A good introduction is like a good pair of shoes: when it fits it'll go a long way. On the big screen, right after the title credits you see that line and automatically you start expecting historical fiction. Oh you'll easily acknowledge what parts are fact (like the Revolution, or the signing of documents) and which parts are fiction (the messy love triangle maybe) but in the end you come out thinking you've actually seen a bit of history, Hollywood style. Well, maybe we're not all that naïve-but do we ever go back and research the facts from the false?

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

The Eighth Day

John 8 is often used as an example of people who profess belief but never really believed, I want to look at it as it stands: people who believe who refuse to be disciples. Now disciple is one of those archaic words that have religious overtones making it almost incomprehensible in modern day discussion. When dropped in conversation it automatically evokes images of a Jedi-like figure, hooded and dust-covered or of one of Christ’s Dozen. But "disciple" simply means someone who follows and molds their lives from the teachings of their teacher: a student.

In Politics, certain subjects took on a political endangering quality. Social Security has been labeled the Third Rail of American Politics specifically because it's so charged and touching it meant death for a person's political career. In the same way certain subjects do the same for professional careers, conversations and churches. For churches in particular, the third rail is Music: time for me to waltz on it.

You go into any Church during their service, listen to the music and note your first reaction. I don't mean the piety of your reaction, like the part that you say "Praise God!" I mean the part of your reaction where you decide that the specific sound you're hearing is a Good Expression of True Worship. That reaction will clue you in on what you're approach to music in church is.

Is there a right approach to music or is it just a matter of taste? Does Music have a place in Christian worship or is it more a distraction that what it's worth?

I've spent some time banging around some thoughts on Psalm 110, what it meant in its Jewish culture and how it was used by the early believers. To think about that I had to first spend some time thinking about the origins.

Psalms 137 is gorgeous and some would say “almost perfect”. Lots of Psalms fall into that category in people’s minds: that Almost Perfect slot. You usually know where people feel any Psalm falls short during the Lord’s Supper when one of the brothers is sharing a Psalm and stops just short of the end. Surely the rest of the Psalm was right and nice…but that last bit really threw the whole thing off. Psalms 137 is, once again, a perfect example.