If the Annual Pass lets you visit free for a year, what is the point of the pass? If it’s something anybody can get just by asking for it, shouldn’t they just let everyone in free?
Machete Safety Recall
A safety recall for a machete? It’s a machete. So the handle could just randomly break and the blade could go who knows where – is that really significantly more dangerous than someone waving around a long, sharp blade? I guess if they start marketing the Bear Grylls Extreme Machete in a few months, we’ll know what happened to the ones that were recalled.
Science vs. The Bible
Why are we so quick to choose sides when it comes to science and the Bible? It seems like we often assume that science is about trying to disprove the Bible or to prove that God doesn’t exist and that faith has no use for science, but in reality they are both about finding truth.
Science is about discovering physical truth; the Bible is about discovering spiritual truth.
Rather than pitting them against each other, we should view them as complementary:
Science proves you are here.
The Bible tells you why you are here.
Humility And Confidence Can Co-Exist
“Pride goes before a fall.”
We have all heard this phrase many times and have repeatedly been reminded not to be prideful, but to instead strive for humility. It’s great advice and is even addressed throughout the Bible.
Proverbs 11:2 (NLT) – “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”
Proverbs 16:5 (NLT) – “The Lord detests the proud; they will surely be punished.”
Proverbs 16:18 (NIV) – “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
James 4:6 (NIV) – “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Humility is a desirable virtue and pride is to be avoided; the problem is that we often focus more on what we don’t want to be than on what we desire to be. We try to rid ourselves of anything resembling pride with the assumption that once all pride is gone, humility will remain. When the focus shifts from seeking humility to avoiding pride, it’s easy to end up with no confidence or sense of worth. It is important to be able to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously, but there is a fine line between being able to laugh at yourself and making fun of yourself. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being self-deprecating, but when we become self-deprecating, we can unintentionally destroy any confidence or sense of worth we may have, no matter how noble our intentions.
We assume that humility and confidence are incompatible, but there is a difference between being prideful and being confident of your worth because you understand that God created you and values you. Being prideful is not having too much confidence – it’s believing that you are good enough on your own or that you are more important than others. Humility is understanding that I am no better than you; that, without God, there is nothing truly good about me. Being humble has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you. It is placing others not above myself, but in place of myself.
Humility and pride cannot co-exist, but humility and confidence complement each other perfectly, so we should strive to live with a humble confidence that comes from knowing and understanding your value and worth and realizing that they come from God and not from anything you have done or could do. It comes from believing that God is in control and will always be with his people. When we have a correct understanding of who God is and how great God is, we will realize that any sense of pride we may feel about ourselves will pale in comparison to what we will feel when we have lived our lives in a way that makes God proud of us and we hear Him say “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
I’ll Fly Away
I’ve always wanted to fly in a hot air balloon, so when the opportunity arose yesterday, I couldn’t turn it down. Thanks to my aunt Denise giving up her spot in the basket and to my uncle Mark and the Humble Flight crew, I got to go for a ride…and it was awesome!
It was a beautiful day and great experience. I loved how peaceful it was up there – looking down on everything below makes you realize how small we really are. Being up away from all the noise and chaos was relaxing; it almost felt wrong to have my phone out, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos.
Aside from actually being in the air, my favorite thing was seeing so many people come out to selflessly give their serving to make it all happen.
Putting the balloon together, lifting off, tracking the course, going ahead to find a place to land, getting permission from the landowner to land in his field, guiding us down, and packing everything back in the trailer took more effort and teamwork than writing this long, run-on sentence. It was a beautiful example of Christlike service and community.
Thanks again to everyone who came out and made it happen!
5 Hour Energy Faith
“God, please give me faith and help me stay strong.”
How many times have we prayed something similar? When it feels like nothing is going right, you wonder what God’s plan is for your life (or if He has one at all), and life is beating you down – some variation of this prayer seems to be our “go-to” prayer. The problem is, that’s not how faith works. Faith is developed, not given.
