I have grown tired by the over promotion, hyped up marketing, that many pastors and churches use to promote their next series, program, worship or whatever it is. “Don’t miss my next series it will change your life.” “Hear never before heard revelation that not even God knows!” “Our worship is the best on the planet and even the angels stop their worship to hear ours!” “This word I’m going to deliver is going to blow your mind!”

It seems that in order to keep people coming back they have to one-up their previous message as if the Gospel isn’t enough to keep people coming back. When everything is amazing, incredible, the best, wonderful, stellar, will blow your mind, knock your socks off and awesome — well then, nothing is!

I’m for marketing but we had better make sure we are delivering on our hype. This over use of powerful adjectives has desensitized a whole host of people to what is truly amazing, incredible, life changing, majestic, glorious, awesome — Jesus, transformed lives, maturing Christ followers, a community growing in love and good deeds and people coming to Christ. Now that’s amazing!

Psalm 12:3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts”

What do you think?

J.J. writes that we are in the middle of the “age of immediacy” where wonder and mystery are lost because of the instant access to information that will, at best, give us a satisfying understanding. Because information is ubiquitous, knowledge a mouse click away, true understanding has become bothersome. As he puts it, “an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else).”

Kids don’t want to discover for themselves the hidden “easter eggs” in video games so they go online and get video game “cheats” and “hacks” that enable them to leap frog the experience of discovering those on their own. Want to know absolutely anything about anything, “google” it! The question is though, have we lost something in this “age of immediacy”?

This got me thinking a lot about God and spirituality and my role as a communicator of what I believe to be “truth.” In our quest to instruct, teach, impart wisdom and knowledge, communicate the deep truths about God, inform about doctrine and theology, have we inadvertently stripped away people’s desire for the mystery which is God? Have we robbed people of the experience of mining these deep truths for themselves? Have we eschewed the insatiable desires for easy answers and inspired people to explore, unearth, probe and uncover life changing revelation for themselves?

We live in an age where if you have a desire to learn about Jesus, a simple search will yield 223,000,000 results. However,knowing about Jesus is not the same as experiencing Jesus. That can only come through a careful examination of his teachings, embracing his way of life as our own, wrestling with the hard issues he confronts us with, dealing with our fallen nature in light of his resurrected one and living our lives with him at the center of our existence. A total experience! No easy answers, no “7 steps to knowing Jesus”, no shortcuts, no hacks and no cheat sheets.

I have been challenged to not strip away mystery by self-serving easy answers and savor the experience of discovery. Information is cheap these days. We must go through the process and not underestimate it.

J.J. closes his essay with this thought. “Perhaps that’s why mystery, now more than ever, has special meaning. Because it’s the anomaly, the glaring affirmation that the Age of Immediacy has a meaningful downside. Mystery demands that you stop and consider—or, at the very least, slow down and discover. It’s a challenge to get there yourself, on its terms, not yours.”

Savor the process, enjoy the journey, embrace the mystery! That’s life!

I thought Mark did a great job in presenting the Biblical view and account of Satan. He was very articulate, concise and authoritative sounding. Annie Lobert, an ex-prostitute and founder of the ministry, Hookers for Jesus shared about her encounter of coming to Christ after being tormented by demonic forces, an incredible story of redemption.

Chopra spouted out his normal dribble of enlightenment and self deification. Pearson demonstrated yet again why he should be branded as someone teaching heresy and nowhere on the radar of teaching sound, Biblical orthodoxy. Watch the show and share with me your thoughts.

Here is a great quote from Rick’s sermon that was cited in the article:

“I happen to love Democrats and Republicans,” he told the gathering. “And for the media’s purpose, I happen to love gays and straights. . . . Who ever came up with the idea that you have to agree with everybody on everything in order to love them?”

Warren added: “And you know what my attitude is: You don’t have to see eye to eye to walk hand in hand, and you can disagree without being disagreeable. And this is what Barack Obama and I happen to agree on.”

I think that is a great statement and it is the posture we need to have in order to be able to “speak the truth love.” I have grown tired of bloggers railing against Rick Warren and accusing him of heresy and syncretism. God has granted him great favor and I believe that Rick is being a good steward of the access he has been given to speak to world leaders and impact the political arena. Bloggers would probably have slammed Nehemiah for following palace protocol and not picketing the palace at Susa for the resources needed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Let’s pray for Rick — God has raised him up for this hour, whether you like it or not!

Came across this great video snippet of Louis CK on Conan. Take a few moments to watch and you’ll surely laugh or identify with the people he’s talking about! It’s all about attitude and perspective.

In today’s culture where the popularity of the church is waning and preachers no longer occupy a place of honor in our society, I wonder how many preachers are heard through the clutter of traditional rhetoric that is preached from America’s pulpits. I am not talking about the Gospel, I am referring to the message of condemnation or irrelevant rants that don’t produce life-change, transformation and maturing disciples of Christ. If our message is not echoing the message of Jesus, we’re not being heard!

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