New Star Wars movie review

My 11 year old daughter and I recently watched the new Star Wars movie. I watched all the old movies many many time. The old Star Wars was wonderful.

Beautifully written

lots of intrique

mystery

action of course

very well defined characters, both good and bad, that we came to know and love

and on and on Well, now we have a new Star Wars. No longer though is it being produced by George Lucas. Now Star wars belongs to Disney and was produced by J.J. Abrams. I did enjoy Star Wars, but it was just a shadow of the original.

To start with, I looked to the opening of the movie. In the original, we saw beautiful Star destroyers that looked and sounded awesome. In this one, we see a black shadow of a star destroyer moving across a planet, then blacking it out completely. A very disappointing beginning compared to the original.

When the original Star Wars was created, Lucas already had in mind a long long series of movies. He took his time developing strong characters and strong story lines that would endure the test of time.

In the new Star Wars, we have characters that we know little to nothing about. Story lines that are poorly developed and what seems like a rush to get from the beginning of the story to the end of it.

It was as if JJ Abrams could not decide if he wanted to make this a 1 time movie and therefore tell the entire story from front to back in just this 1 movie, or he wanted to make this into a series of movies. What we wound up with was a movie that tried to do both.

The movie tells us a story from begentnig to end and also leaves us hanging for the next. It did a bad job of both!

In the original movie, we had Darth Vader. A wonderful villain that was very very well written. He kept his mask on all the time only a few times taking it off over the course of the entire series of movies. The one time he did take it off, we saw a hideous glimpse of the evil and ugly thing he had become.

In the new Star Wars, we have new villain. He wears and interesting less intimidating masks. He voice is not deep and menacing like Earl Jones that played Darth. It sounded like the voice was 2001.

The evil character in the new Star Wars was constantly taking off his mask and when he did, we say a young kid with a head full of hair. A pretty boy of you will. My daughter even said tht the evil guy was too good looking to be evil.

Then there was the use of the force. In the original movies, We had the Jedi. There was a master and a padiwan. The padiwan trained for years before he could master the techniques of the force and handling a light saver.

In this movie, it was more magical. The characters knew nothing of the force, then in the next scene, not only knew how to handle a light saber, but knew it well enough to take on the main evil villain.

Then there was the plot of the movie. In the original movie, we have the death star that they are trying to destroy. But it takes a while to develop this story. We care about the story, the planets that are facing destruction and the people.

In this movie, the same plot is rehashed as if the writers could not think of anything new, so just borrowed the same story line from the original movie. This time we have another death star, jut bigger.

When it came to the death star and the planets loosing their life, I didnt care. The movie did a poor job of building the story line so that I would care. In the original, when the death start was destroyed, you wanted to rejoice right along with the characters in the movie. In this one, when its destroyed, all you can say is well that was fun, whats next?

I even felt toward the end of the movie that I was done and could not wait till it was over. I never felt like that with the original movies.

All in all, I would say to save your money and wait until this comes out on video. It is good, but not good enough to spend $20 to $40 to go see it on the big screen.

The next big thing is coming, and its not a new store, new phone, or new credit card.

Hi everyone. It’s been quite the year at the Dacus home, but through it all, God was, and still is here, just not in the traditional sense. We have stopped doing ministry, at least like we were, and we are taking a Sabbatical, for lack of a better word.

My wife got sick in February with Perforated Diverticulitis. She was in an out of the hospital for 3 months. After trying and trying to get the holes to heal on their own, they finally gave up and she had surgery in May.

Then shortly after that, my wife asked me for a divorce. Yeah, us, a divorce! Then out of desperation, I decided to seek God. I have sought God for years, but just not like this. I went to see someone that knows him quite well and hears his voice. This person heard God on some things in my life,God showed up, some things were broke off me, my family and our lives and there was a miracle!

Now, my wife and I are still my wife and I. The divorce is off and we are going strong. In all that mess, I learned a few things. One; when God needs to get your attention, he will do what he has to in order to get it. Even if those things hurt. In the words in a former teacher of mine, he stirs up the nest so its uncomfortable. If you still dont listen, they will get downright unbearable.

