Amazon.com has recently been stepping up it’s efforts in downloadable material. Amazon Unbox is one of the newest ways to get T.V and movies online. It is legal and pretty inexpensive. As I fight with the idea of having television piped into our home, I turn to the internet to find out what options are available. Amazon hit the scene in the music download arena a few months ago and now they are going to video. There are a ton of videos that you can ‘rent’ for about a buck. No late fees, not hidden charges. You can subscribe to a whole season of your favorite show and have it automatically download to your PC or TiVO. If we are honest with ourselves, there isn’t that much good TV out there. I watch a few shows here and there and I would probably spend less money if I combined Amazon’s Unbox with the shows that I can watch online. Networks like ABC and NBC offer the current seasons of many shows for free online. This is how I have been keeping up on The Office, Chuck, and barely passable shows like Cavemen and Car Poolers.
Amazon Unbox
I Suck at Everything I do in Life
The title of this post has led a number of people to this blog via keyword searches. In August I wrote a post that outlined some areas of my life that I was felling pretty sucky at. Evidently, there are a lot of people who feel that the suck at things in life. In all honesty, absolutely everyone has areas of their lives that aren’t perfect and need work to improve. I have a feeling that the people who are searching for reading material about sucking at everything they do have some other issues that they need to iron out. I have had times in my life where I very much felt this way. Times when I didn’t know where my next meal was going to come from because I quit yet another minimally paying job in hopes that something better was around the corner. Times when I had to beg my mom for money yet again because I screwed up in my financial life. Time when I was not doing well in a class that I really needed to do well in. I’ve been there. We all have. I get the feeling that the people who are searching for this phrase are looking for some hope in the midst of the pain. You see, they probably want to take one of three courses of action.
- On the positive end, they are looking for some motivational material to find a way out of the mess that they’ve created (or someone else has created) in their lives. If that is you, I’d love to talk to you. I would love to help you make a plan to discover your purpose in life. You see, everyone was made on purpose, with a purpose, and for a purpose. We’ve just got to figure it out. Contact me if you so wish.
- On the semi-negative end, they are searching for others who also think that they are failures in life. Why do this? Misery loves company. If this is you, stop looking for company. Misery does love company, but that company only makes you more miserable. Again, if you need someone to talk to, contact me. I can probably put you in touch with someone in your area that would be more than willing to help you iron things out.
- On the extreme negative end of things, they are at the last resort before doing something harmful to themselves or others. Desperation necessitates action. You’ve heard the saying that desperate times call for desperate measures. This could go either a good way or a very bad way. If this is you, you have a choice. You can choose to not take the easy way out and figure out what is “wrong” with your life and how to fix it. Of course you can also choose to knock over the corner gas station or take your own life, but honestly that is the punk way out. Ending up in jail/prison because you are sad or things aren’t going the way you thought is just plain stupid. I know people who sit behind bars who you can ask if their decision was a good one or not. I also know some people who have taken the ‘easy’ way out and taken their own life. Unfortunately, you cannot talk to them. Ever. Again, contact me, I’d love to help you figure things out and if I can’t help you figure them out, I can probably point you to someone who can.
As I ended the post that I previously wrote, I’m still a man in need of a savior. The same is true for you, especially if you think you suck at everything in life. Truthfully, I’m not a bible thumper, but I do think that there are times when you and I need to be hit over the head with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent himself (Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit make up the one triune God) to earth to take away all the sins of the the people so that the people could once again enter into an intimate relationship with him. He did it for you, he did it for me, he did it for everyone. All you have to do is believe and respond to that lump in your throat.
Going All the Way
[youtube V5rYtscx0gs nolink]Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv (and his publisher, Multnomah), was (were) kind enough to send out copies of Craig’s latest book Going All the Way to anyone wiling to blog a review of it. I’m working through the book and I should have a working review up later in the week. Just wanted to give you a teaser with a video. Also, this book isn’t like any other book on pre-marital/sex/etc that I have ever read. I expected no less than a great book from God’s mouth through Craig’s pen and so far neither God nor Craig have let me down.
Entertainment Book 2008
Saw this posted over on Mind Your Own Business. Get a 2008 Entertainment book for 5 bucks off the purchase price, also get free shipping. Great book with tons of coupons especially if you live in or near a major metro area. I’ll post up the link for the good folks over there.
7 Reasons Why I Hate Christianity
- The people who make up Christianity are determined to be ‘in the world, but not of the world’ so much that they are overwhelmingly compelled to form sub-cultures to suit their separateness. I’m a fan of Christian books and a few musical selections, but do we really need absolutely everything to have an ixthus on it?
- Even though Jesus tells us that we are to love God and love people, we spend our time “loving God” and judging people.
- Boycotting any institution, business, people group or soft drink has never solved any of the world’s problems, but yet Christians insist on continually boycotting stuff. If you really want organizations of any kind to change, why don’t you get involved? Get on the City Council, sit on the Board of Directors, start a business…Just stop boycotting. It makes those of us who actually love God and love people look really bad.
- Why are we insistent upon having alternatives to ‘pagan’ holidays? We take the one day a year where the entire neighborhood comes to your house, knocks on your door, and asks you for a treat and hold a ‘harvest festival’ at our churches. This is one of the dumbest things I can think of. Halloween is probably the second most important Christian holiday. Oh, by the way, don’t hand out some stupid tract with the candy. Be creative. Tracts are dumb. I’ve never heard of anyone accepting Christ because of a tract. If you really want to reach out, have a haunted house in your basement or garage. Do something cool not just for the kids but for the parents.
- For the most part, we have no idea who our neighbors are. My neighbors are difficult to get to know, but I’m working on it. Do you know yours?
- It is trendy in Churches to be ‘relevant’. Relevance is relative. Are you relevant to your culture or someone else’s? That is where the rubber meets the road…What is relevant in Rochester, MN is not relevant in San Diego, CA.
- Finally, I hate that I cannot even call myself a Christian without negative connotations. I love Jesus. I follow his leading in my life. I learn from the way that he did life and ministry. I don’t follow the people who follow him because many of them suck. I suck sometimes too, but the difference is that I realize it, learn from it and don’t do it again.
Kentucky Megachurch to Send ‘Jesus Loves You’ Letters to Britney Spears
The Christian Post reports that Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY is sending love letters to Brit. They are joining together to reach out to someone who professes a faith of sorts at a time when she needs love the most. Pretty interesting, actually. I’m not sure why they chose Britney over all the people out there, but I’m glad they are. I really do hope they follow through on their message of love and not condemnation. I’ve spent some time praying for the lady myself. She apparently grew up knowing God in some way and has evidently strayed from. Part of the liberties that The United States of America offer is the right of personal privacy. Sure, Britney and throngs of others have chosen lives that are very much public, but that doesn’t deny them the right to privacy. There are countless celebs that successfully separate their public lives from their private lives, so what makes Brit and some others different? Let us call it rubbernecking. Ever wonder why cars back up for miles and miles when there is a car accident? People like to see the damage and are by nature curious to see what is going on. Train wrecks naturally cause a scene.
What Britney and others like her need is for some people to just drive by and not look at the wreck that their lives have become. What they need is people like the folks at Southland to say that Jesus loves you and so do we.
Britney, Jesus does love you and your kids. He even loves FedEx. Oh yeah, God is a he.
