Johnny Carino's!!

Monthly Archives: August 2008

0

unShocking

Aug 30, 2008 9:10 am by Paul Jenkins in Culture, Evangelism, News, Worship

Two parts of my life collided recently: first, I ran across this story about the pastor who wrote the worship song, “Healer,” but actually lied about having cancer, and second, I just finished the third chapter of the book, unChristian, which talks about hypocrisy in the church. The result of the collision? I realized that even though people in churches are shocked by a pastor who would lie for 2 years about having cancer, for the most part the people we want to reach with the gospel are not. Sadly, according to the research quoted in unChristian, unbelievers have come to expect nothing more than this from churched people. Wow. We’ve actually succeeded in lowering the standards that Jesus fought so hard to raise.


0

Fixing the Dung Gate

Aug 25, 2008 12:21 pm by Paul Jenkins in Culture, Evotions

Nehemiah 3:14
The Dung Gate was repaired by Malkijah son of Recab, ruler of the district of Beth Hakkerem. He rebuilt it and put its doors and bolts and bars in place.

Quite honestly, it doesn’t take much to catch my attention. Holding my attention, though, is another matter. (I love the button that says “I have ADOS: Attention Deficit…Oooh! Shiny!”) Anyway, it can be quite a curse when reading the Bible, especially when I’m trapped in a chapter like Nehemiah 3 which is basically just a summary about who rebuilt what part of the wall. Dung beetle pushing dungIt’s long, repetitive, and, if I can say it without getting struck by lightning, somewhat boring. (Whew! Still here.)

But the verse above really caught my attention. I guess somehow seeing the word “dung” in the Bible has that effect on me. Apparantly this guy named Malkijah drew the short straw and got stuck fixing the Dung Gate. It made me wonder how that gate got it’s name. Surely it couldn’t be as obvious as it seemed! Turns out this wasn’t a place where people went to, well, you know, relieve themselves after a morning cup of joe. It wasn’t the local hangout and party place for all the dung beetles in Jerusalem. It was the gate where the trash was taken out of the city. It must have stunk and I would imagine the job might have been a bit unpleasant. And for all of his hard work on the smelliest part of the wall during the rebuilding process, ol’ Mal got THIRTY WORDS of press. That’s it! Other people got multiple verses, but not our “redeemer of the dung door.”


0

Handling pressure

Aug 21, 2008 10:56 am by Paul Jenkins in Culture, Evotions, Sports

1 Thessalonians 5:24
The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.

I admit it. I’m captivated by the Olympics. Whether it’s the Summer Games or the Winter Games, I find myself staying up too late watching some of the most obscure sporting competitions ever held. Michael PhelpsFencing, badminton, judo and handball make for some great late-night viewing, especially when they’re mixed in with the old favorites like basketball, gymnastics, swimming, and track and field events.

What really makes me enjoy the Games (and for that matter, any sports played at their highest level) is the way the competitors handle the pressure that comes with the events. Broadcast announcers have been sure to explain the pressure that the athletes must certainly feel when they have trained for years in order to compete in a event that can be decided in hundredths of a second. And yet, when the athletes themselves are interviewed about how they handle that pressure, they typically respond with, “Oh, I just think of it as another day in the pool/on the track/in the stadium, etc.” How do they not feel the pressure that the announcers tell us they should? I think I’ve got a simple answer: they know they can do it.

Think about it. You’re a professional basketball player standing at the free throw line with a second on the clock and down a point.


1

DeMotivators

Aug 19, 2008 11:00 pm by Paul Jenkins in Culture, Funny videos, Messages, Resources

I’ve been using these for years in quite a few of the messages I give, and today the guys were talking about them at coffee and it made me want to find some on YouTube. Yippee for you. These are called DeMotivators and they come from a company called Despair, Inc.


0

100 Pushups: W5,Ds 1,2,3

Aug 16, 2008 9:09 am by Paul Jenkins in 100 Pushups, Fitness, Sports

Here are the workout results for Week 5 in the hundredpushups.com challenge. It’s the first week that I will have to repeat, because I couldn’t hit the numbers required on the D1 and D3 sets. D1 was my worst – I only hit the target number in my first 2 sets. D3 was much better – I hit all the targets except for the final set. Here is the damage:

100 pushups W5D1: 40-32-15(30)-15(25)-[11(40)] for a total of 113 push ups

100 pushups W5D2: 20-20-18-18-15-15-14-[40] for a total of 160 push ups

100 pushups W5D3: 18-18-16-16-14-14-12-[20(40)] for a total of 128 push ups

Throw in my “see how many push ups you can do without stopping” test at the beginning of the week (which was 67 if you’re curious), and I did 468 push ups this week. Next week I’ll wash, rinse, repeat Week 5. Hopefully with passing results.


Page 1 of 512345