Well, he stirred up our nest something awful. I am stubborn, I needed a brick to hit me upside my head and that’s exactly what God did!

The next lesson in all this is that sometimes he takes more than praying to break through. In my case, I had to find some nutural party that could hear God on my behalf and point out the problems.

Ok, so that is fixed, so now what God?

In the course of the years of my life, I have been a missionary in Russia, Alaska, all over the US and Nicaragua.

Then I became a Pastor. I served in a few churches, served on Church boards, did more traveling, started an internet Church and/or ministry, started a non-profit ministry that helped people with their needs and did whatever else I thought God needed.

But in all this time, even though what I was doing was good, it was more about me than it was about God. I wanted to help those in need, I wanted to start a Church, I wanted to start a ministry. See the problem?

It was more about what I wanted than what God wanted. Even though these were all good and right things, that does not matter one bit if that’s not what God told you do to.

In the words on an old Prophet/Singer; “To Obey is better than sacrifice. God does not need your money, he wants your life”.

So I had to lay all this down. These days, I work full time, pay my bills, and take care of my family. Right now, this is my only ministry and I am proud to do it.

I don’t even attend Church much anymore. Yeah, I go occasionally just to stay connected to what God is doing there, but that aint much. Church bores me. It’s the same old things that its been for way to long.

We go to Church, sing a few songs, hear a nice sermon, then leave in the very same condition, and with the very same issues that we had before. There is little to no change, there is little to no relationship, there are little to no needs being met. Church has become a cold, ritualistic, business or making money and entertaining Christians.

The church has become the very same monster now that it was back when Jesus walked the earth full of Pharisees and Sadducees, bickering, anger, resentment, and hurt. It is the very same thing that Jesus fought against some 2000 odd years ago. We have truly lost our 1st love.

I am convinced now more than ever that the Church is dying a slow death. O, not the real Church. The Church in reality is us. You and me. Anywhere 2 or more believers are gathered together Is Church.

The Church that I refer to that is dying is this corporate 4 walled monster than lives in buildings. This monster is called Religion.

Sure, this religious monster does do some good things, but that’s not enough. This monster needs Jesus, but cant get to him because it’s a monster. Monsters are just too big.

Jesus is all about one on one intimacy. That intimacy just does not exist in these large buildings. Or it does, it does not exist for long and exist on a small scale. What Jesus is after in these last days is real. The only way to be real is one and one.

When we go to these Churches, we put on our religious masks and pretend. We pretend that we are good and holy. We pretend that we know God and he knows us. All the while God is crying out for intimacy. The intimacy that he just cant find in these Churches. He cant break through the walls we have put up. (Pun Intended)

We are in the middle of a revival. But its not the revival that we think. Our concept of a revival is a big tent with singing, preaching, a preacher leading the charge, and men coming to the alter for prayer.

In Star Wars, when the Jedi leadership was trying to figure out what to do with Luke. To the Jedi, the prophecy said that someone (Luke) was going to rise up and destroy the Syth. But not only was this not happening, but Luke had become a Syth himself. This made no sence at all to the Jedi.

Yoda piped up and said that the prophecy might have been misinterpreted.

We have misinterpreted the Bible. In fact, the Bible can sometimes get in the way. (Sometimes I think we need to throw out the Bible so we are forced to go to God. No I am not talking about actually throwing out our Bibles. What I am saying is that anything that gets in between God and us has become an idol.That idol does not have to be a statue of gold, silver or bronze. An idol can be anything. It can be money, rock stars, music, church, and yes, even the Bible can be an idol. If to you the Bible has become a stumbling block of endless words that need defining, and digging deeper to find more and more hidden meanings, and the subject of endless debate and conjecture, then it has become a problem.) God’s concept of revival is not the above. God wants intimacy; God wants this corporate monster that we have created, called the Church, to die, and the real Church (You and me) to come forth.

I am not sure how to get there just yet, but the answer is not going to be found in “Church”. The answer is going to be found in The Church, The Church of You and me and God!

