Sitting In Lynden

Ask the Pastor: How Do I Forgive?

2011-07-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

The sermon from Sunday's "Ask the Pastor" is now available here

If this helps you realize your normal and its ok to have a hard time forgiving someone, your most welcome.

I'm sorry if you were looking to make this process easy and I offered little help.

Testing the Blogger app

2011-07-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

This is the picture test

My Gear, Internet Monk reply post

2009-04-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

My "gear" is real simple. A candle (usually scented vanilla), a Bible, and my knotted cross prayer rope. The prayer rope was originally just a cross necklace that I tied knots into. The knots I use to pray the Jesus Prayer while the cross and the large knot I payer the Lord's Prayer.

Blog Revival

2009-04-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome Facebook users.

Honestly I'm quite surprised that this blog wasn't deleted by Blogger. After the disillusion (rather disillusionment) of MySpace as a blogging site that any of my friends were willing to participate in, I was forced over to facebook which is wholly inadequate for a bloggers needs. So here I am again, "Sitting in Lynden", typing my heart a way. Feel free to read, comment, and comeback often.

-Brendan

Internet Monk

2009-04-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

I definitely recomend that you book mark, www.InternetMonk.com . This blog site is great for us walking in the "post-evangelical wilderness".

2007-07-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Preemptive Nuclear War?

2005-09-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Check this out! I can't believe that the Pentagon is actually considering a preemptive nuclear strike! As if we didn't have enough credibility problems with the rest of the world concerning the accuracy of our military intelligence. Here are the links to the Washington Post articles about this topic.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053_pf.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/14/AR2005051400071_pf.html

Evangelism and Social Action

2005-06-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

I just found this great article that speaks about what evanglism should be. I have often struggled with the role of evangelism in acts of social justice and vis versa. I believe that this article describes a way for Christians to do both ethically. Check it out by clicking on the title of this message.

United Nations International Peace Day Invitation

2005-06-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just got invited to be a speaker at this years annual United Nations International Peace Day event here in Bellingham, WA. This event is sponsored by the Whatcom County Peace and Justice Center, a place that is focused on building bridges between people to work for the common goal of peace and justice. They invited me to come and speak as a representative of the Evangelical community. I'm not sure what I'll speak about but I've got plenty of time since it's not until September. Check out the center's website and email me about what you think.

A House Divided...

2005-06-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

...cannot stand! Words spoken by Christ and quoted by Abraham Lincoln. Two of my favorite historical figures, and their words ring true today! What shall become of the United States if we see no importance in uniting our house. It is time for people to have honest and open discussion about the values they hold dear, and to actually listen to people with different values. I'm so sick of the demonization of people with different views. Right or Left, NO ONE is without error! Our pride and arrogence we must surrender if we are not only to survive but also prosper.

The Multiplicity of the Christian’s Personality

2005-06-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

About three years ago I discovered that, which is probably already known to parents, almost all high school students suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder. Teenagers are very rarely if ever consistently consistent. Through out the course of a day a teenager may manifest several clearly distinct personalities. These personalities include but are not limited to; 1) Who they are at home, 2) who they are with friends, 3) who they are at school with their friends, 4) who they are at school separated from their friends, 5) who they are in the classroom, 6) who they are at church, 7) who they are with their friend’s parents, 8) who they are in public around peers, 9) who they are in public in the absence of peers, 10) who they are around extended family, and finally 11) who they are when they are able to be “themselves”. These personalities are so different that many parents are quite shocked when they get a chance to witness them all in action.

This multiplicity of personality can be spiritually damaging to the child, teaching them it’s ok to have an inconsistent character. And what’s worse is that our modern American society reinforces this behavior. The fact is that society (and the Church is a part of this society) rewards kids who are able to separate the different facets of their life. The kids are who they are with their friends so that they can be accepted and have fun. They are who they are with their family so that they can be accepted (or at least not get in trouble). They are who they are in public so they won’t be rejected and laughed at. And they are who they are at church so that God will still accept them and also not get in trouble. But the crux in all this is that they cannot be accepted in any one of these circles while playing by the rules of another circle. So thus they become multiple people so that they can succeed in their life. When these children become adults they ultimately realize the cliché, “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” and thus they settle on the behavioral trends that will help them succeed in life where they find most valuable, forsaking all others. But this does not solve the problem.

We as adults still suffer from the effects of modern society’s call to be double-minded or multi-personality’d, if you will. After all are we still not different people when it comes to work, home, and church? Many people have admitted that they would be ashamed of themselves if someone from church were to witness their behavior on a typical work day, and vise versa. This is a most disturbing trend, and not necessarily because of the character gap shown by the difference in behaviors. No, this is disturbing because we are quite comfortable relegating the teachings of Christ to a certain area of our life. It’s not that we don’t believe that the teachings are good and right, we just don’t believe it’s possible to always follow them. We have stated with our lives that Matthew 5-7 are great for a couple days a week, and for times of spiritual reflection. But we have refused to believe that they are precepts that we can follow at all times. We as adult Christians lack the faith to believe that we are really not suppose to worry about what we should eat, drink or wear (Matt. 6:25-34). We as adult Christians lack the faith necessary to believe that turning the other cheek will work (Matt. 5:38-42). We as adult Christians lack the faith necessary to see that we are at fault as often as the ones we blame (Matt. 7:1-6). We as adult Christians lack the faith necessary to believe that peacemakers will be anyone of impact on the world (Matt. 5:9). And we lack the faith necessary to see that God will provide us with all that we need (Matt. 7:7-12). Is it any wonder why our children are different people when it comes to being at church in being in the world.

The cure for this illness is simple yet difficult. When working with teenagers I take them to the Sermon on the Mount. Then I began to unravel the mystery on how these teachings can possibly be correct. We begin to see what Jesus teaches is the very key to life, all life. Jesus teaches us how to act without ever letting us tell him when his teachings are relevant and when they are not. For Christ is relevant no matter what our circumstances are. I then encourage the kids to try living the way Christ taught us in the Sermon on the Mount (and in the rest of the Gospels) in the different facets of life. For the kids who persevere in this, we begin to see a melding of the fractured personality. These kids begin to become one person in many circumstances instead of different people depending upon the circumstance. That which is true of those teenagers can also be true for us. For the same Spirit that empowers them to live a life that follows the Sermon on the Mount, will empower us to do the same…if we ask and persevere. It is a struggle, but it is the way God wishes to be honored. I pray that each one of us finds the strength to believe in Christ and his teachings, so that we may heal our fractured personalities.

What Happen's When We Are too Busy to Think?

2005-05-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

What happens when we are too busy to think? We let others do it for us. I understand as people living in today's world, many of us can spare a free minute to breath but what should become of us if we rely to heavily upon other people as our source of truth and information in this world? This I fear is not a new sickness but rather a cronic disease in the brain of humanity that will surely be the demise of our modern society. This disease spurs many dibiltating symptons like group think, mob mentality, inbread thought, and the infamous peer pressure. The destruction that these symptoms cause is readily evident in the anals of warfare and oppression by society.
When will we learn that we cannot and must not trust any side of any story until we find out the whole story? Whether a discussion it is about war, scandles, politics, news, or religion we must remember that most sources of information are flawed and are therefore possibly wrong. When will we admit the fact that we (ourselves) are flawed and therefore prone to error? In other words when will we admit that we are sometimes wrong? I believe we will do this when we learn to think for ourselves.

But that's just what I think, afterall I could be wrong!