Today's Special is...us?

Have you ever thought that you where special? Now if you look at yourself ,after reading the previous sentence, and immediately begin to go down the list of your achievements and talents you are at risk of being prideful. I do ,in contrast , want to provoke the idea that we are special because of God.

Think about this statement: "He made me special"

That statement totally removes us from the equation and forces us to acknowledge God for His creativity. We are special because He is "Specialer" (I know... leave it alone. If you look at the over all entry, it make sense in this context ).

He is a SPECIAL Guy.

Peace

"What is on your mind anyway?"

I get asked what I am thinking fairly often. Sometimes it is because I do or say something that only makes sense to me and other times it is because someone is attempting to get into my head (They are usually flustered by the effort). Here is a list of what is in my mind. This list contains the things that permeate my thinking. I ,obviously, don't think all of them at the same time with the same amount of attention to each, but they are all going on in my head nearly simultaniously.

GOD
worry
music
people
non sense
a joke
something bad
something good
a depressing thought
inspiration
beauty
"Do I stink at what I am doing"
how to make myself laugh
Memories
Goals
Regrets
GLORY

if you see me stairing blankly into space, I'm busy, but I love you enough to put my thoughts aside to show you that I actually care what keeps your mind full

Peace

ps I really do have a lot on my mind you are probably on it too

Continued thinking

Like I was saying last time happiness enjoys company too.

Think about it if you are having a really good day, and you tell a friend (and you will) it is a good thing. No one ever gets worn out when you spend 15 minutes telling them how great a day you are having, but we will ware someone out with the bad stuff that happens in life.

SPREAD THE HAPPY AND TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THE GOOD STUFF

peace

ps I will try to blog more often

Free Think

I have not blogged in a while, so I decided to go ahead and do that.

I think that the phrase misery loves company is true but on the brighter side of things happiness also enjoys having people drop in for a visit. 

To Be Continued..

Peace

Women

Over the last year I have had many well meaning people mention to me my need for a girlfriend. I want to start by saying that I am not opposed to the idea or what it could look like in practicality.

I think ,however, that people get to anxious to be with somebody so the settle for anybody. That is terrible. I think three things need to be seen in someone before they are even a "candidate"

Attraction- There has to be something about them that makes you look at them and think " HELLO BABY!!!!!!!!!!!". There should ,in my opinion, be a physical attraction but what ever hooks you is really up to you

Apparent Growth- There walk with the Lord should be growing and should be an inspiration to you. If there relatinoship with God is something worth watching they are worth getting to know weather or not you want to date them. This is good for your walk and if you do start something togeather it will help you grow spiritually

Genuine Kindness- This is rare. We should only even look at kind people; why waste time with a jerk? If your "candidate" is simple kind to people because they relise Jesus loves them, They will be espicially kind to you.

In case you where wondering this is what gose through my mind everytime someone says "Eric you need a women"

Peace

ps everytime

YOU DISHONOR YOUR HEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I found out about the pastor that did the closing prayer at the democratic national convention. I was angered to hear that rather then bowing the knee to the supremacy of Christ.He chose to prostrate himself to the name of political correctness.

I am all for not beating people with the Bible but come on. If a believer gets a chance to proclaim the greatness of who Jesus is, he must take it. To cower out of giving Jesus the honor due to Him is by far the greatest dishonor in life. e
In japan if a samurai dishonored himself, his lord, or his family in such a way the only means to regain himself is seppuku (ritual suicide). I am in no way advocating that this man should harm or kill himself, but he should seek Restoration. There are so few good examples of godly people that are excepted (to some extent) by the secular world.

How hurtful it is to the cause of the Gospel when one of the leaders in its movement ,even for a moment, publicly dishonors Jesus by glossing over Him for the sake of being "politically correct"

Peace

My Conclusion

I got slightly harassed today because on my facebook status which said
"Eric has come to the conclusion of a life time". I was asked by a couple
of people "what was the conclusion". To be honest it is vary basic.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose
the weak things of the world to shame the strong
1 Corinthians 1:27

I understood what this meant before today but it hit me that in 2 Corinthians God told paul regarding the thorn in His flesh

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9


I came to the conclusion that no matter what weaknesses or
ineffencies I have God will get more credit through that.(that way I
really cant get the credit ). When we truly see how weak we are we can
really glorify God and make everyon in the world see how awesome we know He
is.In short I came to accept and like my weakness because God will
use it

Peace

Veritas

"Veritas" is the latin word for truth. As a christian I believe Jesus and the Bible to be all truth, however, I did not think that until after my conversion. I think we should not try and totally forget what it was like before we where christians. If we erase that from our memory, we will possibly loose the ability to understand and relate to the culture we are trying to evangelize. so I want to ask you a favor. Please leave a comment on this blog entry on what your version of the truth was before you where a christian. If yours is really thought provoking (the blog is called thinking sideways after all) I will post it in my next blog called The "TRUTH" Unveiled

Peace

Community?

