This book is written by Dr. Francis Collins who was the head of the Human Genome Project and considered to be one of the world's leading scientist.  The first part of the book is rather interesting as it details his journey from being an agnostic to an atheist to believing in God.  His conversion came when he was a medical student.  An elderly patient asked Dr. Collins what he believed about God and proceeded to share what she believed.  From the challenge he eventually became a believer in God as the supreme being.  For me, the book goes downhill from there as Dr. Collins goes on to share his veiw on the Big Bang thieory which he admits could not have happened without suprnatural intervention but never questions that perhaps it never happened at all.  He also goes on to explain his belief in evolution (macroevolution) but still leaves us with those same unanswered questions regarding the fossil record.  In addition, he has a very skeptical veiw of miracles.  In my estimation, he shrinks God down to a nice size in order to fill the gaps for his scientific mind which is ironic in that he points out the flows in a "God in the gaps" philosophy.

I got bogged down in the second part of the book but I had gleaned enough from the first part to see where he was going.  The book was given to me by a dear friend and I always find it helpful to read books that are outside of my view of things.

I read the following in a devotional recently: 

As followers of Christ our passion for the Savior needs to both drive and define our purpose for living.  Brennan Manning, in his book The Lion and the Lamb, writes about two ways of discerning our passion and purpose.  First, he advises us to recall what has saddened us recently.  He asks,

Was it the realization that you don’t love Jesus enough, that you don’t seek his face in prayer often enough, that you can’t honestly say that the greatest thing that ever happened in your life is that he came to you and you heard his voice?  Or have you been saddened and depressed over a lack of human respect, criticism from an authority figure, financial problems, lack of friends or your bulging waistline?

Then he asks the question,

What has gladdened you recently?  Reflection on your election to the Christian community, the joy of praying, “Abba, I belong to you?”  The afternoon you stole away with the gospel as your only companion, the filling awareness that God loves you unconditionally, just as you are and not as you should be?  A small victory over selfishness?  Or, were the sources of your gladness enjoying a new car, a suit, a movie and a pizza, a trip to Paris?

By asking ourselves these questions we come face-to-face with what makes us tick as individuals.  What are the primary motivations in our lives?  Then we can begin to take our personal passion and purpose and apply it organizationally. 

I was browsing the internet due to on-going muscle aches and pains which to some degree is just the result of getting older, when I came across this book by clair Davies.  While I did not read it cover to cover, I was able to quickly discover some things that helped my problems.  A trigger point is a place in a muscle where the muscle has contracted but does not relax.  I knew from having gone to a massage therapist in the past that there were places in some of my muscles that would be incredibly sore.  In some cases a knot would have formed in the muscle.  After a few visits to the therapist, I would begin to get some relief.  The problem was finding the time to go and also the fac that it was expensive.

In this self-help book you learn how to locate those trigger points and how to massage them yourself.  I have been amazed at how well it has worked for me.  Sounds too simple but it really is.  The book goes into a great deal about all the different muscles and how they work but at least for me it was fairly easy to locate the muscles that I needed to address.  Most of my problmes centered around my right hip and right shoulder.  While I hardly ever play 18 holes of golf (only once this year), I go to the golf range at least a couple of times a week resulting in on going lingering aches, pains and stiffness.  Learning the trigger point therapy method has given me the relief I needed.

You don't want to buy this book just for reading material.  On the other hand, it is an inexpensive way to try to address some muscle and joint issues - not a cure all but helpful in some cases. 

 

We will be doing a mailout to 18,000 homes regarding our preview services on July 27 and August 17.  Our theme will be Make A Difference.  We are looking for people who want to do more than just go to church.  We are looking for people who want to truly make a difference in the world. The Core Team (about 15 of us) are praying that God will increase our number to 50 by the time we launch on September 7.  I pray for 50 people who will be passionate about helping huritng people who need to know how much God loves them.

I was reading recently about the incredible sales of books like The Secret that came out in December of 2006 and had sold 1.75 million copies by March 2007.  The editor of Publishers Weekly, Sara Nelson described the popularity of this get-rich-quick book by saying, "Nobody ever went broke overestimating the desperate unhappiness of the American public."

We cannot possibly overestmate the desperate unhappiness of the American public.  Today I drove by Faith Christian School and looked at the doors we will use an entrance to FOTP Grapevine and thought of the many unhappy, desperate people God will bring our way who will find true joy and purpose in Christ.  Pat, Caroline and  I along with our CORE TEAM can't wait to see what God is going to do.

