A friend of mine, Katie Weakland, who is a botanist shared a devotion with us at our faculty meeting yesterday, and it made a lot of sense to me.

She was discussing how plants that grow on continents (e.g., North America) have a lot of defense mechanisms – like thorns:

as well as many other things – like the poison that Black Walnut trees emit so that no other trees can grow around them. Of course, these are all characteristics that over time. . . have allowed the plant to continue to grow and reproduce (i.e., not get eaten by herbivores), but I wonder if it is worth it?

This is all very fascinating, but the realization is that all of these defense mechanisms take a lot of energy to make. . . energy that could be used to make more seeds, produce bigger fruit, and grow faster.

ISN’T THIS US??. . . . . how much time do we spend on protecting ourselves? – you know, not being authentic, hiding our true selves from others, not loving, not serving, not submitting, seeking control and power in relationships, etc….     – the fact is we are wasting our time and energy . . .

Dr. Weakland went on to say that plants on the islands of Hawaii (and most other islands) are very different.  Since they have not been around nearly as long. . . they have yet to adapt to have some of those defense mechanisms, and instead. . . . you see plants using their full energy in producing beautiful things to their fullest potential (i.e., fruit, flowers, etc…) – in fact she said that the biggest rasberrys in the world grow there, why are they so big?? Because they DON’T HAVE ANY THORNS – they can dedicate all of their energy to producing fruit.

Think about all of the things that we do to produce defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from being hurt or even “eaten” by others  INSTEAD OF USING THAT ENERGY TO PRODUCE FRUIT that we were meant to produce:

love

joy

peace

patience

kindness

goodness

faithfulness

gentleness 

self-control

Let’s all start using our time – our days – our minutes – our strength – our energy – NOT FOR THORNS, but for making the fruit we were created for.

So, I spent a total of 14 hours at Church this weekend (6 services) - not to mention quite a few hours at rehearsal practicing this routine . . . why did I need practice?? -

a. I’m getting old,

b. I have never had any formal ”dance” training,

c. I hate messing up!

d. I wanted to make the most of this opportunity to serve Jesus!

You see . . .

Easter to me is all about surprises – really good ones!! And though no experience can compare to hearing the amazing news that JESUS IS ALIVE!!!   

I really couldn’t believe that I got to have this much fun serving with friends at my church!  Praise God that He invented fun. . . .and dancing!

A colleague of mine sent me this video on how those who tend to believe in more pseudoscientific phenomena tend to also call upon others to be more open-minded!?? When in fact, from a philosophical stand point, that seems to be a very weak position. There is also a lot to be digested for the Church as well in this video – Turn your brains on and watch this:

There has sense been informal discussions among some Bethel faculty concerning this video, and so I just wanted to let you in on some of that – if your brain doesn’t hurt too much already

“I’m afraid that I detect some biases in these arguments that seem to be at the root of the issue.

Take a look, for instance, at 2:16.  There is a claim that a lack of (natural) explanation giving rise to a conclusion that an event is supernatural is a contradiction.  To quote the video, “In effect, it is saying that ‘I can’t explain something; therefore, I can explain it.’”  I’m afraid this is false.  What’s being claimed is not that a phenomenon cannot be explained, but that it cannot be explained using natural processes.  Thus, the argument is really, “This process cannot be explained through natural processes; therefore, supernatural processes must be employed.”  There are actually arguments like this made in mathematics:  that a particular system (in our case, an axiomatic system) is not sufficient to answer a particular question, so something outside of that system must be brought in to explain it.

While I can appreciate the argument by the person on the left side (at 0:52), the crux of their argument seems to be bashing the “non-scientific person” because they are not open to natural explanations.  At the same time, isn’t the person on the left falling into the same trap by denying (for instance, at 0:17) the possibility of any supernatural explanations for phenomena, thereby also excluding certain conclusions?  I can accept a scathing rebuke of the group on the right that attributes everything to ghosts (though I think a straw man argument has been set up here), but I think there are more than just the two sides.  We appear to have an excluded middle.  Can we not be open to both natural and supernatural explanations?

In fact, this leads down a very interesting road.  How far does one need to go to exhaust natural explanation before it can no longer be invoked?  The analogous questions in math (in terms of axiomatic systems) have answers.  A lot of work was done in these areas since the 1930s and Goedel’s incompleteness theorem.  I am surprised this is not being asked in the scientific community.  The issue I have is, are these questions even being allowed to be asked?  If not, why not?”

Here is another video about how science and religion can work together (not nearly as heavy!), and fight some of the criticisms of Christianinty hating science:

 http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=48261586648

So, even though his birthday is tomorrow – we went ahead and celebrated tonight while my parents were here from Tennessee.  Here are some of the festivities

Here is a video of us tonight:

Here is a special video to Nicole and Aaron Marshall in South Africa – thanks for your love . . . and your drum!!

