to lent or not to lent is the question

So tomorrow starts the season of lent. Lent symbolically represents the forty days that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.
Matthew 4
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
So the first thing I want to point out is that Jesus was lead by this spirit, not a calendar date or a community of people that have always done it this way on this day.
Second when you read this the Fasting was a part of the leading, it was a preparation for the events to come, the temptation.
So when I see people participating in the 40 days of lent I have to ask why. If it is a time for us to symbolically identify with the time Jesus was in the wilderness and take on temptation why are we not spending time fasting before the test comes. When I use the word fasting, I am referring to more than not eating, like praying and meditation you know stuff that focuses your attention on God.
It is assumable that when Jesus was fasting he did not eat, he did not enjoy his latest worship download, he did not call his buds (the disciples have not come in to the story yet), he did not update his status every hour or play Angry Birds on his Iphone. He was alone in the "wilderness - desert"! he was talking with his father, hearing his father speak the words of approval and strengthening him as a human.
If lent is about what we give up and *itch about it till the 40 days are up then why are we doing it.
But if lent is a time where we purposely focus our time to know the voice of our father so when the temptations of life come, I think that is a better reason to give our your Starbucks, Coke, Facebook, Ipod, or whatever it is. But once again I have to go back to the first verse "Jesus was lead by the spirit" to do this, who is leading you to do this?

wrapping christmas gifts

thought of the day

So i was thinking, if jesus walked in to my church what tables would he flip over

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number 10

ok so my wife and i have been asking questions about the prosperity "gospel" that has been so freely preached over the last 20 - 30 years. hmm why can you not find it being preached before this.

1st i want to say that yes i want God to bless me. but when you live in America where we are taught that we must have things to achieve this feeling of being blessed i have to raise my eyebrow. we serve a God that was homeless and yet our life of continued "must haves" is some how justifiable.
Prosperity: the condition of being successful or thriving; especially : economic well-being (via Webster) This definition doesn't mention excess. The prosperity camp preaches this but lives out this high wealth lifestyle as an example to what you can have too.

my wife asked a question one Sunday and it has not left me. in the ten commandments number ten it reads Exodus 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." So her question was "isn't the prosperity message coveting?" The other questions she has raised a number of times are "what is the true definition of prosper?and, As Americans aren't the poorest of us more prosperous than almost any other countries general population?"

we get caught up on the wife and and maid servant. but what it is saying is why are you looking at the blessings i have given your brother and not noticed the ones i have given you.

People spend so much time asking God for more, this is not a bad thing. But what is the motive of your asking. Is it a need or a want. How are you going to use the BMW you are praying for to serve God? BMWs are not a bad blessing but are you walking past a hungry child thinking "wish I could help but my car payment is due"? But hey everyone I drive past can see that Ive been blessed.

The United States population wastes more then any other country in the world. the low income population is rich compared to the poorest counties.

so when we ask God to bless us is it based on a true need, or do we want the life that God has given some one else.
I have heard the argument that to help people and serve God you need money, if thats why you are praying for God to pour out his blessings on you great! But how much of that excess that you are praying for is being used to help others, and going back to God?
Another argument is "live life abundantly" well, Americans constitute 5% of the world's population but consume 24% of the world's energy and we have more malls than high schools (via http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm ). I'd say we have gone far beyond "abundant".

my thoughts on changes

i have been thinking about the changes that are happening in today's cutler and watching the Christians getting mad over a lot of them. but most of the Christians are mad because they have been told that the need to be mad about this issues so like sheep we follow with out understanding the "whys". but how many honestly have taken out our bible to see where God stand on issue, and how does God show use love when we make chooses that offend him. many of us don't even think to reach for our bible first but we reach for the latest must read on the current issue. i think if we want to change our county back to a God lead county God needs to lead us. but as it stands God word is the last book that most of us go to first when we are seeking wisdom, instead we reach for the wisdom of man.

A really funny thing happened today. I was walking through Wal-mart with my kids and passed a lady shopping with her teenage daughter and I though that the look she gave me was a little on the tense side. A few min latter we pass again and she starts to walk right at me with the same look. So let me set up why she was looking at me the way she was, I was wherein a t-shirt put out by a ministry call XXXCHURCH.COM out of Vegas that works with people that are addicted to the sex industry and help girls that work in the industry. So my shirt reads Jesus Loves Porn Stars. Not Jesus love porn. So the lady was walking straight to me to set me straight. When I told her that it was a ministry that help… and she cut me off to tell me that I was cheapening the love of Christ. I did not understand how it can be cheapened when his love is free, and I was wondering if she remembered the story of the “working girl” washing Jesus feet. So after she took a breath I told her that Jesus loves every one, and then she had enough air in her lunges for round two. At that point she told me that I did not have a clue. Ok so this is the button where I start to feel like I need to prove myself. it was best to walk away at this point. And I did while telling her she needed to reread the bible. Bad ending! But a few year a go it would not have been this good. It is hard for me to walk away when I see stupid all over someone’s forehead.
How is it that Jesus gives his love away for free to call people closer to him, and we go though and pick and chose who he loves? I always wondered what Craig Gross felt when he started XXXCHURCH.com and a lot of churches turned their back on him and the idea of loving the people and not the sin. This lady at wal-mart gave me a good idea of what it might be like.