Is anyone out there?

Many of us wonder, at least at some time in our lives, if God is really there. And if so, does he care? Rationally, intelligently, and logically, we know he must be there. To believe that this world, us, and the universe just poofed into existence without there being an intelligence behind it, is just plain nuts.

Of course there is a God. The question is; "How much is God really involved in the day to day operation of our lives and this world?"

I have not come up with a good answer for this. I say a good answer because I know the answer that I have is not going to be the one that many are going to want to hear, or accecpt.

Is God there? Sure he is. Thats a given, but just how much is he involved in our lives and in this world? Well, we are told that God has the very number of hairs on your head numbered? Really? Does God have nothing better to do than sit around and count the hairs on peoples heads?

Sounds pretty boring and monotonous to me. Of course these days, I seem to have a few less than I used to, so maybe it would not take that long. I think what God is trying to say here is that he cares. Im pretty sure that you would really have to care a lot about someone to take the time to count hairs on their body. I would not even do that for my wife!

So God cares! Well, duh...

This still does not tell me how much he is involved and how much he intervenes in our lives. The longer I live here in this earth, the more I think that we dont need God and Satan to make our lives better or worse.

(Before I get in trouble for that one, I will explain just a bit. Of course our lives are better off with God, but ultimately, you can live life on this earth with or without God or Satan in your life. Im not going to get into a full blown explanation on that as it would take up the entire bog all by itself and that is not what I wish to talk about here)

We do a pretty good job of bad things happening in our lives all by ourselves. I am sure that God and Satan applies influences at times, but for the most part, I think things in our lives and this world are on a sort of auto pilot.

Take that commercial that you see on TV. A woman parks her car on the side of a busy street and opens up her car door to get out. A car comes screaming by and takes her car door off its hinges. Now, was this Gods fault? Was this Satan's fault?

Sure God or Satan could have intervened and caused this car to come by just as she opened up her car's door, but chances are that neither of them had a thing to do with it. The woman should have known better than to open up her car door without so much as looking to see if a car was coming!

As humans, we do dumb things. This is the moral of that TV commercial.

We really don't need any help from either God or Satan to get the job done.

Its like that movie by Madia, I can do bad all my myself..

Am I saying that God and Satan don't do things in our lives and here on earth? Of course not. Genesis 28:12 tells us that angels are constantly coming and going from Heaven to Earth. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that Satan is roaming about as a lion looking for someone to devour. But the question still remains of just how much direct intervention God and Satan use in my life and yours.

When God created the world, he set certain things in motion. He put rules, and principles in place to govern how to world, the universe, and us, work. Gravity for example. God does not wake up in the morning and say to himself; Darn, I forgot to turn gravity on today. People are starting to float away. I had better do something about that".

No, gravity just works. God does not have to do a cotton pickin thing for it to work. Another example are our hearts. God does not all of the sudden remember something and say to himself; "DagNabit, I had better turn on Sam's heart soon before the poor old guy falls over. I knew I was forgetting something". No, Sam's heart just works with no influence or action from Sam, God, Satan, or anyone else.

Lets take another example for example. I hate summer time. Always have. Every year comes along and I pray to God to please see me through another year of heat. I prefer the cold and I am not alone in this. But there are just as many people out there that are praying to keep summer around because they hate the cold.

What is God to do with prayers like this?

If God was to cancel Summer and move right to Winter, he would make enemies of the people that like summer and are praying for it to stay. If God keeps summer going and cancels Winter, he makes enemies of the people that love the winter. So to make everyone happy, God stays out of it and takes a Neutral stance, like Switzerland.

You can see the same in any good manager or business owner. Its not possible to make everyone happy, so the best course of action is usually to not even try. Just let things happen as they are going to happen. I think in many things in this world, the universe, and our lives, God does the same thing.

God even tells us as much in Matthew 5:45 and in many other places. God is telling us that he does not take sides. Good things and bad things fall on both good and bad people. Its a bad idea to take sides. Anyone that has kids knows its a very bad idea to favor one child over the other. You just cant do something for 1 and not do it for the other. So often, its best to just stay neutral and let the chips fall where they will fall.

