you are not free to kill, have excessive amounts of yard sales, lie in court or run stop signs. Well, they might not care, but freedom is always accompanied by limitations. I know that sounds like a contradiction. Think about it though, if everyone could do what they wanted there would be no freedom. Limits are in place becuase people are prone to be selfish and careless and their freedom takes away the freedom of others. If there were no stop signs, people would be much more inconvenienced as they constantly slammed on their brakes and repared their damaged fenders.

There is a teaching in scripture that teaches that God has predestined the lives of people. Some people have a huge issue with this idea, because they believe that freedom is an important teaching in scripture. The truth is that both are important. Christ has made us free from the law that leads to sin and allows us to freely love Him, but He hasn't given us an all access pass to run our lives. That wouldn't have done us or anyone else any good. The word that we translate as pre-destination means "to set limitations" in greek. God has set boundaries for us, these include the times when we are born and die, our ability of have faith in God, the people that come into our lives, and so much more. It can seem like God is too controlling for doing this, but the truth is that He alone knows what is best for us and what needs to be done for His perfect plan to play out correctly. Take a look around at the situations in your school and every day life. There are so many limitations set in place by imperfect people that serve us for our good. This is just a shadow of the way that God rules over all things and sets boundaries so that we can be truly free.

Image courtesy of FreeFoto.com

I love shoes. I don't what it is about them. I would seriously be pretty happy wearing an old ratty pair of jeans and a thrift store shirt as long as I had on a slick pair of Saucony's (or something like that). I used to own a lot of shoes, well I still do. They aren't super expensive shoes, but I do like to think they're trendy. Some of them are so dear to me that I just can't get rid of them even though I haven't worn them in months.

I used to feel like I needed to have the newest shoes on the market. I don't feel like that anymore. Those shoes cost three times as much as much trendier "vintage" shoes at Ross. Plus, they are only awesome for the first week that you own them. When you first buy the brand new shoes, everyone notices. The next week, they are just used shoes. I think I used to just buy the new name brand shoes for that initial week of artificial love that I received.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy new or brand name shoes. I happen to try to avoid off-brand shoes because I don't like wearing shoes that come apart in chunks or act as pebble storage devices. I actually love picking up a nice pair of Nike's at Buffalo Exchange. I also love to get a nice new pair of shoes that fit just right and will last me a few years. What I am saying is that we should examine our reasons for doing things. Purchasing a high quality pair of shoes because we actually intend on using that 3 year guarantee is good. Buying some shoes for basketball that are built well for the sport is wise. On the other hand, the need to have the newest and "best" shoes just for the attention that we will receive is both vain and a complete waste of time and money. I am in recovery for this type thing. The first step in recovery is admitting that you have a problem. Let's be honest about why we do what we do and allow God to help us prioritize.

Is the best use of hundreds of dollars per year the acquisition of newer and more trendy foot coverings? Could we invest that money into the kingdom of God? Could we invest it into things that do not rot, that thieves cannot steal, and that are not going to just be dragged across the ground? So shoes are fun and we should enjoy them, but let's keep our priorities straight.

It's easy to think of what water could symbolize if you merely consider the ways that we need water in our daily lives. The most important use of water is to quench our thirst. If it weren't for water, we would die. That is why water is used as a symbol of life in the Bible. There is a river of life described in the book of Revelation and Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman about water that would provide everlasting life. Of course He wasn't talking about literal water. He was pointing the woman to a spring of water that flowed from God Himself, the real source of life that extended beyond the physical to eternity.
We also use water to clean ourselves. We wash before we eat to avoid germ contamination. We bathe our bodies to eliminate the oils, dirt and odors that our bodies produce. The water in scripture also symbolizes cleansing. Our spirits produce unclean things just as our physical bodies do. Just as our physical bodies need cleaning, so do our spirits. We see this when the Priests symbolically washed themselves before serving before God in the temple. We also see this in baptism where water is used to symbolize the cleansing of our inner self. See, even water has a deep significance.