Isaiah 7:9 – “Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.”
Did you catch that? God didn’t tell us to ask Him for faith when we are desperate, like some sort of 5 Hour Energy faith boost. He says that unless our faith is firm, He cannot make us stand firm. Our strength in difficult times comes from our faith in God and trusting that He is in control; the deeper and more developed our faith in God is, the more we will be able to endure. We must have faith in God’s promise that He is in control – not that He will give us faith and strength any time we ask.
If we want to have the kind of faith that will help us endure even the most difficult and dark seasons in life, we need to be intentional about developing our faith. You could spend your entire life learning facts about something and why it works and even watch other people experience it, but until you do it yourself, you will only have knowledge, not faith.
It can be inspiring to hear other people tell of how their faith helped them endure difficult seasons or circumstances, but in the end it often leaves us wondering why our faith doesn’t seem as strong as theirs. Faith is developed and strengthened through experience – we will always have more faith in something we are constantly around than something we view from a distance. Faith in God is developed through study, prayer, worship, and a commitment to consistently pursue Him. If you want faith that will see you through the difficult times and inspire others, you have to do the work.
God doesn’t give faith to some people, but not to others like some sort of door prize. He gave everyone the capacity for faith; it’s up to us to grow it. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you. You can’t feel the presence of someone you keep at a distance and you will never feel the embrace of someone that you refuse to let come near you.
How Deep Are Your Roots?
Drifting away from God is never something we intend to do; it just kind of happens. We get tired, busy, lazy, or distracted and our relationship with God suffers. Most of the time, it’s not even bad things that keep us from God – it’s too many things. We have a limited amount of time in each day, so every time we add something to our lives or to our schedules, something else gets pushed out. Often, the things that get pushed out are the things we most need to be in.
When we drift away from God, He is willing to let everything that gets in our way of a relationship with Him be stripped from us.
Isaiah 6:13 – “…as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Notice what it says – that Israel will be cut down and the stump will be a holy seed. We hear that and think it’s a bad thing, but really it’s what we all need sometimes – a fresh start. It may be difficult for us to view a tree being cut down to its stump as a good thing, but it’s what is under the stump that really matters – the roots. The roots are what sustains the tree; what determines how healthy it is and how high it will grow. A tree with deep, healthy roots will be stronger and better equipped to make it through violent storms than a tree with shallow roots.
Just as the roots are what sustains a tree, our relationship with God is what sustains us. The deeper we are rooted in our relationship with God, the better equipped we will be to endure the storms of life. If we want a faith that is deeply rooted in God we must be intentional about doing the things that will cause our roots to grow deeper.
Sometimes we need to get back to the basics.
When we feel overwhelmed, when life gets so busy and hectic that it feels impossible to focus, and when we can’t feel God’s presence like we once could, the best thing we can do is eliminate every unnecessary thing, get back to the basics of study, prayer, and worship and focus on rooting ourselves deeper into the One who can sustain us.
How To Find God
How do you find God?
Seek him.
Gravity Defyer Shoes
Talk about a can’t-miss logo…this company should be swimming in profits by now! I’m not sure who thought this was a good logo, but by golly, they are really owning it. As if the rad design isn’t reason enough to drop $139.95 on these shoes, look at the benefits you will receive by wearing them!
They will:
- Make you jump higher and run/walk faster
- Give you instant comfort
- Cool your feet
- Reduce foot odor
- Make you appear taller
So if you’re fed up with uncomfortable shoes that slow you down and hold you down, make your feet hot and smelly, and cause you to appear shorter than you are, these are the shoes for you!
Non-Spinning Washing Machine
Also, does not know how to use spell check. How much can you ask from a washing machine anyway? You can’t honestly expect it to get your clothes wet, have a spin cycle, and spell words correctly. Shoot, I think I’d settle for two out of three…
TIM PAYNE 