Star Trek

Went to see the new Star Trek movie and I just had to post that it's fantastic. Definitely recommend it. I also took Amber to see The Soloist. I'd give this one a 50-50 endorsement. It was just ok. This was a case where it could have been shorter and been a lot better.

Great day at church!

Just wanted to mention that we had our best day ever at The City Church. We had 65 people come to worship yesterday! Praise God! In early April we had a few Sundays where we were running just over 30. So, that's a big turnaround in just one month. As a pastor, that is so energizing - to see God move and new people to come your way.

Hallelujah, Paid Off!

Just wanted to do a blog shout-out to say that as of today the Celorias have no credit card debt. Praise God! Now we've just got to take care of the car...

If you're looking for some really good resources on finances, I highly suggest the fabulous Dave Ramsey. Check him out at www.daveramsey.com. His book The Total Money Makeover has been a great help to us.

Diet - Day 8

Well, I just finished a full week of the "Lemonade Diet" and counting. We're supposed to stay on this thing for 3 more days. At this point, I'm counting the days! It's not that I've been hungry, because I stay full; it's just that I find myself craving solid food. I see food commercials and dream of eating pizza, hamburgers, or even broccoli. Anything but lemonade!

I'm not doing this primarily as a spiritual fast, but I have been reminded that I need to crave spiritual food, just like my body craves physical food. Too often my spiritual diet gets stale. It's like drinking lemonade over and over. The Bible talks about our spiritual diet in Hebrews 15 when it says

12. By now you should have been teachers, but once again you need to be taught the simplest things about what God has said. You need milk instead of solid food. 13. People who live on milk are like babies who don't really know what is right. 14. Solid food is for mature people who have been trained to know right from wrong.

God never meant for us to live off milk, or lemonade for that matter. There's a whole world of solid food out there for us to enjoy. So, let's leave the watered-down spiritual diet behind and move on to something we can really sink our teeth into.

Creation vs. Evolution

I've been watching some DVDs on creationism that a friend lent me. I'm definitely no science whiz, but it's striking how much "science" is actually philosophy. Modern scientists, like anybody, have their own agenda, and believe it our not it is not always the search for truth.

Wherever you land on the creation vs. evolution debate, I believe it's a debate that needs to happen. The sad truth is scientific creationism or even intelligent design have been kicked out of the public discourse. The arguments given for creationism are every bit as reasonable as the arguments for evolution, and more. Too bad most scientists aren't willing to let the evidence speak for itself.

Take this quote for example:

"[Evolution is] a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible." - DMS Watson

Or what about this one:

"Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable." - Sir Arthur Keith

Why? Because in their view creation is religion by definition and evolution is science, and they must go with science:

"Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic." - S.D. Todd

Now what would they do if creation scientists said, "Even if all the data point to Darwinian evolution, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not supernaturalistic"? They'd be up in arms!

As Ben Stein's documentary says, I guess "No Intelligence Allowed."

Here is a link to The Institute for Creation Research. Check it out if you'd like to hear some evidence for creation science:

www.icr.org

New diet

Amber has me on a new diet this week. It's called the "Master Cleanse" if anybody is looking for a way to torture their husband. We're going to stay on the diet for 10 days, during which time the menu will consist of lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water. Yummy!

It's good to focus on health. But 1 Timothy 4:8 reminds us:

Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.

It's all well and good to eat less when you want to lose weight, but while I'm on this fasting diet, I'm going to make it a point to keep feeding my soul.

Tax Day

It's April 15th and taxes are due. Did you do yours early or did you wait to the last minute? It's normal to delay something as unpleasant as doing your tax return. That's why the IRS has a deadline, otherwise nobody would do their taxes!

There's a dealine for life too, but unfortunately nobody put a date on the calendar to let us know when our time is due. But what if you knew? Would that change anything?

I love the song "Live Like You Were Dying"? It's about a man who is told he only has a few months to live, so he decides to finally get around to doing some of things he'd always meant to do. The chorus goes:

I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying.
An' he said: Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'.

How would we be different if we knew our lives had a deadline? We'd probably stop procrastinating on the really important stuff. Like our spiritual condition. The Bible says "Today is the day of salvation." Since we don't know how long we have, let's not put off till tomorrow the thing that matters the most. When that deadline comes, will you be ready or will you be past due?

After all there are really only two things you can count on in life: death and taxes!