Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

Joel Osteen wrote a book a few years ago called “Your Best Life Now.” I read it and it actually inspired me to be even more positive than I am. I had began to think that I could will my way into success. I actually began to think that my attitude and outlook on life could change my life. But you know what happened? Life.

I will continue to think positive but I will also be “REALISTIC.” Just because I believe something will come true or even pray it will does not mean it is going to happen. The older I get and the more I experience life I realize that we as followers of Jesus have been selling unbelievers a bill of goods. I used to use a tract that said “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Really? Does God have a “WONDERFUL” plan for everyone’s life? All of the Apostles but John were executed. Would you consider that to be wonderful? Job was considered righteous before God but he lost everything. Is that the “WONDERFUL” life that we promised when I shared my faith?

Jesus said in Luke 9:23:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Taking up one’s Cross meant one thing to the 1st Century Jew–Death! That doesn’t sound too “WONDERFUL” to me.

The longer I live the life of a Follower of Jesus I become more realistic. God’s plan for most of us is not “wonderful” in the view of a Suburban American. God’s plan may include a whole lot of suffering. God’s plan may include pain.

I Peter 4:12 says:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

Maybe my life is different than others. Maybe I’m not optimistic enough or I’m not sowing enough seeds of faith. Or maybe I’m coming to the realization that God never promised me a Rose Garden. God only promised that He would be with me always. I may not get the Best Life Now–but I will get it when I leave this world.

The folks at Westboro Baptist Church aka God Hates Fags have now gone into the music video business. I wish I could tell you that this is a joke but it is not. I will have to just give the link because they don’t have a way to embed them. But that is probably good because they are disgusting.

They have a parody of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face. They are trying to be funny but it is offensive to anyone who truly wants to see people change their lives. The worst one for me is the Parody of Hey Jude by the Beetles called Hey Jews. It is the children of Westboro singing hate songs to the Jews.

I really don’t get these people. Why do people who claim to love God hate people so much. Jesus came not to condemn but to save.

Check out the videos here.

BTW: if you have not seen my interview with Shirley Phelps Roper check it out here.

[Christian Post]

Hollywood would have people believe that sex and nudity sell at the box office. But a recent study shows statistically sex scenes do not translate to ticket sales. Dean Keith Simonton, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis and independent Vancouver-based researcher Anemone Cerridwen analyzed data for 914 films released between 2001 and 2005. Their conclusions on the effects of nudity and sex scenes on ticket sales and critical reviews were published in the latest issue of the journal of “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts,” a publication of the American Psychological Association.

“All in all, it appears that sex may neither sell nor impress,” write the authors in their article, “Sex Doesn’t Sell – nor Impress! Content, Box Office, Critics, and Awards in Mainstream Cinema.”

“This null effect might suggest most cinematic sex is in fact gratuitous,” the researchers write. “At present, no filmmaker should introduce such content under the assumption that it guarantees a big box office, earns critical acclaim, or wins movie awards.”

Top-grossing films among those analyzed included “Shrek 2,” “Spider-Man,” “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” all of which contained at most only mild sex and/or nudity. The biggest box office hits of all time, which include “Gone with the Wind” and “Star Wars,” reaffirm the idea that sex does not sell.

Read more here.

[From me]

Too bad Hollywood hasn’t figured this out.

[My Fox DC]
A local woman found a potato chip with what appears to be the image of the Virgin Mary on it.

Read more here.

[From me]

I see a Buffalo Wing.

[HT] Steve Thompson

I hear profanity on a regular basis in the workplace. I don’t gasp or even let on for a minute that it bothers me. Because it doesn’t bother me when it comes from someone who is not a follower of Jesus Christ. But what does bother me is when I hear it from people who claim to be Christians & they use them like any other word. I guess I just don’t get it. Now I’m not talking about the occasional slip of the tongue when someone breaks something or hits their hand with a hammer. I’m talking about Christians who use it as regular speech. I’m talking about using profanity as an adjective. I just don’t understand. Do people have that limited of a vocabulary?

Now I’ve heard the arguments that it does not say in the Bible to not use certain words. But there are a few that I can’t imagine Jesus ever using. There people who claim Jesus and say they are followers of Him who write all kinds of profanity on Text messages, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages. Do you really think Jesus would say F*** U to someone? Do you think Jesus would say S*** when He hit his had with a hammer. (He was a carpenter) Well that’s not fair because he was perfect and wouldn’t hit His hand. But you get the point. People ask What Would Jesus Do? Well would He use profanity? Did Jesus die so we could have the freedom to be filthy? Just wondering?

What do you think?