Now let’s start at the beginning -we went to Hacienda to celebrate:

Elliana lost her first tooth tonight – somewhere between chip #4 and Chip #10

Dane gazing out of the window of the car – I am sure just in wonder of his now, 2 year old brother

Trying to blow out the candles – like a moth to a flame!!

Yeah!. . . it was good cake

Here is the birthday boy. . . .I can’t believe he is 2!!

Dane is even getting into the spirit!!

Family photo time!!!!!

Opening presents as Nana and Papa, as well as the Thursby’s (cousin keegan is in the photo) watched from Florida through Skype!!

Thanks for celebrating with us, and thank you God for allowing us to borrow little Dakota!!

Here are some of Shane’s thoughts on Jill Briscoe’s second to last session:

Symbol- Dry Bones Ezk 37

Ø  He (God) does not call the equipped, He equips the called.

Ø  We have dry bones (lost people) every where and they are useless.

Ø  When vision, passion, mission leave you, you dry up.

Ø  The call is discipleship, the call is any time, any place, any where.

Ø  Dry disciples are brittle. They no longer have a backbone . . . only have a wish bone.

Ø  When we dry up we get depressed…we lose hope…and we lose confidence…

Ø  There is more depression in America today because they have lost their hope in God. Without hope. . . we all dry up.

Ø  Want to be big. . . . .  Learn to be small

Ø  Courage is doing the right thing frightened.

Ø  Courage waits for your obedience

Ø  You don’t choose where you are going, you don’t choose what gift you will use, you are just obedient. 

Jill touched on a few different things like dry bones or lost people and spiritually dead Christians, being a soldier of Christ, and then on obedience.   Jill said tonight that in our Christian bubbles we can find one of the hardest places to stay fresh, because we have too many spiritual substitutes. 

Jill made the statement that “it’s easier to be friends with Jesus’ friends than with Him…and it doesn’t matter how holy the substitute is. . . . .  it’s not God!” there are so many people out there that don’t know Christ and I thought it was interesting how Jill put spiritually dead Christians in the same category  with  unbelievers. . . . .really. . . . .  what’s the difference???

It takes courage when following God and the Spirit.  Jill told a story about when she felt the Lord calling her to go into this place where a big concert was being held and tell the people about God. She said that first she wanted to pray for courage and as she prayed she said that she still didn’t have courage so the first night she didn’t go in, but she knew that she would have to come back the next night. So she did and she began to do the same thing pray for courage, but as she was praying, she still did not feel courage,  but she heard God asking her  “will you go in for me, WITHOUT  the courage?”  - – - Are we willing to be Bold for Christ and go into places when we don’t have the courage?? are we willing to be OBEDIENT? Jill went on to say that after she had said yes and started in God gave her courage and she went on to lead a man to Christ. See. . . . .  it takes the first step from us. “Courage is doing the right thing frightened.” Take courage even when you are scared because “God does not call the equipped He equips the called.” It’s up to God and His will to show us where we are going to go and what gift we are going to use, not us. We just have to be obedient. . . . . Amen!

A good friend of mine, DC curry, just posted this video from jonathanjarvis.com  – and it is truly helpful in understanding how we got into all of this mess as a country.

Thanks D.C. and thanks Jonathan for the creativity and clarity!

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Shane is continuing to blog for me, and here are his thoughts from the 3rd session:

 This session Jill used the symbol of water. She told us different ways water was used as a symbol in the Bible.

 - His (God’s) part is to give us soul fulfilling water…our job is to give Him permission!

 - Is your teaching refreshing the people? Is it water?

 - Are you a well watered garden? That people see and want to walk through with you?

 - Without water people cannot survive, the Spirit is like an artesian well.

 - The devil wants to dump a whole lot of muck down our wells.

 - TV/movies – you invite into your living room people that you would never let in your front door.

 - Some of you are totally out of touch with God and you think nobody knows! You have perfected the Jesus smile

 - There is ether self power or God power.

 - no one ever said that all the blessing were just for the people on the front row

  After hearing the story by Jill about when she was exhausted and disconnected,  and a man made a statement about her Jesus Smile that woke her up a bit; I wondered how many of us are like this? How many times have I been like this? Is this YOU?

 To summarize Jill’s message today and using the Symbol of water we need to know this. Gods job, the thing that he is in our lives to do, is to fill us up with “Soul fulfilling water,”  but this requires something from us as well. . . . Our job is to let him in, to open our heart, mind, and soul, and give him permission to pour into us.  When we allow God to pour into us and water our garden of life we are able to refresh others to teach others with the fruits that grow from us.  Are you a well watered garden. . . am I? Or are we like a dried up tumble weed, a skeleton of a living, vibrantly colored bush? Sink your roots deep into the Spirit of God! Be nourished by living water that can only come from him. Don’t let the devil fill up the well that God is pouring into, with muck and garbage! Without water there is no life.