God often uses His gentle hands to violently dismantle the hideous construct our sin has built. Then He uses His strong hands to gently rebuild our lives in His glorious image.

Humility is the art of painting yourself out of the picture.

Living with humility is dying to your own agenda which allows the birth of God's plan in your life.

SUPER BO(W)LD

As the western hemisphere (well, at least the U.S.) gets ready for the biggest event on the advertising calendar--the Super Bowl--I am yearly amazed by its massive popularity. For prime time advertising during the Super Bowl, advertisers are paying up to $2.8 million dollars...for 30 seconds! This unbelievable amount of money for air space shows the audience density to watch this game--100 million viewers held captive for 3 hours. Advertisers are bold for their product, often pushing the boundaries of good taste and decency to get their product remembered.

The funny thing is that for most people who do not watch, or care, about football during the season, this game is special only because of the importance it has to those people in their life who really love the game. So for all the wives and girlfriends and others who would never watch 5 seconds of a game usually, they will watch this game because their acquaintances are so excited about it...and they like the funny commercials.

This got me to thinking about the things that people get excited about. I love football and played football most of my life and get excited to see a great game. But I know the game will only last a couple of hours and if it is a lame game then I will lose interest faster than that. I will invite people to my house to watch a game or spend $70 a month to have cable TV so I can get the games or put on special jerseys or buy special food for the game or cancel other obligations if the game is important enough.

All this for a game that will last about 2.5 hours. All this for a game that has no real bearing on my everyday life. All this for players and broadcasters and advertisers who don't care about me or my family or if I will drop dead tomorrow. All this excitement and focus for very little payoff. All this time and money for a piece of fleeting entertainment.

Am I bold with my 'Product'? Do I tell others about the Greatness of what I know? Do I get this excited about the things of God? Do I get this overwhelmed with looking forward to being at church hearing God's word and being with God's people? Do I arrange my schedule so nothing interferes with my time with Him and other believers? Do I spend my money on things that glorify Him and am I generous to the church so they can facilitate ministry? Do I really care about things that last more than 2.5 hours a year? Do I really focus on things that will go on into eternity or just some temporary entertainment that may or may not be exciting at all?

God is the ultimate excitement. Get excited for God. You are the advertising. The sacrifice Jesus paid for you was greater than $2.7 million...and His life lasts longer than 30 seconds. 

LOL. The humorous side of God's creatures...

"ALAN, ALAN, ALAN, ALAN, AL, ALAN..." "eh, John I don't think we are allowed to wee here..."

Pastor Jim from the Temple Mount!

This is the video we shot for Revive church while our crew was in Israel.

Science recognizes 'Noah's flood' but calls it 'the great dying'! Read this.

Talk about not being able to see the forest for the trees. Scientists see what they call a 'great dying' of a massive amount of animals (both land and aquatic), plant life (both land and aquatic) in a fossilized state.

No one knows how they got there. No one knows why land and sea creatures and land and sea plants got buried together in a massive graveyard. No one knows why some creatures survived the 'great dying' and others did not. No one knows why it hasn't happened again. No one knows why it happened the first time.

Read the AOL article here http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/22/fossil-find-shows-how-life-recovered-after-great-dying/?icid=main|hp-desktop|dl1|sec3_lnk3|191577&a_dgi=aolshare_email

The reality is that for something to become fossilized it takes a very specific set of parameters (quick burial, permanent sealing of the organism, mineral 'swap out' of organic material, etc.). In other words, something does not just 'die' and become a fossil. Though fossilization does not take a long time with the right circumstances, very few fossils are being made today. Why? Because it usually takes extraordinary circumstances to make a fossil. This is not to mention how land and sea creatures (as in 'millions') could be buried in the same place which is unheard of given the earth's current reality. This finding mirrors the 'Cambrian Explosion' fossil sites as well.

An excellent article on this fossilization phenomena is described here http://www.lewisdt.com/research/fossil3.html

Even the idea that volcanos or a huge meteor could have created a death scenario for the atmostphere of the earth to bring about death all over the earth does not explain fossilization. It just means there would have been a lot of carcasses to lay around and rot.

But the bible says in Genesis 7 that the fountains of the deep were opened which caused upheaval of the subterranian plates not only causing flooding but the quick burial of land and sea creatures together.

Read the tragic account of the earth's darkest days here. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+7&version=NIV

Yet again, modern scientific findings support the biblical story that has been around for 4000 years.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Science disproves evolution.

Check this out.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I found it oddly hilarious that scientific research has definitively concluded that a fully-matured chicken must have come first because in order to form the egg shell from which a chicken must develop, it first needs a protien only found in a hen's (female chicken) ovary. The only other option was...just a random egg sitting on the ground waiting to hatch to bring about 'chickendom'?