Sure, God gives favor to those that follow him. Psalm 84:11. But that favor does not mean that we will live a live with no pain, and no problems. In fact, God told us just the opposite. John 16:33 tells us that we will have trouble in this world. In fact, when we become Christians, we are going to face even more. 2 Timothy 3:12.

Am I saying that God does not care and he does not intervene when he can? Of course Im not. God cares and does take care of his Children. Often when you have a child, and that Child is in trouble, the best thing that you can do is nothing at all.

Sit back and let things just happen the way they were meant to happen. This is how we learn and grow. If God was to step in and take control of every little issue and problem that we faced and work it out for us, we would never learn how to do it ourselves!

So is God up there? Of course he is. But he often chooses not to interfere but just stay neutral. Its for our own good.

The State of the Church....Can it be done differently?

This is probably one of the most important and perhaps controversial post that I have ever written. It concerns the Church. I love the Church, but the Church just does not seem to be what it should be.

This post is for those out there that;

Know there should be more to Church.
People that are not happy with the current condition of the Church.
People that know that there needs to be a change.
People that are not happy with the status quo.
People that have still not found what they are looking for.
People that have been hurt and ostracized by the Church.
People that love the Church, but know that the Church is not just 4 walled institutions.
People that know the Church is actually you and me.

We are different. We are not of this world. We are called to do things differently. We need to do things better.

Many of our Churches are unable to do much, if anything, to reach the unsaved in our community because they are bogged down by debt, by dwindling tithes, by uncaring, by complacency, by doubt, by few to no workers, by leadership issues, being untrained. and more.

People come to our Churches. They sing a few songs, they listen to a sermon and then they go home. They go home in the same condition they were in when they walked in the door. I have heard and seen this all to often. People in the parking lots of our Churches cursing up a storm. They go inside the Church and pretend that everything is fine. After Church, they come out cursing again and all but run over the cars in front on them trying to get out of the parking lot as fast as they can.

I see married couples that argue and fight right up until they enter the doors of the Church. Then they put on their masks and pretended that the fighting never happened. They do their best to put on a good show for the duration of the service. After the service, they remove their masks and go right back to hating each others guts.

I see people that have dire needs. Needs of jobs, needs of food, needs of money to pay the bills. Needs of money to pay their mortgage or rent before they get kicked out and lose their home. People desperate for healing, prayer, and to meet the real Jesus.

I see people with hope in their hearts that know that God can meet their needs. They go into our Churches with this hope that God will show up. But to them, he never does. They leave the Church with their hope and faith squashed. They still hate their spouse, they still need a job, they still need healed, they still need money to pay bills, they still need to meet Jesus, they still need food, they still need clothing, and on and on.

I see Churches and Ministries that put endless criteria, rules and regulations on the little help that they do offer. The hoops are often so many to get this help that the people in need run away from both the Church and God convinced that both are just big bullies that offer help, but never really intend to give it.

I see Church services where people are invited to go up to the alter and pray. They do this, as they should. But it ends there. Most leave the alter with little more hope, if any, than they had when they went to the alter.

The Church is not meeting needs. Its not doing its job. Oh sure, I know there are exceptions out there. But they are few and far in-between. I personally know Churches that have flat out refused to help in the community.

They fear that they wont have enough people to do the tasks. They fear that they wont have enough resources to meet all the need. They fear that they wont have the staff to manage needs. This fear is not of God!

Most of the people in the US have heard about the Bible until they are blue in the face. They have been told over and over that Jesus loves them. They have been told that he cares. But what is the Church doing to prove it? God loves to meet needs. This is what he is all about.

Its not that God is not showing up. Its that the Church is not utilizing Him. God is not into doing everything himself. Sure, God can do this if he chooses, and does when he has to. But that's not how he prefers to work. God wants to use us. Just like in that song. "We are His hands and feet". If we don't get out there and do it, chances are that is not going to get done. God keeps waiting for the Church to get out there and start helping. But he is just left waiting at the alter.

