Along The Path… has moved

Along The Path… has a new home. While I like having my blog hosted by WordPress, there are some things that you can’t do here without paying extra for them; video being one example. So, I have moved my blog to Tumblr. You can click here for the new site Along The Path… I am in the process of moving my previous post from here to the new site, but it may take an while.  Unfortunately, comments do not transfer.  I always appreciate your input, so if you want to repost you comments, feel free to do so.  I look forward to seeing you at the new site.  Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thanks, Randy

Love Won!

I decided to not do a Friday Forum today.  I already had a topic picked out, Jelly Beans, but I decided to go with a more serious post.  On Tuesday of this week a new book was released by Rob Bell entitled “Love Wins”.  I will say right from the start that I have not read this book, nor do I intend to.  Now, I will be upfront with you.  I have used Bell’s “Nooma” videos in student ministry as discussion starters.  I have also read a few of his other books and have heard him speak in person once in Raleigh, NC.  From the very beginning I have stated that I do not necessarily agree with Bell on all of his points.  I have always appreciated the fact that he offered a fresh perspective on certain subjects and his work has always prompted me to think about what I believe and why I believe it.  With that said I have to say that I am very disturbed by the reviews I have read concerning this new book.

Taking a Stand

Christ made it pretty clear when He taught about what our mission as believers is.  We are to be concerned about the things that He is concerned about.  The things that break His heart should be the things that break ours.  He came to seek and to save those who were lost, and while we cannot save them we can help them see Him.  We do this by living out the Great Commission in our lives.  I know that is not always as easy as it sounds, but we should be about the business of telling others about Christ and helping make disciples.  This means taking a stand for Christ, but do we always take a stand in a Christlike manner?

Fetus Protection Act?

Let me say right off the bat that I really do not like to deal with political issues on this blog, but the absurdity of something I heard today just leaves me with some questions about what is seen as right and wrong by our leaders.  In North Carolina (my home state) today they had the first reading of a legislation that is being introduced called the Fetus Protection Act.  The purpose of this legislation is to allow people to be prosecuted who, in the act of harming a woman, harm or kill the fetus that she is carrying.  This legislation applies to a fetus in any form of development, and  it also does not allow for lack of knowledge of the pregnancy to be used as an excuse to avoid prosecution.  I totally agree with this legislation and hope that it passes, but it does cause me to ask some questions.

Salty?

I have a friend who used to salt everything before he ever tasted it.  I told him this didn’t seem like a safe practice, but he said that one of his relatives had done it like this for years and lived to be very old.  Well, my friend eventually went to the doctor for a check-up and the good ol’ doc told my buddy that he needed to cut back on his salt intake.  My friend no long salts food before he eats it.  I guess living longer won out over a slightly better tasting order of fries.  We may laugh at this story, but the simple fact of the matter is that salt does make things taste better.  In a culinary class I took once the chef teaching the class told us that when we tasted something that we were preparing and it tasted bland a dash of salt should almost always be our first option for improving the taste.  In fact we need salt in our diet.  Salt is important.

Desensitized

Sometimes events happen that force you to take a close look at yourself, and sometimes you don’t like what you see.  That is the case with me right now.  As you know, last week we saw an unspeakable, multi-pronged  tragedy hit Japan.  Even now the bad news continues to pour in.  Some authorities estimate that over 10,000 people have lost their life in the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.  Now they are faced with the treat of nuclear reactors melting down and the possible release of radiation into the air.  As I watched all of this unfold I suddenly realized that I had become desensitized to what I was seeing.

Friday Forum, March 11

The weekend is upon us.  I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to this one.  Now I know earlier in the week I wrote about how I don’t mind Mondays, and I don’t, but this weekend is special because it is the first weekend in months that don’t have a single thing that I have to do and it feels great!  With that in mind there are a few things that I would like to do, or that I might do, but I am under no obligation to do any of them, so the sky is the limit.  He is a list of my options.

Heart, Mind, & Soul

One thing that I have noticed since I began writing on a regular basis is that I have begun to take a fresh look at what it means for me to live the life of a follower of Christ.  I have always enjoyed learning.  My biggest problem in school was that I didn’t always enjoy learning what the teacher wanted me to learn.  Like I said in an earlier post, I really should have paid better attention in English class.  Now that I am an adult  I have the freedom to study whatever it is I want to study, but in learning how to be a better follower of Christ I realized a long time ago that I have to focus on the things that He wants me to learn.  Sometimes it comes the form of something that someone says, or a thought that the Spirit lays on my heart.  Other times it comes in the form of something I am reading that just really catches my attention.  That is what happened to me today and is the focus of today’s post.  What does loving God look like?

#WINNING

If you follow Twitter and are familiar with all the swirl going on around with @charliesheen then you know we have been witness to a bizarre media event.  Honestly, it just seems to get weirder every day.  First he admits that he has a drug problem, says he is going through an “at home” rehab process.  (Does anybody else think that just sounds like a bad plan from the beginning?) Then he comes back, says everything is under control and when things start to go south between him and the folks in charge of his hit sitcom, he starts to publicly bash and insult them.  After all of this he then says he still plans on showing up for work.  They promptly put the show on hiatus and fire Charlie Sheen.  Oh, if only it ended there.  He has now taken to Twitter along with hosting his own streaming video rants and ramblings.  Is it just me, or does he seem a tad unstable?  Maybe it’s the effects of all that #tigerblood he keeps going on and on about.

Believe it, or not this post is not about Charlie Sheen, but it is about how he, and many others live their lives in a way that makes them think that they are winning, when, in fact, just the opposite is happening.

Are You Content?

It doesn’t take a whole lot of looking around the world to see that things are bad in a lot of areas.  The unrest in the Middle-East is unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime.  The U.S. economy is in the tank, and despite some indicators that say otherwise, there are a lot of hurting people out there struggling to make ends meet, and economic recovery is still a long way off.  Gas prices have risen at least twenty cents in the last two weeks and analyst say that the price could be over $4.00 a gallon by the beginning of April.  This list could go on and on, but I think you get the point, and with things going like they are, how do we, as believers, deal with these situations and still present a message to the world that demonstrates the hope that can be found in Christ?  From my perspective I feel like showing the world the concept of biblical contentment can go a long way toward demonstrating that there is hope, even in these trying times.