Lone Ranger

"It is not good for the man to be alone." Genesis 2:18

God knows our hearts better than we know ourselves. He created us to be in companionship. And after this verse in Genesis, God continues to create animals to find a suitable companion, but as they are presented before Adam to be named; none of them are like Adam. Adam is roaming around on two legs with all these animals on four. It is quite understandable when you think about it.

Therefore, God created another human, not in the same fashion as he made every other living creature, but directly from the rib of man and formed with dust and breathed into just. Like. Adam. Was.

When God presented the newest creation before Adam, it is recorded: "At Last!" Someone who is exactly like me! Adam was ecstatic! We can't even begin to imagine the feelings that Adam felt right at that moment. Because none of us have ever been the only man on earth stuck with all the animals.

After this, the author makes reference to marriage and how the man will leave his father's household to be united with his wife. This is very clear throughout scripture and is practiced by the Jewish community and has been until a man named Paul comes on stage as the lone ranger.

Paul writes, "...I wish everyone were single, just as I am. But God gives to some the gift of marriage, and to others the gift of singleness." I Corinthians 7:7

What does Paul mean here? We can see very clearly in Genesis that man is meant to be united with woman and yet Paul is telling those in Corinth that it is better to be single. This is one of the great paradoxes of the Bible. Should we be married or should we not be married?

Yes.

God knows that we were created for companionship with one another.

Paul is writing to the sexual immorality issues happening in Corinth.

Context is key. Later on, Paul says that it is better for man to unite a woman in marriage than to burn with lust.

There was no sin in the time of Genesis.

There was much sin in the time of Paul's letter to the Corinthians.

To wrap it all up, Paul was the greatest lone ranger in all of history and we can all live by his example in terms of Christianity and being a witness to the ends of the world.

Presence

In this day and age ministry is fluctuating a ton. There are things that often times keep us so busy in the world that we forget that we are not of the world. It is really hard to work in youth ministry now-a-days because youth are kept so busy with sports and other extra curricular activities that they can't even have dinner with their families.

Maybe there is a way to combine ministry with athletic training or drama practice? I'm not sure. I think it may be time for the Church to rethink programming and emphasize relationship building through presence. I'm starting to look at going to athletic events and drama performances and having open lunch with the high school students to build relationships and show them that there really is interest in what they are doing.

We don't need to take the high school students away from their activities, we need to take the presence of Christ to their activities.

I get depressed whenever there are two or three or four kids at events that I take time to plan. But maybe I'm expecting too much in just having the event available and rather I should go where they are.

Fish Galore!

So it was time that I got something to keep me company over the next year as I live in a three bedroom house all alone. So I decided to purchase an aquarium and several fish to go with it. I have 9 danios of differing varieties and each one has its own personality (chase the other fish!)

Here is a video that I took of them.

God as a Child

So in memory of Rooted, which is a college Bible study group that meets weekly, I am going to tell you the oh so obviously fictitious story of God as a child.

One day as the sun rose on God's creation called earth, God decided to play a little game. God would take one thing and place it in two places at once and show His creation: "Look what I can do!" and He spun the electrons of a quark in San Fransisco and while the other quark in New York spun its electrons the same way at the same time. This had God's creation whirling with excitement and awe!
Then God got bored and as He heard His mother calling Him for dinner, He left earth spinning awaiting the next big happening.
After God finished dinner (and yes, God eats His vegetables!), He came back to earth and began playing with His creation again. This time He created an exotic meson that appeared in New York for a trillionth of a trillionth of a second and then disappeared. God made sure that only the highest authority of His creation knew of the appearance, however, everyone heard about the mysterious appearance and grew very wary.
God's mother came up to Him after He released the meson and put Him into a time-out for teasing His creation.

The End.


This story is not meant to offend anybody and is merely a fictitious story. I believe in an all-powerful God of grace and mercy who would never be portrayed like this in reality.

Here's to you Amy! (if you in fact are reading this post)