In the wake of the fires that have burned since Sunday and are still burning, it seems appropriate that this week’s sermon is titled “Why Do Good Things Happen To Good People”. Every time a major catastrophe occurs — Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Terrorist Attacks, Fires, Gunman opening fire on a college campus — you hear people ask this question.

And I don’t think there is an answer that is going to make anyone feel good or satisfied, but we all know that bad things happen, that everyone goes through horrid experiences. Even though I’m not directly impacted by these fires — I know people who had to evacuate, but no one that lost their home — I can only imagine what it would be to lose everything, to feel safe and secure in your home, and then to have that stripped away.

So I’d like to share a song with you that I think is especially appropriate at a time like this, and also gives a glimpse of hope. It’s called “Sorrow” by Bad Religion, and you can see it performed here or you can check out the lyrics below.

Father, can you hear me?
How have I let you down?
I curse the day that I was born,
And all the sorrow in the world…

Let me take you to the herding ground,
Where all good men are trampled down,
Just to settle a bet that could not be won,
Between a prideful father and his son.

Well you guard me now for I cant see,
A reason for this suffering and this long misery.
What if every living soul could be upright and strong?
Well, then I do imagine there will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.

When all soldiers lay their weapons down,
Or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crown,
Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves…
Its easy to imagine there will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.

There will be
Sorrow.
Yeah there will be
Sorrow .
And there will be
Sorrow, no more.

I’m sure many of you, like myself, do not have an overflowing trough of financial resources. Despite this, there are still some easy ways to help you to live below your means and save up some money. I found a blog that provides 10 Ways To Live Beneath Your Means. In reading this article, I don’t think any of the 10 suggestions were anything extreme, but they are helpful ways to cut your cost of living.

While some of us don’t have a house, aren’t married, and don’t have children, it’s never a bad idea to spend money wisely and not put more financial strain on ourselves than we need to.

Did anyone else wake up to find that their car was covered in ash? I did. I even woke up to realize that I left my car window down overnight (stupid!!) and my dashboard had a little bit of ash on it too. Won’t ever do that again.

I went to Saturday Church last night with Lauren since she has to volunteer during OverDrive. For the first time in a looong time I saw a sermon live, which was quite a change from watching the DVD sermon. It is interesting to notice the difference in the rooms that each of our venues take place in — and the way that each room influences the style of the service. But it was a good change of pace to actually sit in Live for a service.

And there was a musician there to sing special music that looked like Jim from The Office. I actually never got a good look at his face because I sat so far back in the auditorium, but from the haircut you could see the resemblance.

Stephen Colbert has announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Check it out here

I think I know where my vote’s going now.

I ran across an ABC News Report about Child Preachers. When I was 7 I was busy thinking about baseball and spelling tests, not what anecdote I was going to use to illustrate what Jesus meant in his Sermon on the Mount. I didn’t understand what it meant to follow Jesus — all I understood was that Jesus had a hard time sticking to that felt board.

This is a really interesting story though — is it possible that these kids are called by God to preach at such a young age? It seems impossible that a 7 year old has enough life experience to make sense of what it means to live a life like Jesus said. If it was me at age 7 preaching, I wouldn’t be able to do much more than sing “Jesus Loves Me” and probably give the same prayer we used to say at the dinner table. These kids have a lot of spunk, though.

And as ridiculous as it would seem to go to church every Sunday to hear a second-grader preach, this story hits on an interesting point. Obviously someone that young isn’t going to know everything about the Bible like someone who has been through seminary. But maybe there’s another part of being a pastor that is about engaging people to think about what the Bible has to say. Being a pastor isn’t always feeding people information about how to live their lives, but also to stir something within people.

Mike, I hope you’re getting Isaac ready to preach by age 7. And Kate too.

This is something Roger always seems to fit in to his sermons on relationships and marriage, and now science is beginning to discover the same thing.

It turns out that a bad marriage can really wear down your health, specifically your heart. So it goes without saying, “Happy Wife, Happy Life.”

As we move on into fall, it is coming up on Halloween. And one of my favorite things to see (and not necessarily do) is Pumpkin Carving. Finding the right pumpkin is half the battle, and the last couple years Lauren and I have gone to a pumpkin patch off PCH near Second St. It’s a great little place to find a pumpkin, although the knives don’t quite measure up. But when it comes to actually carving the pumpkin, Lauren is a lot better than I am.

You see, my parents have not gifted me with the ability to create great works of art, so when I do carve pumpkins, it’s with the use of stencils. Gasp! I know that’s cheating, but it’s better than trying to figure out my own design.

So here are a few websites for you to find stencils for your pumpkin carving experience, along with some pictures of some of the jack-o-lanterns you might find around Halloween time.

• Pumpkin Carving 101
• Extreme Pumpkins
• The Pumpkin Wizard
• Pumpkin Masters
• The Pumpkin Lady
• Pumpkin Gutter

And you of course need to know how to make the “Jesus Pumpkin”. So here is a site with the instructions.

The guys from KISS

Homer J. Simpson

Super Mario

Happy Pumpkin Carving!

Yesterday’s message from Roger explored the reasons behind a lot of the messed up things that happen in our world, and we even included the popular John Mayer song that laments these things. One of the important points in the message was that unlike the song, which repeats the line “waiting on the world to change”, we as Jesus Followers are empowered by God to bring Heaven to Earth.

Too often, it seems, we focus on John 3:16 as the center of Jesus’ message and live in anticipation of life after death. For sure, this is a promise we can count on, but at the center of Jesus’ message in the Gospels is that the Kingdom of God has come near. We see in the “Lord’s Prayer” the line “your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

This idea is central to those who follow Jesus, and I think it goes a long way in counteracting the ways in which the world has been messed up. We each can help bring Heaven on Earth by living out the life that Jesus led before us.

Yes, that’s right. There is a new event, and it involves eating. More importantly, it involves the people of the Somethings ministry hanging out together and getting to know one another better.

The Somethings is mainly made up of small groups and there aren’t a lot of opportunities to hang out with each other outside of small group, so we do these events to provide those opportunities.

So this Sunday, October 7th, we are going to all go out to lunch at the Town Center (on Carson St towards the 605) in the food court. For some reason, a nice lunch after church just sounds right on a Sunday, so we thought it’d be cool to invite everyone.

We’re hoping that we can do this the first Sunday of each month in order to make it a regular event. See you Sunday!