HAPPY HALLOWEEN

FAITH TO MOVE MOUNTAINS

In Mark 11.23, Jesus tells his disciples that "if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." Now, I've always thought that this sounds nice. Oh sure, Jesus, next time God wants me to singlehandedly move a mountain, I don't have to doubt. I can just do it!

The neat thing about this passage is that it is not simply an exaggeration. Jesus was using an illustration that the disciples would have recognized. Here's where a little historical information can illuminate the meaning of scripture for us...

King Herod was famous for building things. He built entire cities, places of worship, and most famously, he renovated the Jewish Temple. He also built some stuff for himself, including a vacation home on the top of a mountain which was visible from the Mount of Olives. In the process of building this palace, he actually had his construction crew remove the top of this particular mountain! King Herod moved a mountain.

Now, when Jesus tells his disciples that if they have faith in God, then they can move mountains, I can't help but think that either he was pointing to Herod's mountain or he at least had it in mind. If King Herod can physically move a mountain, then how much more can God's people accomplish through faith? What kind of mountains can we move through prayer? We can move much more than physical mountains. We can tackle things like world hunger, like the AIDS epidemic in Africa, like turmoil in the Middle East, like widespread Christian nominalism in America. All we have to do is believe and put our trust in God to the point of obedience, and God will work through us to bring about his kingdom. Am I an idealist? Maybe, but I believe that God works through one person at a time, slowly but surely revealing his goodness to humankind.

TAKE A BREATH

Whew. Sundays are such a long day. They're good days, but long. It's time to take a breath. Hang out with my wife. And just chill. We'll talk tomorrow.

God bless.

PS
Happy Birthday to my little bro, Luke! He's 16 and tearing it up as quarterback for THE Mesquite High Skeeters.

JESUS CREED

I found this really great new blog (well, new to me). It's called jesuscreed.org, and if you look to the right of my page under for further reading it's the fourth one down. It's by Scot McNight, a Christian scholar and professor at North Park University, and it has great articles and great links on it to browse around about the emerging church, prayer, sholarship, and all kinds of good stuff. McNight's blog has been rated #1 for the emerging church by technorati.com. I browsed around for an hour last night reading up on all sorts of things. Check it out. It is outstanding stuff.

CAMERA PHONE

So my old phone broke. It was strange because when I answered the phone, the person I was talking to could hear me loud and clear, but I couldn't hear them at all. Thankfully, I had insurance, so I sent my phone in to cingular. Apparently, even with insurance there is a $50 fee (go figure). But much to my pleasant surprise, the new basic phone that I received comes with a camera on it. I've had much fun with this thing, namely taking surprise photos of Cruz for the sake of being annoying. It's what I do.

CHANGING STUFF...

Now that blogger has this new set-up, I'm playing with the way my blog looks. Let me know what you think. I'll probably keep changing it until I figure out what I like. In the mean time, the green and gold is in honor of the big game this week vs. aggie. Sic'em Bears!

SO SORRY TO ALL MY ADORING FANS

To all of my adoring fans out there (all two of you), I apologize for the lack of blogging. It seems that I hit a dry spell for over a month. I guess I just didn't want to do it. Oh well. I'm back now. The Halpinator blog is not dead just yet. There will be more to come, probably this afternoon.