Christ is the head

Brian had a another great message yesterday on community and how vital everyone’s role is to the church as a whole. We’re each vitally important and if one part is missing the entire body doesn’t function as it should. To illustrate the point, everyone in the room was given a piece of paper at the beginning of the service. We were told to color on it, draw on it or decorate it however we saw fit. Brian’s main point came from Col 1:15-18.

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. – Col. 1:15-18

He pointed out that if we as a church work together like we should, then Christ should be the first thing people see. Not a shoulder or an arm or a foot. The head should be exactly what they see first.
As he concluded his message we were all told to bring our pieces of paper to the front and stick them on a board that had a grid pre-printed on it.
As the pieces came together we started seeing the image of Christ appear — just as it’s supposed to happen in the church.
There were all sorts of colors and pictures drawn. Everyone was unique. But in the end it was Christ that shown through.
And while it was not planned, one piece ended up missing.
It was obvious that there was a gaping hole there. It challenged me to be sure I don’t leave a gaping hole in the church by my unwillingness to serve or my desire for myself.
I’ll post some pictures a little later as well as the podcast from the message but I wanted to be sure and share the lesson before I headed into the office this morning.

Verse for the day

I can’t think of a more fitting verse for today than this:
First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus. And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master’s word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they’ll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words. – 1 Thes. 4:13-18

Prayer request

Please be in prayer for the friends and family of Jerry Diffee. Jerry has been the associate pastor of Metropolitan Bible Church since 1964. It’s the church I grew up in and both he and his brother, Pastor Charles Diffee, made a major impact on my life, my Christian faith and walk.
Jerry collapsed Saturday afternoon while visiting one of his sons in Frisco Little Elm.
His heart stopped and (I believe) his son Jason performed CPR and was able to revive him before paramedics arrived.
But he has not regained his consciousness and an EEG last night showed very little brain activity.
The family decided that today at noon they would remove the life support systems that have been helping Jerry the last 36 hours or so.
Jerry is an amazing God and loved Him and His people.
In fact his brother Charles told me a story of his last three days that was just typical Jerry.
Thursday morning after a breakfast meeting Jerry spotted a disabled man in the parking lot.
He walked over and introduced himself and offered any assistance he could give. He also gave him his cart and told the man to call anytime he needed anything.
The next day, the man called.
He said he didn’t need anything other than someone to listen.
So Jerry did. At the end of their conversation Jerry offered to take the man to breakfast Saturday morning.
The two met and over breakfast Jerry led the man to Christ. My eyes water and I get chills just to type that.
Less than 12 hours later Jerry was in ICU at a Frisco Hospital.
The Church will likely lose a man after God’s own heart today. Please pray for God’s will to be done. Pray for comfort and peace for his family and his extended church family.
Pray for Pastor Charles Diffee as he will be losing a brother as well as his partner in ministry.
And pray that through it all God’s glory will be shown.

Religion and the White House

I’ve been sitting on this since Friday morning. I’m glad to finally get to post it.
NPR has two stories on faith and religion in the White House.
The first talks about the role religion will play in the race.
The second talks about the hurdle former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney may face as a Mormon.
Here are some poll results from NPR’s website:
Public Opinion Polls Weigh Faith and Politics
Los Angeles Times / Bloomberg
June 2006
Percentage of 1,321 respondents who said they could NOT vote for the following presidential candidates because of religion:
* A Mormon candidate: 37%
* A Jewish candidate: 15%
* A Muslim candidate: 54%
* An evangelical Christian candidate: 21%
* A Catholic candidate: 10%

December 2006
Percentage of 1,489 registered voters surveyed who could NOT vote for one of the following, even if they were presidential candidates nominated by the respondents’ party and even they and the respondents were in general agreement on most issues:
* A Mormon: 14%
* A 72-year-old: 14%
* A woman: 4%
* An African-American: 3%

Newsweek
December 2006
Percentage of 864 registered voters surveyed who would NOT vote for the following for president even if they were qualified for the job and nominated by the respondent’s party:
* A Mormon: 25%
* An African-American: 3%
* A woman: 8%

NBC News/Wall Street Journal
December 2006
Percentage of 1,006 adults who said they were very uncomfortable or have some reservations about voting for a presidential candidate who is:
* Mormon: 53%
* Jewish: 19%
* An evangelical Christian: 54%

ABC News/Washington Post
December 2006
Percentage of 1,005 adults who said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for president who is:
* Mormon: 35%

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics
December 2006
Percentage of 900 registered voters who said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for president who is:
* Mormon: 32%
* Protestant: 6%
* Roman Catholic: 10%
* Jewish: 10%
* A member of the Christian Coalition: 24%
* Muslim: 45%
* An atheist: 50%
* A Scientologist: 53%

Percentage of 900 registered voters who said they be less likely to vote for Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon: 24%

Source: Compiled by NPR from searches of the iPOLL Databank provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut.

