Are You a Christian?

Matt wants to know, Are You a Christian?



Some of what he asks:

What make someone (YOU) decide to call himself or herself a Christian?

To YOU, what is a defining characteristic that would lead you to say, "Yes, I am a Christian!"? I am assuming for many "devout" Christians this will be a fairly simple question. I would really like to hear from people who consider themselves "marginal" Christians (not marginal people, mind you), those who don't consider themselves devout.

Matt is curious to hear some answers to his very good questions. Head on over to his POST and add your answers in his comments section. He'll appreciate it I'm sure!



I want to answer his question, and some of the comments he's getting, but I"m too tired right now. I'll have to come back to it later. It's something for me to ponder though and I do want to say I never "decided" to call myself a Christian. I turned over my life to Christ.

Adding To the Growing List of Stupid Questions

Ok, I'm sorry, I do not believe that the only stupid question is the one that isn't asked.



There are many stupid questions, and truthfully, they wouldn't need to be asked if people simply thought about it first!



Since I am getting many new visitors via Blog Explosion, a tiny bit of "prep" is in order.



I am a retail music store manager and sell CDs, DVDs, and Games. In retail, we deal with the public on a daily basis and are usually never lacking in stupid questions. One winner in our "stupid question of the month" was a person who walked into the store and heard the music playing, saw the Top 20 selling CDs in front of them, picked up a CD and inquired "is this a music store"?



Today we have another one:



A person enters the store, again hears music playing overhead, sees that we sell CD and asks "What are you using to play the music?"



The answer:



"uhhhhhh, a CD player"

The "Future" of Home Computers

This is an actual picture from Popular Mechanics magazine in 1954. Scientists from RAND Corporation built this model to show what a home computer might look like in the year 2004. I would have had to build on an additional room to house that puppy!



I thought it interesting that the caption says "that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work..."

**UPDATED ON 11/23 - ACK! I was duped! Thanks to The Infamous Mike (who didn't leave his web addy in his comment) but left a link to Snopes, that shows the above "magazine picture" is a hoax! I normally catch this kind of stuff!

He also left a link to an interesting site at Worth 1000 where there are many examples of "edited" art and photos!

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey!

I'm so excited about turkey that I festively prance around the house singing the "turkey, turkey, turkey song" (I wrote it, ASCAP hasn't called yet.)



It's been known to put people on the floor laughing. Maybe you have to know me? I dunno, but I present for your listening pleasure (or not so much pleasure) the "Turkey, Turkey, Turkey Song" aka "The Gobble".



LISTEN



Katie celebrates the day by cooking. She is a great mom and homemaker (although she would probably disagree) and what makes it even better is that as she is slaving over the hot stove and making such wonderful creations as these, I get to blog and play. This is the life! (Actually, I did help a bit by cleaning some of the house today, I'm not totally useless! LOL)



Here's a pic of her turkey snacks made from cherry cordials, cookies and candy corn. Aren't they cute?

One Thing I Am Thankful For

If I had to be thankful for just one thing, I would be thankful for adoption.



Of course, adoption encompasses a many great things in my life. For one, I was adopted by two of the most loving parents the world has known. Always there for me, no matter how old I am, I still need my Ma and Pop! When I have good news to share, I just have to let them know! When I have decisions to make, I want their advice. If I am ever in need, they are always there. I am so blessed.



For two, I have been "adopted" by many people throughout my life. I live far from my home that was Hinckley and Medina, Ohio and because I work retail, getting home for the holidays is next to impossible. Today I have been invited to eat with Carol, as I have been for the past couple of Thanksgivings. In prior years I was invited by the McDonough's, but they have since moved to Texas. I sure do miss them over the holidays...I get all melancholy for them. I am also invited to share dinner with the Gushee's, but since I can't be in two places at once, I choose instead Carol's. Last year I also ate with Tommye and visited with her family for awhile. So, even though I can't be at home in Ohio, I am not at a loss for sharing the holidays with "family".



For three, I got to do some adopting myself! Katie and her kids are such a wonderful blessing. Sometimes when I think about my life as a single woman and I never would have imagined sitting through band concerts with my chest swelling with pride for Justin, my "not-the-son", playing drums or Tiffany, my "not-the-daughter", singing a solo in the Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. Sometimes I just get all teary-eyed thinking about the responsibility God gave me in caring for this framily. It is not always easy, and in fact I stress a lot, but in the end, I know and treasure this wonderful blessing.



For four, and the One thing I am most thankful for, is my adoption into God's Family. There is nothing in the world more precious to me than knowing He calls me daughter, His own.



The one thing I am thankful for today, if I had to pick just one thing of the many things I am thankful for, is adoption.

The One True God

I just began reading a guide for one of my SaLT group studies. It is called "On the Prophets & Kings of Israel" and put out by Focus on the Family. I was just reading the introduction to the study and found an interesting statement, so I thought I'd share.



In the introduction, the author is giving a brief overview about God's relationship with His chosen people, the Jews. It tells the story of the Hebrew people being led to the Promised Land and how God was using them to work out the beginning of His plan of salvation. "The nature of God's covenant relationship with His people demanded a place where their faith could be exercised and displayed to all nations so that the world would know of Yahweh, the true and faithful God."



By New Testament times, the Jewish people had been removed from the Promised Land, mainly due to Israel's inability to live obediently before God. During this time in an effort to recommit to God, new patterns of worship developed and experts in the Law emerged. There was a new focus for the Jews, but the Promised Land was now home to many other groups of people. Did this change the mission of God's chosen people? No...the mission remains the same, they were to live so that the world would know that their God was the one true God.



The Promised Land was the area, the "crossroads" where major trade routes were, in which the Jews would live obediently and serve Him as the world watched. Unfortunately they failed in their mission.



The mission has since been passed on to Christians. The study guide then speaks of how Christians today still think of the Promised Land by spirituality the concept as presented in the Bible. "Instead of seeing it as a crossroads from which to influence the world, modern Christians view it as a distant, heavenly city, a glorious 'Canaan' toward which we are traveling as we ignore the world around us. We are focused on the destination, not the journey."



It goes on to explain how we, as Christians, have separated our spiritual walk with Him from our responsibility in the world.



I believe that in many cases this is true. I think we have given away our responsibility. In America, it has led to many horrible things. As the world changes around us, Christians for too long have remained silent. It is now taking its toll in the form of removing God from almost every aspect of American life and when that happens we end up with abortion, gratuitous sex and violence at the movies, on tv and in video games. We end up gluttons and a people without purpose. Great empires fall when they lose purpose. I read yesterday that a school in CA is banning the declaration of Independence! Is that not a sign of a nation losing its direction?



As I read the news I start to consider the possibility that as the Jews failed to remain obedient and uphold their part of the covenant, Christians are failing too, and just as the Israelites began to refocus their energies and reclaim their faith, I see the same happening with Christians.



I see Christians banding together and trying to change some policies and attempting to stop actions that would remove God from the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States, and other similar things. More Christians are becoming involved in governmental positions and are working to change policy. I also read in the news today that in Europe, over a million Christians signed a petition that calls for their Christian heritage to be recognized in the EU constitution.



Christians need to be faithful to God right now. We need to live by faith and be obedient to Him. The world is watching us in this place, at this time. Our mission today is the same mission God gave to the Israelites, we are to live obediently within the world so that through us "the world may know that our God is the One True God."

2.5 Billion Pixels

I'm in the market for a digital camera...a nice one.



I want one that does THIS!



2.5 billion pixels...amazing! I could even read the license plates on the cars! WOW! Go check it out HERE!



Found via Garfieldt's blog.