SNOW

So in case you were wondering why I transferred to App, here's one reason....

the weather. It snowed in October. I don't know if I have ever seen snow this early before. Its supposed to be a bad winter up here. Bring on the snow.

Back off government, we got this one.

Recently, The Michael Wilson wrote about a very true statement that a pastor made. The pastor said that the welfare system in America should be obsolete because the church should be attacking the need in the community so fiercely that it rendered government assistance unnecessary. How amazing would that be? What has happened to the Church when it comes to taking care of the poor? This is one of the things the early Church was known for. Roman Emperor Julian, like other Emperors, tried to put and end to Christianity. He built really nice temples in order to lure people away from the Church, however his plan failed. In a letter he wrote that the reason Christianity was thriving was because, "the impious Galileans (Christians) support both their own poor and ours as well." Wow. The Christians were not only taking care of the people within the Church but even the unbelievers. Welfare was not needed because the Christians had it covered. Imagine what people would say about Christians if that were true today. Imagine how many people would come to faith in Christ because of the love that His people were showing the world. My question is, what happened? Why aren't we like the early Church? In Acts 2:45, we see that the early Christians "began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need."
Also, J.D. Greear recently tackled the topic of "I'm not a Christian because the church is responsible for so much injustice." In his sermon, he noted that in James 2, if we see the suffering of others and are not moved to act then our faith is dead. The Church is doing some great things to help those in need. My Church in Durham, Greystone, has a ministry called 2nd Mile that provides food, clothes, financial assistance, and spiritual counseling to those in need. The Summit Church, in Durham is also doing a lot to help those in need with their Hope for Durham campaign during the summer and their efforts with a local elementary school. All over the country and the world the Church is doing a lot of great things. But I believe we can do better. I believe that if we came together as one like the early Church in Acts, we could take care of ALL of the poor in Jesus' name and we could tell the government, "Take a rest we got this one."

Random

Just had Japan Express for dinner. I think the put crack in their white sauce. Its addicting. Does any one else want to join a drumline after watching Drumline? Its on right now and I really wish I wasn't white and had rhythm so I could play drums. Also, to cap off a day of not doing anything productive, Dougie Fresh and I are getting ready to go see "W". Speaking of politics, when I was at Erin's today her dad was watching some old time western channel. They were playing this show called Maverick, which they turned into a movie with Mel Gibson. The movie isn't too bad. Anyway, this dude Maverick was running for like State Senator back in the wild wild west. They kept calling him Senator Maverick. Then the next show was called The Rifleman, I think. He had a cool gun but the funny thing was that his name was McCain. Coincidence that a show about a Senator named Maverick was on followed by a show about a gun shooter named McCain? Maybe or maybe they are trying to send a subliminal message. If John McCain decides to travel by horse rather than Air Force 1 and if he could shoot a gun like that he would have my vote.

State of the Union, part 2

Economy. Unless you live under a rock, I guarantee you have heard or read that world a million times over the last several weeks. So many questions have been thrown out there: Who's to blame? How long will this last? How much will it cost me? What about my money? And the list goes on and on. Let me first say this, all of this finger pointing reminds me of the Garden of Eden, when God asked Adam and Eve about their sin. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. We, as the American people need to stop pointing the finger at the government and the corporation. Sure they had something to do with it. But guess what? The government and these big corporations are run by people, just like you and me. In a democratic and capitalist society the government is run by the citizens and people start businesses and run them to earn a living. So its OUR fault for getting to greedy. We can't depend on the government for EVERYTHING unless we want a communist government. We as the American people need to stop caring so much about ourselves. All I hear these days are ME, ME, ME. Put other people first. Live within your means. All of these economic problems we face come down to one main cause, greed. That's why Jesus said no one can love God and money at the same time and why in 1 Timothy it says the LOVE of MONEY is the root of all kinds of evil. And by taking a look around, its very true. Stop pointing the finger and look at yourselves and ask when is the last time I cared about someone else other than myself.

I know our country is going through a hard time, financially speaking but its a hard time compared to what we are USED to. Look at other countries. They are so much worse off than we are. But again it goes back to our greed. Put it in perspective. It could be so much worse. Read Jenn's blog to get some stats and put things in a better perspective and realize....things aren't so bad after all.

State of the Union

The election is officially like 20 something days away, even though I get to vote on campus starting on the 20th, and I am already sick of it. I am sick of politicians lying to us. I am sick of them pretending to be so much better than each other when they aren't. They are all shady. I'm tired of them, all of them. Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin. The only thing that is getting me through this is SNL and their impressions of Sarah Palin. I am also planning on having some fun myself by being John McCain for Halloween, IF I can find a McCain mask while I'm home for Fall Break. If I can find it, Erin is going to be the lovely Sarah Palin. Look for us on ESPN2 on Halloween Night. If not, I'll settle for my Mexican costume, complete with a sombrero and poncho. Anyways, back to politics. I think the dumbest/funniest thing is listening to people talk about the debates and debating over who won. Of course, you are going to say that your candidate won because you agree with them. Plus, how does a candidate when a debate when they lie? I remember the day after the VP debate, I read a couple of articles where they checked the facts from the two candidates and BOTH of them lied. This irritates the crap out of me. We are trusting these people to run the country and presumably do a better job than whats going on now but all we get are lies. We deserve better. The number one thing I hate though is that this whole voting process deserves a little bit of faith in who you are voting for. You are putting faith in this person that they will do what they have promised. I, personally, have a problem putting my faith in these people. I don't know if I can trust them and I don't see how any one else in their right mind can say that they fully trust McCain or Obama. Some may say, well if that's how you feel, don't vote but I am thankful that I have the right to vote and the right to speak my mind. We are very fortunate to have that right and there are millions of people all over the world who have no say whatsoever in their country. So, I will vote and who ever wins I will respect and call my President.

P.S.- I know this is a fairly "Debbie Downer" post but I am not down in the dumps because no matter how this election goes, the most important thing to me will not be affected, my faith in Christ. And to those who say America is going to hell in a hand basket because of who wins the election, let me leave you with these wise words from Hillsong United, "Politics will not decide if we should rise and be YOUR hands and feet."

Tag. I'm it.

Ok so I have never heard of this tagging thing until now. Here are the rules:

* Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

* Share 7 little known facts about yourself on your blog.

* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I was tagged by Jenn.

1. I used to eat butter by itself, by the slice.

2. I used to be terrified by E.T. This caused me to sleep facing the wall so I wouldn't see him in my room.

3. In middle school I was in honors chorus.

4. I would rather eat the batter for cakes and brownies instead of actually baking them.

5. When I was like 8, I had a shower interupted by a phone call from Mr. You Might be a Redneck, Jeff Foxworthy.

6. My favorite stuffed animal growing up was a bear named Edward.

7. I almost got in a fight playing Upward Basketball. I was a troubled youth.

I do not have many friends that blog and most of the ones I do know have already been tagged so 7 people is not possible. However, I will tag one person who is cool enough to equal 7 people.....The Michael Wilson.