Does Church need to be re-invented? Is it that we have just forgotten how Church should be run?

Church needs to be a place where;

There is life
There is laughter
There is joy
There is healing
There are needs met. Needs like Food, Clothes, Jobs, etc...
Marriages and relationships are healed
We reach out to those both inside and outside our 4 walls and show them Jesus
We put action to our prayers

I want to hit more on that last point. The people in the pews and chairs of our Churches are literally dying right where they sit. We feed them faith by the spoonful and bucketful. Our people want to get out there and do something with all this faith that they are fed. But very few Churches provide any outlet for this faith.

Prayer is faith. We are going to God with our requests, our belief, and our very lives. We are believing that he is going to help us and others. But there is another step to this process. Yes, prayer is supposed to be a process. If we just pray and do nothing else, we might as well have not prayed at all. Prayer must be active and acted upon.

According to James 2:14-26, and in several other places in His Word, faith without works is a dead faith. You have probably heard this before, but had no clue what is really meant. Well, Im here to tell you what it means.

It means; If you pray for someone that needs food, and you have food, you feed them.
If you pray for someone that needs clothes, and you have clothes, you clothe them
If you pray for someone that needs healing, you heal them
If you pray for someone to receive Christ, you lead them to the Lord
If you pray for food, you listen to the Lord tell you where to find it and go get it
If you pray for a job, get off your butt and go get one

In a nutshell, it means that prayer should not end at the alter with some well meaning Christian, Pastor, or other Church Leader. If that Christian, Pastor, or other Church Leader is not actively trying to figure out ways to meet your need, and following up with you to find out how God and met you need, they have not completed the process and have not done their job correctly.

To be fair, its not entirely their fault. They were probably never trained how to pray correctly. They were probably never trained that there is more to the process. Many of our Church staff are also overwhelmed and over worked.

So my idea is simple. I am willing to start a Church. I have ran away from this idea for a long long time. But I need ideas. What sort of Church would you want to see? I know how needs should be met and how prayer should be done. But there needs to be more. Church should be a place where we want to go. Church should be a place where everyone works. Church should be a place where everyone uses their faith and their actions to help those inside and outside in the community.

Church should be a place of joy and life.

Church must be an active part of the community. In earlier times, it was the community. The Community revolved around the Church. We can be that again. But we need to get started before its too late. If you have ideas on how to do this, and you want to be involved, I want to hear from you. I have developed a short survey.

If you really want to reach the world for Christ, by becoming the Church, I need to hear from you right now. I want to hear what you think a Church service and the Church should be and how it should run. Phillip@NeedsMet.us

Reimagining the Church - a book review that is past due

I read this book and wrote this review some time ago. A friend of mine recommended it. I had to go back and read my review of it to refresh my memory of the book. Many of us recognize that the current church system is broken and is missing something. Then again, many of us think that its just fine as is and if its not broke, why fix it?

This book points out the authors reasons why he feels that the current Church model is broken. I agree with most of what he says. But I have my own additional reasons why I think that the current Church model does not work. I think this book does a decent job. I just dont agree with the language that the author used. See below.

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Frank calls his vision for the Church "Organic Church."

On a side note, I don't much like the word "Organic." Have you ever gone to stores that have organic foods? These places seem to attract people that oppose Christianity. (To be fair, there are many that go to these places that just want to be healthy and select healthy foods). I'm not entirely sure why Organic and religions other than Christianity go together. Perhaps they are like Spirits. No matter the reason though, they just seem to attract the same people.

In the world of Christianity, I live by the verse; "You will know them by their fruits." In other words; if you want to determine if something, or someone, is of God, just look at the end result (What it, or they, produce). In this case; what kind of people do organic stores attract? If organic stores attract those that oppose Christianity, then we can draw the conclusion that it's not Christian. So associating the word organic with the Christian Church, just rubs me the wrong way.

