Number 1

I like Podcasts.  Really.  Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is a satirical comedy about the weeks news broadcast on your local NPR stations to approximately 3 million listeners. A further 1 million download the podcast version to listen later - for me it's while I drive around the 400 or so miles I do each week.  And for us Brits living far far away (or anyone with taste and culture really) the BBC has an amazing variety of Podcasts that I listen to. More political humor here, and a review of the days sport here.  It is not all about the mainstream shows though, I subscribe to Rob Bells church sermons here, and enjoy tech podcasts from TWIT here.

Number 2

I also like apps.  I have the iPhone and had an iPad (both things I like btw) and it is the apps that make those devices so brilliant.  I've one in particular I'd like to share. BibleXpress.  It is the best Bible app I know.  Not web based which can be important if you go to camps and other events off the grid like me.  There are 7 diverse translations - including The Message and English Standard Version.  The ability to book mark passages in folders like "hospital" or "favorites" or "sermon prep" or verses referenced during a seminar or something is a valuable feature for me. But this app comes into its own on the iPad. It is about the best Bible I have ever seen. One advantage of this app too is that it goes seamlessly across the iPhone and iPad platforms.  It does cost $29.99 (so the price of a real Bible), but there is a lite version with the same features, just without the copyrighted Bible versions - which you can then buy individually. 

And . . .

It is not all good though. There is one thing I do not like! I know I can be accused of being an Apple fan boy. But, here's the thing. There are some things apple does that makes me wonder what else is out there, so every now and then I go take a look. The kindle has got my attention, especially since the recent price drops. But you can't go into a store and pick one up and just play with it. But you can go into a Barns and Noble store and pick up a Nook, their equivalent, and play with that. Coming from the apple world, it is just awful. I know it is much cheaper. But let me tell you, it is much cheaper. I kept hitting things that didn't do anything. Only the bottom screen is a touch screen, and in the few minutes I played with it, the whole interface drove me crazy. I am sure I'd get used to it, but it felt like such a step backwards, I saw no reason not to take one step further back, and stick with an actual book - which I still like, as even the iPad does not let me underline and scribble on a good read like I like to.

You know what?  He just never said that.  He does not make mistakes.  And he made me and he made you.  

There are quite a few things going on in and around my world - here are a few of the highlights:

You can visit and download all 4 parts of "Losing Your Religion" here.  This has been a sermon series I finished last weekend, and has been well received.  I am expecting to do a bit more on this topic in the future.

Upcoming Messages:

Sept. 4 - Leading with your head v's leading with your heart.  The answer is of course both, but I'll look at the trouble we get in when we do it all wrong.

Sept 11 - As our country remembers 9/11 and reflects on much of what is wrong with our world, my church is holding a community service day. Before we go out, I'll be sharing a message called "The Minuscule Difference".  We might only make a small difference in the pain and suffering of this world. But you know... it is only a small difference that brings it in the first place.  I hope this message will both be difficult and easy, challenging and inspiring all at the same time.

Just for fun:

I am planning on attending Youth Specialties in San Diego this October. I will also be following this up with a short trip to the channel Islands for a little time away.

God is Good.

Verse: I Chronicles 16.34

God seems so hard to see sometimes. But he wants to reveal himself to you.  Dueteronomy 4.29 - "But even there you can look for the Lord your God, and you will find him if you look for him with your whole being".

God is good. In this verse in Chronicles, David is giving thanks because the Ark is back safe and sound in Israel. And David sees that God is good because despite all that has happened, God is still there.  For Gods love lasts forever.  

We look for goodness and love in a lot of places that are what we might term - conditional. And this leads to pain - for the people we want love from, in turn need love as much as we do. So we end up playing tricks, and manipulating, and doing anything to get our own way and feel loved. God is bigger than this. God is good.  And has a "no matter matter what" clause to his love. 

Want to see God?  Check out his true, lasting, goodness. For he is good. 

I took this sign while waiting to order my subway sandwich one day. It's not the customers only part that caught my attention - nor the picture of the man and woman on the same door. It's the small print at the bottom of the white sign that says:

"Please Help Keep It Clean".

What a great philosophy for life. You don't have to be religious to see how this can bring value to a community. In fact it is my experience that religious people often have a real problem with this idea. In a world where we think Jesus'll take care of it, and one day everything will be ok, we forget that the greatest gift Jesus offers is to partner with him. In caring for the world, each other, and yes, even offering salvation. 

So today, I take this well intentioned sign a step further. And offer to be part of your community. And invite you to be part of mine. 

I do not have my sermons on this site, but you can follow along at my churches site at slochurch.org or click directly to the page here.

You'll find the first 3 of a 4 part series on "Losing You Religion" posted there right now. This has been an important subject in the life of my church.  The New Testament asks us over and over again to lose our religion, and yet what we have done more often than not is start a new one every time our old religion fails us. If you listen along, you will be invited to follow Jesus.  And Jesus did not come to start a religion.

I will finish the series this Sabbath.

