Joel Osteen

What do you think of him, and preachers like him?
I have mixed feelings.
Every Sunday morning, as the wife and I get ready to go to church, I turn the TV on to watch Joel Osteen. I don't know why I started doing this, but it's been about 3 months that I have been doing this.

I just don't know what to make of him and others like him. For me, his messages rarely go deeper than the surface of the scripture that he is using. It's very seeker oriented, but it never seems to have an outlet to go deeper.

But here's the most disturbing thing that I've noticed about his telecast last Sunday.
He doesn't seem to have a cross in the church. Maybe he does and it just doesn't show on the screen, but what I do notice is a big globe rotating in the background.
You may not think it's a big deal, but it struck me a little odd.

And I think that's one problem I have with Seeker Friendly churches. Most of the seeker churches do a good job of providing ways to go deeper in their faith, because one can't always be a seeker.
But a few churches don't provide ways to get deeper, and I feel, at times, they replace the cross with something easier to handle and carry. A church here doesn't have a cross at all, instead they replaced it with a dove.
Sure I may be reading way too much into this, but it just felt odd.

If anyone stops by and reads this, let me know what you think.

Lack of Updates

We're in the process of moving into the new house.
I have no internet access at the new place yet. So it's getting in the way of wasting time on the internet (which is one of my favorite things to do).

i just thought i'd update the few of you.

I'm about to go down to Waipahu to pick up an armoir (i have no idea what that is, or if it even is spelled correctly). This church member is donating it to us, so we'd took him up on the offer.

It's nice getting settled in and stuff.

Can't wait til everything is set up...

It's Wednesday

This week is moving slow. Or actually i feel like i'm moving slow.
I just feel lazy, and that's not good.
I have all these things to do, but i'm putting it off. Which is real bad.

Today, our bed comes in. Yay. I guess then we can start living in the new place. We spent all of yesterday cleaning up the place. That was a lot more tiring than i thought.

Today, i missed Mass. Not because i slept in, but because my brother took a shower this morning. By the time he came out, it was already too late.
So instead, i read a little scripture and spent time in prayer. But no gym. haha. It's raining. I didn't feel like going out.

I just have tons of things to do.
I have to prepare 3 sermons and a bible study.
We have our praise night this Friday, and i'm going to give a short message. I'm looking forward to this praise night. It's been a while since we had one.
The praise night message, i think, will be about love and worship.

And then i have the two Sunday sermons to prepare for.
In other words, i have no time to dilly dally.
but dilly-dallying is one of my favorite things to do.

This picture really touched me.
Although Dwight Howard was totally jobbed from the dunk contest. (MJ, what were you thinking?)


I can do everything through him who gives me strength

Another Update

today, we got a call saying that our application for the house we wanted were accepted and that we could move in this weekend.
We originally wanted to buy a house, but that proved to be too expensive, especially in Hawaii. it's ridiculously expensive. So we decided to rent, and this house was the best one that we saw.
So starting this weekend, no longer in our parent's house and no longer have to share a twin size bed.

On another note, today at Ala Moana, we saw the guy that plays Sawyer on Lost. he was walking really fast. i didn't have a camera. so we just stared at him and his Asian date walking away from us. He was walking fast.

=)

Nothing Important to Say

I'm just a little tired from the weekend.
I have nothing to post. Today was supposed to be my day off, but it sure didn't feel like it.
I met with my mentor to kick off the candidacy process. better late than never.

there just seems to be so much unnecessary stuff...

We also had River of Life tonight. It's a homeless shelter, and every other month, we go help serve dinner to the less fortunate.

I guess what bothers me about that is some of the adults that we work with feel good about their work that they did that day.
i'm sure it's helpful, but it's such a small amount.
i'm grateful that they come out and help, but we shouldn't go home thinking that we did enough.

I'm trying to shop around my Les Paul Special Humbucker guitar to see what i can trade it in for, or how much i can get with it. (something in my heart tells me to be happy with what i have).
I love the guitar, but i'm leaning a little bit towards Fender guitars right now.
But if i can't find a good deal, i'll definitely be happy with my "Baby."


I'm sorry i wasted your time. My mind is just tired, and i need to go to bed.

Caramel Macchiato

I think the caffeine from my macchiato is keeping me awake.
it's 212 am, and i can't fall asleep. the wife fell asleep awhile ago. and it was making me upset that she was breathing loudly and off to dream land while i lie in bed and watch the minutes pass by.
it doesn't help that at this moment, we're still in my parent's house, and have to share my bed as a youth, which is a twin size bed.
i may end up sleeping on the floor... at least she's sleeping. one of us needs a good night's sleep.
it's just that in 7 hrs, i'll be heading towards my messy office (which i hate to be in. i don't know why i keep office hours during the school year. all the youth are in school... )

i don't like staying awake at nights because my mind starts to wander. and a lot of times, it wanders to places i never like to visit.

I wish i could go to bed. i can't do much because i don't want to wake up the wife. she tends to get cranky when i do.

i feel like i have so many things to do this week, and the more i think about them, the more i can't sleep. i try not to think about church and stuff. but i can't help it.
ultimately, all my late night thoughts come back to God. and from there, church usually follows.

we're in the middle of house hunting.
hawaii's just too darn expensive. i just feel ill of the though of paying for a 300,000+ house that has 3 rooms and is 1000 sq ft in size. yea.

but we need to move out soon. it'll do both of our sanities well.

well, as i soon i press "publish" i am going to go (quietly) back into our twin size bed, which the wife right now has a commanding possession of the bed space... and just count the sheep.

i wish you all a better night.