 If you would like to visit one of our CORE TEAM meetings please contact me at charlesthornton@fellowshipoftheparks.com

True story.  I set up lunch with a man who is friends with our pastor, Doung Walker.  We had never met so I asked Doug what this man looked like and he told me he had sort of a college professor look to him.  I knew he was about my age or slightly older so in my mind I had a mental picture of what he would look like.  I arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early.  A few minutes later a man who appeared to be about 55 or so comes walking in talking on his cell phone.  He is telling the person on the other end that he just got back from Spain and will be leaving for Greece soon.  He had a college professor look about him.  I walked towards him and he looks at me and says, "I am not the person you are waiting on.  I just thought you needed to know." 

He was still holding his cell phone to his ear since he was going to continue his phone conversation.  I said,  "Hey thank you but you look kind of like the person I was meeting."

He said with cell phone still at his ear, "Is that bad or good?"

I said, "I don't know I've never seen him."

At that he nodded politely turned and continued his cell phone conversation which I am assuming went something like this, "Hey just walked into a restaurant and had a conversation with a real nutcase.  He told me I looked like the person he was waiting on.  I asked him if that was bad or good, he said I don't know I've never seen him."

 He picked up his order to go glanced at me as if to say, "See you later fruitcake!" as he walked out.

"The most effective apologetic is love.  This may seem simplistic or even naive in a pluralisitc, spiritually heightened, anti-Chirstian, and syncretistic world, but knowing all the "right" answers is not nearly as effective as demonstrating a transformed life of genuine love and concern and care." - Eric Bryant

I bought this book by Eric Michael Bryant because of the catchy title and it just looked like something I would enjoy.  Eric is a graduate of Baylor (my son will be one in December) and now serves on staff at Mosaic church in Los Angeles. In the book, Eric enourages Christians to get outside thier comfort zone and love people who are different from themselves - to embrace racial and social diversity in order to help others come to know Christ.

The title of the book comes from the events surrounding a birthday party for one of his children.  He wanted to make the party fun for the kids in the neighborhood and since pinatas were a big hit at other parties in his racially diverse community, he decided to give it a try.  His wife sent him to the store to buy some candy for the pinata.  In an effort to save money and make things convenient he dicided to buy peppermint candy.  The only problem was the kids were less than excited when the burst open the pinata to find out it was filled with peppermints.  He goes on to connect the dots by saying that many of us want to reach out to others who are different but we want to do it in the least expensive,most convenint way possible.  The problem with all of that is the fact that true love requires sacrifice.

I will be posting some of what I gleaned from the book but overall it is not a must read on my list.  It is however, a good easy read that will inspire you to reach out to others.

Today after I spoke at FOTP on Addictions, one of our members told me about a website that he found very helpful in overcoming an addiction.  I have never used the website but visited it today.  It provides help for many types of addicitions.

You may find the site helful or you know someone who will find it helpful.

 www.settingcaptivesfree.com

 

This Sunday I will be speaking at FOTP Keller as we continue the series Hostage.  My topic will be Addiction.  I will be dfining addiction as:

Behavior motivated by emotions ranging from cravings to compulsion

Continued use or engagement in spite of negative consequences for you and/or others

Loss of control

It is easy to see from this definition, that there are many types of addictions today other than substances like drugs or behaviors like gambling.  In fact, some of us might just be addicted to our cell phones while others might be addicted to food or to shopping.

Hope those of you who can make it will be there Sunday to see what God's word has to say about addiction.

In Sunday's message at FOTP I quoted the words from a Garth Brooks song called The Dance.  I was making the point that while we sometimes wish for a life with no pain or trials, if we had a life like that we would miss those "divine embrace" moments.  A divine embrace moment is a time in our lives when our longing for God intersects with his longing for us.  It is a transcendant moment that often results in tears.  My experience has been that most divine moments happen during difficult times and not during those times when everything is going smoothly.

According to the song:

Now that it is over I am glad I did not know

How it would all end

Or where it would all go

Life is best left to chance

I could have missed the pain

But I would have missed the dance

Of course we know that life is actually a divine plan that God orchestrates that includes times of joy and times of pain.  If you would like to watch the video of the song here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxiJJBvZnRI  provided by one of our FOTP members.