haiti, m'ap vini!

that means "Haiti, I'm coming" (at least I think i got that right).

I'm going to Haiti in 2 days to visit my sister! I'm so excited! I get to see the place she calls "home", Three Angel's Orphanage. If you haven't looked at her blog you need to: http://angelainhaiti.blogspot.com/ and the blog for the orphanage is great too! http://threeangelshaiti.blogspot.com/ And, of course the website for the orphanage itself: http://www.threeangelshaiti.org/ (Note: if you have ever considered adoption, or even if you never have, your heart will be strongly tugged by the pictures, stories, and videos that can be seen on the aforementioned webpages. A very high percentage of people who have viewed these webpages have strongly desired to adopt one or all of them!)

My sister's favorite verse is James 1:27 which says, "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." This is what my sister is doing! She is "visiting" and caring for and providing for orphans, "the least of these" (and also the cutest of these).

Please pray for my trip, I hope to post pictures upon my return.

functional atheist

I enjoy the blogging world. There's a lot of insight, encouragement and knowledge to be gained.

I was just looking through my ever-growing bookmarks of blogs and I saw a title on Joshua Harris' blog that caught my attention: Do Not Be Wise In Your Own Eyes. It caught my attention because in Phase 2 (the High School ministry at OEFC) I have been preaching through Romans. We are now in Romans 12 and I just preached on Romans 12:3 which says, "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith." I also went to verse 16: "Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation." (NASB) . We talked about pride and not being wise in our own eyes, so I wanted to see what Josh had to say on this subject.

As I was reading through his post a term he used caught my attention. He said, "When my view of Him is clouded, when I’m a functional atheist, I will trust and applaud my own wisdom."

I don't think I've ever heard that term before but it makes complete sense. Am I a functional atheist? Are you a functional atheist?

A "functional" atheist wouldn't be a true atheist. A true atheist would deny the existence of any supernatural power whenever you asked him. But a "functional" atheist would acknowledge the existence of God and possibly even realize the need to submit to His will, but, by his lifestyle he would functionally be an atheist: you wouldn't be able to tell by his actions and attitudes that he believed in God and admitted the need to follow Him.

Are you a functional atheist? Do you believe in God and even confess that you should follow Him, but do not live this out in your daily life? Does your verbal assent have a noticeable effect on your moment by moment decisions, actions and attitudes?