Of course, Jesus did say - If you love me, keep my commandments.  He does say that, but we seem to insist that others love him, even when Jesus insists on no such thing.  We need to stop validating ourselves, our spirituality and our relationship with Jesus by burdening others. It's a pollution of the gospel. 

John 14.15 if you want to go take a look.

I ended up taking a bit of a break from a lot of things this summer.  But I am getting ready to post regularly again.  Over the summer I got a picture of Church I'd like to be part of, and I'll be sharing some of that here soon.  Don't forget, you can follow along on facebook and twitter too - /StephenEastwood at both.

I am at Camp Meeting - and I've a feeling my next few posts will be influenced by my experiences here.

I am on something of spiritual high at the moment. Making a decision can be extremely powerful, and I feel God directing in my life in ways I have not called my own for some time. So while my usual dread of camp meeting still exists, and while the tents are clearly not the Marriot... (that list could go on a while), I shall be connecting to God here, and I will see everything in context of my call and mission, and hopes for my life.  

So I thought I'd hang out at the prayer sessions - at least a few of them. Other people's prayers can frustrate me sometimes.  Their view of God can feel small, and I need a big God (I need my view to be expressed - it's a selfish thing I know).  But I am open.  Free to be inspired and helped as I enter a very defined new chapter in my life.  

But here's the thing (isn't there always a thing?). I am a single Dad and my kids are coming to camp meeting. I am grateful to my parents for coming along to help out - because I am here to work, and I just would not be able to fulfill my duties, and take care of my children. But when I am not working, I think it is going to be important to be Dad, and help my children through the - not exactly the Marriot issues! And prayer happens at wake up time, and going to bed time. And then in the middle of the day between meetings time.

And why shouldn't it? I've a feeling that prayer has been set at these times so that nothing else official is going on right then. A good idea - but means of course that lots of retired, childless, uninvolved parents can attend. But here is the kicker I thought of this morning - I happen to know one of the biggest prayer topics spoken of here are for children "who have left the faith".  I get that - I do.  We pray when we run out of options, and can't handle things on our own. We pray when the other conversations stop. I have done that in so many walks of life.  

But here is the irony for the day - our camp meeting prayer times are set when parents of kids still at home are unlikely to be able to make it. And I was just thinking that it sure would be nice to pray for our children while we still have them... while faith is being formed, while we are still very much part of their conversation. I wonder if there could be a prayer time while the kids are in their meetings (except then the praying parents would not be in their meetings. Hmmm).  

Prayer can be such a vital, humbling, beautiful tool before we reach for the emergency button. So look deep into your life today, maybe while praying, and look for what you cannot (readily) see.

But... here's the other thing? If we changed the times so that parents, single or otherwise, could come - would we go? There's a big chance we wouldn't. Mostly because we are busy, need a nap, and the crisis has not hit us yet.  

I read today about the opening of a new viewpoint overlooking, in dramatic fashion, the highest peaks in Germany. The AlpspiX reminds of something similar over the Grand Canyon, though for would be visitors to that particular attraction, be warned - it is some 100 + miles from the actual state park!

Not every one is thrilled by this feat of engineering however... and you can see the story by clicking over to this BBC link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10504888.stm

It got me thinking though:

Over the last couple of weeks, my church has made a pretty dramatic shift in it's selection of leaders. A shift many see as backwards. It is hard to argue that. Some in my church have tried to shed things they would call unimportant and a block to sharing the real message - thus enabling us to be the very luke warm described in Revelation to the church in Laodicia. Others in my church see these things not as hurdles, but as fundamental, and the very thought of removing them makes them quote the exact same chapter and verse. Both sides call themselves Biblical. Funny that. Maybe they are, I just wish we could say that in a way that did not sound like we are calling the other side unBiblcal.  

So... back to the story of the new German viewpoint. Evidently up to 1000 people every day are coming to this attraction. That's hundreds of people riding a cable car and seeing something that had previously been reserved for the fittest and best mountain climbers. Not every one sees this as positive however.

The mountain climbers - the ones who train, eat right, and maintain their bodies in tip top condition are a bit ticked.  Enough to protest the opening, having failed to stop the project along the way at every turn. Their feeling is that this influx of people diminishes the full experience.  Maybe they are right.  But it sounds big brotherish - as in big brother in the prodigal son story. It turns out the mountain climbers did not own the mountain. In the same way that Bible readers do not own the Bible. The message of the Bible is given to all.

It is easy to want things for ourselves, whether it is a good view, or a church that makes us feel right at home. 

So to my new leaders...

You might be holier, you might elevate what you call the spirit of prophecy, you might live a purer life, you might cut out all the unclean things, and you might keep the sin out of the organization - and these things might be all the right things. I for one will not argue them. But my appeal is that you get of your holier than thou perch, and join the rest of the world. Because when we do... we might connect the good to desperate, the healer to the sick. And when we do that, in good old fashioned Adventist speak - "maybe we can go home soon."  

Matthew 28.19-20 tells about Jesus followers being called to go into all the world (all groups of people). Can we assume this is the one in front of us as well as behind us.