Scripture not as entertaining

"Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory." 2 Corinthians 3:7-10

How come most of us just skimmed through that passage to get to what my comment down here was first? We are too impatient. And of course, we already know what the Scriptures says, and we don't really need to read it again because we're sure it won't impact us again in a new, different, and fresh way. Even if we knew it would impact us again, we don't really have time for it.

I noticed how bad I am at this the other day. I like to listen to sermons often, probably twice a week. Almost every time, I tune out during the preacher's reading of the text, sometimes even fast forward. It's as if him reading Scripture is wasting my time; he should get on with the good stuff.

Topless Males

Guys walking around Topless.......what are your thoughts/rules on that? Whenever I see a guy, aged 16-30, with his shirt off, I always have one of two thoughts:
1) That guy is only topless because he thinks he's hot stuff
2) That guy is topless because he doesn't realize how unattractive his nipple hair is
So I always judge the guy as being either conceited or naive

Aged 30+, my thought is always
1) I wish I didn't care what people thought like that guy does

Which is why you will never see me topless. I either think I'm too unattractive (pale) or I worry that others will think I'm trying to show off (i have nice deltoids) or I lack the 'whatever' attitude brought upon by having a wife and kids.

Help without exception?

Friends and I decided we would provide Thanksgiving dinner for a family who cannot afford it. The ministry that hooked us up w/ the family gave us the members of the family’s names, their phone number, and address. It was a mom and her three kids....all of them had different last names. My heart hardened a little as I didn't care to help them as much as I did originally.

I pictured a woman who was irresponsible with the men she chose to have kids with. Who probably didn't even want a good man so much as she wanted kids. Who wanted kids so she can get more money and help from her baby's daddies and her government. Who wants to live her life dependent on hand outs from other people. Who doesn't care to take responsibility by NOT having another child without a dad present.

Of course there's no way to know the truth, but what if this family was as I stereotyped/unfairly judged them? Should I still help them? Should we be helping those in need regardless of their situation, even if it only serves to keep them in their state of dependency and irresponsibility? This just got me thinking about how much discretion should be used (if any) when helping a person in need get their need met. What about Proverbs where it says whoever doesn't labor shall not eat? At the same time, how many times have we demanded God to give us something because we think we are owed it when have done nothing to deserve it....and God still, despite our ungratefulness and reverence, still blesses us. I have a tough time reconciling the two sides.

P.S. We delivered the food Monday night; she thanked us; we went on our way. She was even more thankful when we came back the following night because we forgot to give her the 1lb of cheddar cheese to complete the macaroni & cheese dish. I'm glad we helped her.

Isn't it Ironic

-My favorite grocery store is Publix.
Yet I shop at Kroger 95% of the time; the other 5%...WalMart.
-Among my top favorite actors are Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet.
Yet I loathe the movie Titanic.
-I thoroughly enjoyed all 5 PCA Atlanta churches that I visited
Yet I a regularly attend an Anglican church (no, a girl is not involved)
-I wrote this blog post.
Yet I hate irony

It's just something to say

In the past 72 months (6 yrs), I have only received a "congratulations Martin, that's awesome" during 3 of those months. Two months were all in regards to my college graduation and high school graduation and all given by people over the age of 28. The other month was right after I got a job. Zero of those months were after my fantasy baseball victory.
Now I don't poo-poo any congratulatory comments I receive, but at the same time, school was generally easy. Can you tell me how many people that start college never finish (pregnant women excluded)? Like maybe 3%. Meaning, the congratulations doesn't mean much...it feels more of like just something you say because you don't know what else to say. That's probably the reason why no one my age said congratulations.....it's because it's expected of you...it's not a big deal. You have failed if you didn't graduate. It's like rewarding your elementary schooler for flushing the toilet....it's what you're supposed to do. To me and most others, the congratulations is really more of "hey, you reached the next stage in life" rather than "wow, what a great feat you have accomplished". Which, in that case, we should have been congratulated on reaching puberty. At the same time, I myself will probably give out many "congratulations on graduating college" to future generations simply because it's what you're supposed to say even though it doesn't mean anything; I, like my culture, have plenty of insincere comments left to give.

We publicly humiliate because we don't understand

This hit Dateline NBC show uses a decoy to catch/trap online predators. The typical predator looks normal, is 42 years old, and has a couple kids. The decoy, with the help of NBC, lures the predator to come visit his/her house. The predator, after minutes of being in the house, gets greeted by Chris Hansen of NBC, the predator gets embarrassed, then arrested. A criminal gets captured; justice is done. People love this show. Look at the comments on YouTube about this video. Everyone typically has one of three reactions to this:
1) They love that the predator is getting what they deserve, they love watching the guilty party get humiliated
2) They think it's funny.
3) They are just overall disgusted by the perversion of the predator.

The only thing is, for some reason, I'm always on the predator's side. There could be something wrong with me. I don’t know why I feel that way, but I’ll try my best to articulate why (part of the purpose of this post is so that it’ll force me to dig into why I feel this way). I'm all for catching the predator and him being severely punished, but something just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's because it's hard to watch as someone's life is being completely destroyed. Maybe it’s because I’m immediately trying to picture this guy’s situation that would make him do this. He’s probably jaded with his marriage and looking for something to rescue him from his mundane, meaningless life. He’s probably has been enslaved to porn for years and can’t escape. Meaning his ever-increasing tolerance level for arousal has led him from porn to scandalous porn to needing the real thing. He’s a normal guy with a serious problem; a normal guy who wants something exciting in life; a normal guy who never dealt with his sin and it has now taken over him. As a result of these originally ‘innocent thoughts’, he has ruined his life and his relationship with his family forever. Could not this be myself save the grace of God.