I also found the expression at the end of the Brian Williams video oddly hilarious as well when he reiterates that the scientists have not figured out where the first chicken came from. Although couched in humor, it shows how people are resistant to accept the plain testimony of Genesis where the uncreated God created all things 'up and running' with full grown adults capable of procreating.

Here is the article. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38238685/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Strange how science proves the premise of scripture.

Israel day 10 (click on any picture below for HD)

An old olive tree in the garden of Gethsemane (which means 'oil press') which is the place where Jesus spent His last night before He died. It was in this garden that He prayed if there might be another way for God's wrath to be satisfied than to be poured out on Him for the sin of the world. There was not. His Father sent Him to die out of this garden once He was arrested after being betrayed by Judas in Luke 22:39-54.

I am standing next to a first century example of the tomb Jesus was buried in after being tortured and killed on a cross. It was in here that Jesus spent three days (died on Friday, dead over the day of rest--Sabbath, then rose on the morning of Sunday, which is why most Christians get together for worship on that day) as told in Luke 24. Once He arose He went to tell His disciples who were so scared they were hiding lest they be crucified as well.

The front of the modern-day Mount of Olives (Gethsemane). There are thousands of above-ground tombs scattered all over the mountain. Mostly, these are people who believe they will be the first to resurrect when the Messiah appears. We know this as Jesus who will return to the Mount from which He left after leaving for heaven as recounted in Acts 1. I like the fervent belief.

The Lion's Gate (you can see the lions facing each other on each side of the door). This gate dates from the 1500's being built by the conquorer Suleiman. Once you enter, the Temple mount is directly to your left. It has no real biblical significance, I just thought the gate was cool!

This ends my tour of Israel. I will be posting more pictures when I get back to the States as well as keeping everyone updated on the over 40 videos we shot in the land from which many of these pictures were from the locations. You will be amazed to see these places all shot on location in high def!

Blessings!

Israel day 9

Our group at the stairs leading to the original entrance to the Temple on the south side. We are reading the Psalms of Ascent where Jewish pilgrims coming to worship on three festival days throughout the year would read Psalms 120-134 one at a time as they were on each step. These 15 steps of ascent would prepare the worshiper to enter God's presence and keep the person from rushing into God's presence unprepared.

Tracy, Barrett and I scouting out a shooting location on the wall built by the conquorer Sulemain to protect the city in the 1500's. We were trying to get a good spot to shoot the Hinnom valley that Jesus used as an illustration of hell in Matthew 10:28 as it had the city dump in it which was full of non-stop burning fires and worms that continually lived and bred in it.

Chris, Barrett and Tracy down in Hezekiah's Tunnel which he carved out of solid rock for over 1700 feet to bring water into the city from the Gihon spring as described in 2 Kings 2:20. It is one of the marvels of ancient engineering. In parts it is only 5 feet tall and about 2 feet wide so claustrophobics do not apply! The water on the day we went was about 12-18 inches deep.

Barrett, Tracy, me and Chris at the end of the tunnel near the pool of Siloam which is where Jesus told the blind man to wash his eyes in John 9.

This is a picture of the southeast corner of the Temple mount where Jesus was tempted to jump by satan during His 40 days of temptation from Matthew 4. This was a temptation because thousands of people would have been walking up the stairs just to the left of this picture so Jesus could have landed without injury or death in front of everyone proving that He was the Messiah. Jesus does not give in to prematurely presenting Himself as the Messiah nor being challenged to pridefully use His divine powers to 'show off'. The drop is over 100 feet.

Israel day 8

An empty former muslim mosque outside of Jerusalem that remembers the burial of the prophet Samuel. Now it sits on Crusader ruins and has nothing to do with Jesus or biblical history I just wanted to take an artsy photo...

A school of young orthodox Jewish boys on a school outing. They wear their hair that way based on an understanding of Leviticus 19:27.

This is a 1:50 scale model of Herod's Temple that stood in Jesus' day. Notice how it dominates Jerusalem's skyline. Inside the Temple would be the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant stood on the rock where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac. It is all gone today as the Roman General Titus demolished it in 70 AD and it has never been rebuilt as Jesus prophesied 40 years earlier in Mark 13:2.

I am standing in front of the valley and hills that surround Bethlehem from Luke 2. These are the same local hills where the shepherds would have been grazing their flocks when the angels announced that Jesus, the savior of the world, was born in the city of David. The shepherds walked into Bethlehem and found Jesus lying in a feeding trough for animals and they saw with their own eyes God come in the flesh.

Israel day 7!

Me standing along the shores of the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized by John the baptist in John 1. That water is cold!