Frank's book draws a line in the sand, which is his vision for how the Church should be, and dares you to cross over it. He very clearly spells out his viewpoints and defends them well. However, all that defense makes the book sound a bit desperate. It's like he is saying to the world; "Won't you please read my book so I can prove to you how wrong your way is?"

Though he stops short of saying this, Frank seems to be saying that his vision for the Church is the only way, and if you don't accept it, you are doomed. Now I have to admit that I did not read each and every page word-for-word. I just couldn't. This brings me to my next side note and rant.

Doesn't anyone use illustrations anymore? To me, a book that has nothing in it but line after line, and page after page of text, is very boring. Nice, well laid out illustrations break up this monotony, and provide you with a wealth of information. Ever heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, it's true. Frank... I'm drawing my line in the sand and I dare you to prove me wrong.

Frank also uses the word "Institutional Church" many times in the book. Here we go again! The word Institutional makes me think of folks that have been committed to a mental institution. I don't much like the Church being compared to a mental institution and those that attend it to mental patients.

Now in his defense, Frank does address this word in his book. He says that he could just as easily used the word "Traditional". Well, Frank...If you could have just as easily substituted the word Institutional for a less offensive word, why didn't ya?" Are you trying to make enemies of every Church going Christian in America? If not, I suggest choosing your words more carefully.

So right from the start,"Reimagining Church" sets a bad tone by its choice of words. Perhaps Frank just wanted to rile us all up. I'm not sure of his intentions and I won't try to figure them out here. I do agree with most of what this book had to say. I mainly just didn't like the way it was said, and the manner in which it was written. The book Reimagining Church was dry and lifeless and did not make me want to run out and purchase his next book, "Pagan Christianity."

Reimagining Church is all about how we have strayed from the original design that God laid out for us for the Church. In the New Testament;

* Church was held in homes
* There were no Pastors
* No hierarchical structure
* No strict division of laypeople, Pastor, clergy or staff, etc...
* No firm structures to meetings

I was intrigued by 2 things in the book that I had not thought of before. The first is that the Church should be a family. Now interestingly enough, most Churches are families, or at least were started by families. Many Churches are run by husband and wife teams, with the husband as the Pastor and the wife often the worship leader. Then the kids often join on as staff. Many Churches start out in homes, but then when they grow, they naturally think of getting a bigger building. They do this because that's just the way it has always been done. As the Church grows bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain that family dynamic and eventually its lost altogether.

I love the idea of getting back to the family unit as the center of the Church. This solves the problem of husbands abandoning their families to go off to Pastor a church. Then as the Church grows, that family dynamic is maintained, because as a home Church, its maximum size is determined by the size of the home.

The other idea that I thought was mind blowing was the part about the Lords Supper. In the modern day American Church, we have reduced the Lords supper to communion. The word communion does not even appear in the Bible. Communion is a stale and sterile practice that consists of tiny wafers, or crackers, and some sort of juice.

The wafers are tiny so they are easier to pass around and hold in ones hand. Grape juice is used so we don't offend those that do not like alcohol, or those that think it sinful to drink wine. What I never understood about communion is how it became all about us. Our current Communion rituals cater to our needs, not the needs of Jesus.

In many countries, they still use real bread and real wine, which in my opinion, is the way it should be. I wonder what Mosses would have said had the Israelites used present day arguments like that.

"Oh Moses! Really? Sheep's blood! "Why Cant we use something more hygienic on the door lintels like red markers?" Don't ya know I'm allergic to sheep's blood?"

The idea that the book presents is that we should get back to the original idea and intention of "The Lords Supper." Instead of the abbreviated version, we call Communion; let's have the full meal deal. A real supper complete with real bread and real wine. The supper would be a time for sharing the good things of God with each other. A time of fellowship and getting to know each other better. We could even take turns going around the table and talking about the things God has done in our lives. A supper filled with true good will, remembering what God has done for us, and showing thankfulness and joy in that. Not some cold and somber event that last just a few minutes and is quickly forgotten.

Reimagining Church condemns the traditional Church. I do agree that home church is what God probably intended for His Church. However, I disagree that there is no place at all in this world for the more traditional building based Church. He does not actually say this, but it is implied. I read a review of his book on Amazon that I thought was very insightful.

