Last week was a long one. I don't exactly know why, but the speaker really got under my skin. Okay, I know a few reasons why....

First of all, he generalized a whole lot. He made insane statements like, "Every church in America has forgotten the arts. They don't see art or beauty as something important in the church." Maybe there are a lot of mainstream churches out there who have forgotten these things... but there are new churches like Imago Dei springing up that love to use art as part of worship.

Then he took a verse or two and added some words to it (not from the "original Greek" mind you) to fit what he wanted to say. Not that his point was unbiblical, it wasn't, but he sure could have found better verses to fit.

Then he said that Christians are pretty good at giving, but not good at saving. "Christians need to save more." Who's he talking about? When I go to churches asking for support, I have to go through an obstacle course of questions, requirements, meetings and interrogations to even be considered. Some Christians are good givers, but we do not need to be encouraged to save more. Let's give more and see what God can do! But of course there should be wisdom in everything. Unless God tells you to sell everything and become a bum on the street, it's probably a good idea to save some. So it comes back to wisdom.

I'm glad that week is over. This week we have a guy named Al Akimoff. He worked with Brother Andrew (who wrote the book God Smuggler) and Cory Ten Boom smuggling Bibles, tracts and Christian literature into the old Soviet Union. He's a terrific story teller. Seriously, some of his stories are amazing; like how Brother Andrew decided that since God was blinding the eyes of the guards at the border crossing why just take in car loads of Bibles? Why not truck loads? So the next time they went in they brought one million Bibles with them in a huge truck. And whaddya know, they made it through the border and were able to distribute Bibles to hundreds of underground churches across the country. Wow.

On a completely different note, I've made a new blog dedicated to my ministry pursuits. It will consist mostly of prayer letters, prayer requests and updates on my "ministry" life. And it will probably be a little more official and less personal since I'm going to give the address to churches, prayer groups and supporters.
Click here to check it out.