random religious ramblings

3 random thoughts (not necessarily religious, but wanted to roll with the "r" theme) from the weekend...

• i was surfing last week and found an interesting response to the political events of the last week...from The Message version...

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.

please note it does not say that we have to agree with our government or leaders, or that we even have to like them, but it does say we should pray for them. i've heard many express their dislikes about the ideal and plans of some recently elected officials. i respect those opinions, however, instead of gripping and complaining about how much we dislike a political leader, why don't we try following the above passage.

• my church has a home. for the past 3ish years, we've been renting a movie theater on the west side of cincinnati, and most recently started having a saturday night service at another location. many hours were spent setting up, tearing down, and transporting equipment all over the west side. yesterday we officially held our last sunday morning service in the theater. it was a bit nostalgic...thinking about how we won't have to get up at 6am anymore, or set everything up and tear everything down every week, or that we won't have sticky candy, gummy candies, or rats under our feet anymore! i got to participate in the last service...it was great...quite an honor actually, to think about where our church body has come, and where it is headed. truly a God moment.

• i invited an atheist to church this weekend. he came, really he did. no gripping, no kicking and screaming. he even seemed to have fun (i could be totally wrong). i invited him to come back. we'll see what happens.