Barack Obama

Oh and Barack Obama announced his campaign for President today. I’m excited to see what happens. He reminds me of a black Jed Bartlett. I hate that I have to point out his race but at the same time I’m really excited to think that America may finally approve of someone other than a white man in the White House.
I posted on Obama’s faith back in October after I read a transcript of a speech he gave earlier in the year. Seems even more pertinent now.
I still love this quote:“I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.”

Starting all over again

So back in March of 2005 I decided to start a blog.
I researched, I did lots of reading and decided Blogger was my best bet. And for nearly two years it has served me well.
But recently Google decided to make some changes to their software. They made some updates. That’s fine I said. I was excited to see where they would go with their new system.
I tried to migrate over to Blogger Beta right away.
But I was denied. I was told my blog would have to wait.
Sure it was frustrating, but I’m not going to pout. I just kept on keeping on.
I even made some changes to my template and changed my blog, Stranger in a Strange Land, (which will now be referred to as SSL 1.0), from a two column template to a three column template.
Then I get word that “Blogger Beta is dead. Long live the new Blogger.”
Ok. Great, now I can switch to the new Blogger.
Not so fast I was told.
We’re still not ready for you. Ok. I’ll keep pushing along using the old Blogger.
But then Friday morning, everything changed.
I went to login and was told I had to make the change. All right I thought. They’re making me change, they must be ready for me to use the new blogger.
Fat chance. I was still told they weren’t ready. The worst part of it is — they won’t let be back to my old site or login.
Sure its still there floating on the Internet, but I have no way to access SSL 1.0.
So, thus begins SSL 2.0 Beta.
I have none of the old posts (yet), but I have a new domain, new look, new feel and maybe a new direction.
Some have told me they only want to read “personal” entries. Some have told me they only like keeping up with politics on my blog. Others have told me they like the technology. But thanks to a new “back-end” powered by WordPress 2.1 there are categories on the right hand side of the screen and you can pick and chose what you want to read about.
It won’t hurt my feelings if you skip over certain posts.
Really. I’m being honest here.
But to be sure you’re up to date, please update your bookmarks with the new URL for SSL 2.0 Beta: www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan.
For those of you who have paid attention and subscribed to our RSS feed, powered by feedburner.com nothing changes for you — unless you want to take a look at our new site and watch the progression as SSL 2.0 Beta moves into completion.
Also within the next month we expect to launch casadeblundell.com with a new website for mine and Laurie’s wedding. We’re also considering a new blog and site for Laurie at: www.casadeblundell.com/laurie — but more on that later.
So for now, sit back, relax and be thankful that you subscribed to our RSS feed or someone was nice enough to tell you where we moved to.
Let me know what you think. Drop me an e-mail to my new address: jonathan (at) casadeblundell (dot) com.
Take care and God bless.

Oh and shameless plug here: This transition has been about as smooth as it can be. A new domain, spam filters, hosting, FTP and everything else I need less than $200 a year. Zip me an e-mail and I’ll let you know how you can get the same setup.

Upset with Blogger

I’m a bit upset – I’ve had trouble logging into Blogger all morning.
I tried to migrate to the new Blogger months ago. While it was still in Beta.
And all the time I’ve been told, “Sorry. We can’t migrate your blog now. Please be patient. We’ll let you know when you can.”
Well, now when I go to log in I don’t have an option. I get stuck in a constant loop that tells me I must log in to the new Blogger.
Yet when I do it I get the same message again. Somehow I was able to log out of my Google account and access my Blogger dashboard (for now). Either way I’m hearing WordPress or someone else calling my name.
If you’re a regular reader here now would be a good time to subscribe to the RSS feed (or e-mail subscriptions) to be sure you don’t miss any of the action in case I move to a new server/domain at casadeblundell.com overnight.
Anyone else having problems?