Lol, well, okay...

About yesterday's post, a few things.
Sorry for anyone who make be offended by my opinion of Southern Gospel, Michael W. Smith (okay, not that sorry for that one) or K-Love. I will admit, that it truly is an opinion that these are all poor quality art that we put up with within the church. And ONLY my opinion. The church is an imperfect, adulterous bride, and i am one of if not THE most imperfect of all of it. So for the one's who may not have enjoyed some of those remarks, sorry about that.
That is mostly the reason I rarely put actual thoughts of mine of my blog anymore, because it seems once i do, people get offended by some of it. But i mean no harm, no matter how it may look.

Another thing to mention is that I in no way, shape or form hate Christians. I am one, first and foremost in my life. We are the Bride of Christ, and for me to love Jesus and not love his bride is like loving my best friend by despising his wife, if i did that, he may not be my best friend anymore. I have issues with the American church, huge issues, but anyone who has heard me preach, hung out with me, or been in one of my classes fully well knows that. I would be more than happy to sit down with anyone and explain those things to them as well, because they are on my heart constantly.

I get so many comments about every post i do, but 99.9% of them go to my e-mail, not my actual blog, so if anyone has an issue, but doesnt want others to know they do, send me an e-mail or call me about it. My phone number is 740-606-7347, work 740-335-3107, e-mail hafe4osu@gmail.com. Can't really think of any other ways to contact me off the top of my head, but if i could, i would.

So in closing for today, i am sorry to all that took what i had to say in an offensive way, but i do thank those of you who sent encouragements as well, i meant no harm only hoped for maybe a cheap laugh or a discussion starter.

My bad,

Matt.

Reflections while sitting in the library...

Okay, so right now i am in the library here in Court House. I extremely love Tuesdays because this is my 'office but out of the office day" when i get to work on my sermon, but all the while being with people. It is an amazing thing to get to do because for some reason people always tend to strike up a conversation with the guy taking notes from a Bible, using commentaries, typing on his laptop and playing a combo of Shane & Shane, 33 Miles and Jason Gray a little too loud. So i get to meet people, just learn their story a bit, and then towards the end let them know that i am actually a pastor working on a sermon for that sunday (which thus far has surprised EVERYONE). I love Tuesdays. I actually has now finished my sermon for Sunday, although i am sure to change the end, because frankly, its weak and sort of sucks. But all in all, good day.

The reason i want to reflect on this situation is, there is a particular person in here that i think God may be leading me towards meeting, but i kind of don't want to because I borderline hate him, even before meeting him. See he is this kid who has a small little mustache, kind of Zorro thin (which is cool) and he is falling asleep on the couch (which, in context of the library, is also cool) but he is on head phones and listening to Gangsta Rap, and I am on the other side of the room, and can hear every word of it. I know God wants me to love this guy, he obviously does, but WOW he is driving me nuts. I know what Jesus would do, i think. I think he would most likely ask him what he is listening to, and then find a creaive way of using a parable involving Lil Wayne to teach him about what the Kingdom of God is like, but, well, I'm not yet Jesus. Before i leave i will at least say hey to him and ask him his name, but for now i will just take the typical way out and despise him.

Another thing of note, there is no better artist alive to me than Jason Gray. I have his new CD "Acoustic Storytime" on my iTunes, which i am using to drowned out Def Jam over there. His lyrics are 50 times more theological than anything on K-Love (did i mention K-Love sucks?) and the arrangements and vocals are soul stirring to say the least. If you are someone who likes good Christian music (not Michael W. Smith, i mean good music) download his tracks "Grace" and "This Far", you won't be let down at all.

I guess one more to reflect on would be that I think even now in my Christian walk i am more in tune with non-Christians than Christians. I have to admit it, Christian drive me bonkers. For a million reasons. They still sacrifice quality for the Christian culture, meaning they do "skits" that are horrible, enjoy and sing "music" that is horrible (i'm talking to you Southern Gospel guy) and speak their own language. Hanging out with non-Christians is like leaving a Comic Book convention and realizing you were a nerd for the past two days of your weekend. non-Christians are the Kingdom of God of tomorrow, they just haven't met Jesus yet. Hopefully we wont make them more like "us". Hopefully.

UPDATE:
Also, update, talked to the "Loud Rap Music Guy" cool guy actually, and he even turned down his music. Gave me a creepy five before he left and we talked Hip Hop for a minute. Turned out better than i thought it might.

Something nice on the news for once

"I was wanting to know, if you might, want to marry me"

A little too weathermanny, but still, nice.

I love being a daddy

New Sermon Series

Hey all you South Side fans, I have a little update for you. This coming sunday we will be starting a new sermon series titled "The Life You Were Meant To Live". It will cover the book of Philippians, chapter by chapter and will deal with some HUGE issues that we death with in this life.

You might be saying to yourself "so how do you know the life that I am meant to live?" well, i dont, but the Bible does, and the Apostle Paul devoted much of his writing towards how we should live.

I will be preaching every week of this series, so please come hang out with us as we discuss just what God intended for us when this whole thing started.

P.S. I am guaranteed to at LEAST once a week.

Huge bit of advice for anyone who is literate...

Go to a bookstore, library, friend, anyone you can and find a copy of "JESUS FOR PRESIDENT" and read it, cover to cover. It will not dissappoint.

Baptism over the internet

Is it possible for a pastor to baptize someone who is physically several hundred miles away?

Evidently one pastor thinks so. Rusty Hutson, the pastor of Cornerstone Methodist Church in Auburn, Alabama was in Granger, Indiana for the Innovate Conference last week. He believed it was important to baptize Cindy Wall via the internet so she wouldn't have to wait until they returned to town.

Five days later, Cindy died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm. I am guessing that Rusty and his team are grateful they listened to God, stepped out in an innovative move of faith, and conducted this baptism. I love their creativity and sensitivity to do the right thing. (Although i wonder why he didnt just have anyone at the pool do it, dah well)

Here is the clip. Its a little over 9 minutes, but you could stop it at about 6:20