I have to admit first that I have difficulty engaging in TRUE biblical community. The concept is laid out vary plainly in Act 2:44

"All the believers were together and had everything in common."

the implication there is that you are so open to a group of believers that you can have everything in common with them. I find though that the most harmful thing to TRUE community is when we are not simply being OK with believers that are a bit different. If you spend any time with me you will find that I have... my own way of being, but I have made close friends that accept and even like me for the way I am. In my life ,though,I have had people (who honestly may not have meant to) really hurt my feelings because they made fun of me because they didn't understand me

We should strive to have the type of community the early church had by being together and loving one another like Jesus said but we cannot do that if we are not sensitive to each others uniqueness.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT AN IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as i am sitting outside typing there are two brothers outside playing catch with a football. The older brother Just got frustrated with the younger yelled at him. The older one walked away and of course the younger began to follow. He yells some more and sends him inside. If he only understood the impact things like that can have on his little brother, he would probably be more patient. We , if we actually want TRUE community, should do the same.

Peace

the mystery of Zaheer

I am friends with a strange individual named Zaheer (affectionatly called Z$). Z$ is the type of guy that kind of does whatever comes into his mind. Im sure is Z$ felt like it he would buy all the frosted flakes in a local store, stand on his roof, and throw them in the air while singing Lil Wayne's "I make it rain". He is however a walking life lesson in living in the shadow of God. No matter how ridicules  he maybe all of his needs are met. Z never wants for really anything and I think that is because he lets God take his time, resources, and talents and use them for His Glory

we should try to do this

Peace

Do you really want to know how I am doing?

I recently returned from Bolivia (God is awesome) and while I was there I had a short conversation with Berch that I said " I need to blog this". Have you ever asked someone "how are you doing?" and then kept on walking. One must realize that the statment   "how are you doing ?" is actually a question.

A major theme of Jesus' ministry is love, and I think it is vary unloving to ask someone about there well being and ignore them. If we take the time to listen to how someone is doing, then we can in fact show them the love of Christ. You really never know what you will find out if you take the time to ask. If you ask "how are you doing?", then listen you might hear a vary encouraging story of how God is working in that persons life.

On the other hand you might hear a story of hurt. If this happens, you have just been given the right to speak desperately needed truth into that persons life.

only ask if you really want to know

peace   

TWINKIES AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like twinkies. They are just little golden pieces of...YUMMY : ) . Eventhough have never done this(but i probably will soon) I also think stomping a twinkie would be great. You would get all the twinke goodness everywhere.

A smashed twinke is better then a regular twinke because the goodness held inside is now plastered all over the floor. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands us to become a smashed twinke. The goodness (awesome cream filling) that GOd fills us with should not be kept there is should get smeared all over the world

peace

prov17

im sure you saw the prov17 in the URL

that is Proverbs 1:7
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and intruction."

i think there are a lot of intelligent people in the world but if they have no respect for God they a defiantly not wise. I also think because of that it is a bad idea to seek advice that dose not first acknowledge God as being the source of wisdom.

Getting council from some one who is not tapped into "the source" is a bad idea. Its like going to Checkers for a fine dining experience. You will leave worse off then when you came (trust me checkers has messed me up more then once ).

seek Godly wisdom (it wont give you the runs)


Peace

welcome to thinkng sideways

hello my name is Eric i am an intern at my church and i am... a little odd by my own admission. As i was taking a friend to the airport recently he mentioned that we both think "sideways". though he was talking about game, i realized that this is true. I dont like to think and act like others. i like to figure out my own way to do things sometimes it works and other times ... . what i hope to do in my blog is to offer a source of fresh thinking to scripture (NOT NEW THEOLOGY). i think alot of Christians pick up there bible and forget what they are looking at. I think in weird ways (its my only real talent) and i hope my odd mind can refresh you

Peace

Eric