The Pastor said that it's true that the Traditional Church model has gone astray and needs help. He pointed out though that just because it's broken, does not mean that we should throw out this model completely. It would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Why not just try to fix what's broken?

Of course there is also the example we are given in the Bible of not trying to put new wine in old wine skins. So I'm not sure what the answer is. What I do know though is that the traditional Church model is probably not going to go away anytime soon and perhaps not at all.

Why cant home Churches and the more traditional building model of the Church co-exist?

This is a good book and an excellent idea, but the book itself could have been written better.

Is Church Broken? - Part 4

In the last part, we talked about Faith and why most have a dead faith. I think in this part, I want to quickly get through the other bullet points so that I can get to the good stuff.

The good stuff is how to fix the Church. But before I continue, I need to define just what makes up "The Church". The Church is not the 4 walled building that you go to on Sunday.

The Church is us. You and me. The building that we go to is nothing more than a gathering place.

A gathering, or meeting place is important. God told us not to neglect meeting together and encouraging each other. Hebrews 10:25

But somewhere along the line, the Church building became more important than the actual Church, which is us.

I want to talk briefly about ministries. I love ministries. I run one called Needs Met. Ministries exist because Churches are not doing their job.

Why Churches dont, or maybe cant, do their job is probably a question for someone smarter than I am. I have a few thoughts on it, but I dont know exactly why.

I have served in a lot of Churches in my life. Baptist Churches, Assembly of God Churches, Independent Churches, Non-Denominational Churches, and many more.

To be fair, Churches do try. Some of them, especially the smaller ones that are not bogged down by red tape, and debt, try hard to make it work. Some of them do succeed.

But there are a lot that just cant.

Some Churches are so top heavy with overpaid Pastoral staff, that they dont have the ability to get things done.

Some Churches are do weighed down by rules and regulations, that they are old and lifeless and cant get anything done.

Other Churches are plagued by fear. Fear that they will lose donations, fear that they wont be able to handle the needs, or fear that they wont have another people to meet needs. Other Churches are isolationist. They don't want to venture outside their walls.

God wants to speak to us. Why dont we let him?

This is something that I wrote a long time ago. I think it bears re-posting.

We love to talk and pray. I think most of the time, we just want to hear ourselves.

The Bible had some nasty warnings on this. Matthew 6:5

Here is an example of the problem.

Example: Rebecca and I are high school students that are going to have a conversation on the phone.

Rebecca - (calls up Phillip on the phone)
Rebecca - Hello Phillip. How are you today?
Phillip - Im …….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
My day was horrible. I had to get up at 4 this morning. DO you believe that 4am!
Phillip - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
And my English teacher hates me. What do you think about Mrs. Jennings?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I met this guy that turned out to be a jerk. What do you think of Bob?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Lunch in the Cafeteria was pukey. I had the Hamburger which tasted like Rubber. DO you like Rubber?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I have lots of Homework to do tonight? DO you want to come over and help me with my homework tonight?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I sure am tired. Why don’t you answer me Phillip? Well, Bye…

Lets use the same scenario and apply it to a prayer

Rebecca - praying
Rebecca - Father, how are you today?
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Father, I had a hard time at school today
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I wish I didn’t have so much homework. Its real hard and Im not sure that I will make it this year
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I met this guy God, and he’s real cute. But he didn’t notice me at all. Why don’t he notice me God?
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Lunch in the cafeteria was really aweful. Cant you do something about that food God. Make the school put in a Mcdonalds or something.
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
The people at school are so mean. Why cant they just be more like me and be nice and friendly?
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
My English teach hates me God. Cant you give her a heart attach or something? Well, maybe not a heart attach, but some really painful Gas or something like that
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Well, God, I gota go….In Jesus name I pray, Amen

That’s what most Christians prayer life is like.

We call up God on our spiritual prayer phone and tell God what we need, what we think, and ask God for help and then just hang up never letting God get in a word edgewise.