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Category: Christianity

A REAL “Noah’s Ark” Life-Sized Boat!

(This was e-mailed to me, but I wanted to post it to share and save) Man builds working replica of Noah’s Ark (exact scale given in Bible) in Schagen , Netherlands The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was opened to the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark , built by Dutch creationist, Johan Huibers, as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house. Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Biblical Scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son, Roy. Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top – deck not quite ready in time for the opening – will come…

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We Need More Imperfect Leaders

From one imperfect leader to another… God’s ways are not our ways. We tend to equate leadership with lordship; He equates leadership with servanthood. We want strength so we can help God with His work; He makes us weak so He can demonstrate His power. We advertise our credentials so others can be more sure of us; He lets us fail so they can see that apart from God we’re not much at all. We are inclined to focus on personalities, to be impressed by the intellect, education, and strength of a leader’s will. Followers begin to believe that a particular leader can do no wrong. Such adulation, however, is nothing more than humanism—making a human being the measure of all things. What’s worse, it’s idolatry—centering our devotion on someone other than God. So God lets leaders fall off their pedestal. Failure, indecision, and underachievement bring them to a humbling realization of their own inadequacy—and can cause followers to lose their illusions and overdependence on those leaders. This is a good reminder that all of us—leaders and followers alike—walk through life on “feet of clay.” Ultimately, the only good thing about any one of us is the goodness of God.…

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Grace is the Place

Ace is the Place? As I write this, I’m hangin’ out at Ace Hardware w/ the boy to get some keys made. He’s been cooped up inside for a week due to the extreme weather so we gave him an early birthday present just to discover it needed D batteries – of which we had none! But it was a good excuse to get out, seeing as it was a warm day today at 18 degrees. (Warm compared to this past week.) I’m standing in line, so why not blog? Anyway, turned out everybody and their mother-in-law went to Ace today for keys. (Perhaps I’m not the only one with the “buy 1 get 1 free” coupon!) But waiting in line and watching the Ace Man make the keys reminds me of when I worked at True Value in high school and got trained on key machine. It’s a pretty simple machine. There are clamps that hold two keys against two wheels. The only difference is that one wheel only rides the original key and the second wheel is a grind stone that cuts the blank. Both wheels are attached so as the operator runs the first wheel up and…

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Remembering Tony Snow

I know I am late, but I wanted to post this testimony from Tony Snow for my own keep-sake. Tony was a powerfully articulate speaker (my favorite Rush Limbaugh substitute) who was appreciated and admired by friends and foes alike. I learned so much from him about how our country works. He made me proud to be an American and understood the issues of today better than most and supported his positions with facts and logic instead of just angry emotion like so many of his opponents. And he was always upbeat and positive and respectful. Below is his testimony as he was dying of cancer. (FYI: the same cancer that took my mom at the same age: 53. Way too soon for both of them.) Tony Snow’s last televised briefing. Photo by Getty Images This is an outstanding testimony from Tony Snow, President Bush’s former Press Secretary, and his fight with cancer. Commentator and broadcaster, Tony Snow, announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush Administration in April, 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23, 2007, Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced the cancer had recurred, with…

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God, Do Not Bless My Efforts!

How many times have we prayed and asked God to bless our efforts… well, no more! Read on to discover why you should never ask God to bless your work! We want God to look down from heaven, see what wonderful things we are doing for Him, and to bless what we are doing. I was challenged to reconsider this common practice by my written mentor, Oswald Chambers, when he wrote: “Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone and gone into work from a sense of duty or from a sense of need arising out of his own particular discernment.” This does not necessarily mean we are “sinning,” but that WE are generating the spiritual activity ourselves. Though as we get busy and drift from God, sin certainly can result! Oswald referring to our Christian activity, “There is no sin in it, and no punishment attached to it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his understanding of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and sorrows and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come back.” It sounded so spiritual, the old saying I latched onto as a kid: “God can’t move…

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Addicted to Ministry?

“Hi Craig, my name is Karl, and I too am a recovering ministry-a-holic.” In the current issue of K! Magazine, there is an excellent article by my friend, Craig Jutila, former children’s pastor at Saddleback Community Church, where he very honestly and transparently talks about his own personal “crash” from being so addicted to ministry he found himself in an unhealthy place spiritually, emotionally, and relationally with his family. I appreciated his candor. I’ve attempted to be as open here on my blog (and even more so in one on one relationships) about my own “demise” as a children’s pastor nearly two years ago who thought he could do everything and keep his walk with God and family life healthy. Why are the best lessons in life learned so painfully? Craig’s topic was “spiritual renewal” and he admits (as I will) that we can be so good at faking it and knowing all the answers even as we are dying on the inside – but unwilling to admit our need. He quotes an unknown person as saying we don’t change until, “you hurt enough that you have to” or you “learn enough that you want to.” We both admit, it…

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