Would you rather...

While starving on a desert island, eat a live moth with a body the size of a tomato worm and wing span four inches, or eat a dead hummingbird with the feathers? Disgusting

Thought for the Day-Hit and Run

Last night a buddy of mine and I were picking our wives up from the airport and witnessed a hit and run. It had to be one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I have had in a while. When it actually happened we thought about stopping to see if everyone was okay but luckily we didn't because we ended up getting the car's tag. I really hope the people that were hit were okay. We drove back by and they were gone so we assumed all was well. We happened to be in the right place at the right time and hopefully, justice will be served. I would love to hear about some of your, "in the right place at the right time", stories.

Benj and Lana Clark

Occupations: Contrary to popular belief, I am not a policeman nor a firefighter (sorry Jacob and Penny!) I am Curator of Education at the Oklahoma Historical Society. This means I work with teachers and kids and teach a lot of Oklahoma History to folks. I also do a lot of research and writing for educational materials and exhibits. Lana keeps the office of Pitt and Forrester Vision Source running smoothly. She has been there for a couple months now, I think, and enjoys discovering that the human eye is pretty interesting.

Hobbies: Lana crafts and cooks and does both very well. She does a lot of paper crafts, but is also interested in sewing and painting. I like books. I love to read, I collect books, I talk about books and write for the Fine Books & Collections Magazine blog.

Meet: We met at York College in York , NE. I grew up in Nebraska , Lana grew up in Montana .

Married: 6 ½ years (almost). It’ll be 7 years Nov. 30^th.

Pet-Peeve: Not making fresh coffee when you take the last cup (at work). Not a big fan of Oklahoma ’s closed primary elections. The biggest one: Daylight savings time. Don’t even get me started.

Baptism or Belief?

This is something that has really been on my heart lately and I think it is such a huge issue today in the religious world. The community church says that baptism is how we show publicly our belief in Christ. The Churches of Christ say that baptism is the way by which we are saved. The community church makes a fairly big deal about believing in the Christ, and belittles baptism (this is obviously a generalization). The Churches of Christ, I believe, build baptism up to be the end all, and we don't talk much about the belief aspect of our salvation. Why can't we have both? I believe the Church of Christ has a lot to add this conversation. Are we as a church perfect? Not by any means. What I would like to argue is that "belief" in and of itself, is just as important and necessary as the act of baptism. If you read through the scriptures you would find that "belief" is always accompanied by baptism with few exceptions. In fact, one might could argue that Jesus dealt more with belief than he did baptism. The roman centurion wanting Jesus to heal his daughter-Jesus says this, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." The leper, the woman who touched Jesus garment, the men who lowered their friend through the roof to be healed-there are so many accounts where people "believed" and were healed! We must remember in the first century it was blasphemous to "believe" in a king other than Caesar. That to "believe" in Christ was to risk your life. To say what you thought to be right, to change your lifestyle to mesh with what you believed, to tell your friends about it, was to say the Roman government was wrong. Baptism or belief? I believe both of these to be indispensable equals in talking about salvation.

Site for the Week

Check out todaysbigthing.com-Some pretty good videos on there.

Completely Miserable

I have been reading the OT lately, specifically 1 Samuel. There are so many great stories in this book. There are some even better applications for our lives, and implications of who God is and how he works. As Samuel is getting older, he appoints his sons to judge Israel. They are no good, and the rest of the nation begins crying out for a King, because they do not believe God to be good enough. Here is the good part. Samuel tells God what is going on and God says, "listen to them". Shocking! Furthermore, God knows this new king will make all of Israel completely miserable, and tells Samuel to make that very clear. Of course, Israel falls again. I think this story gives us a little insight into how God thinks. It shows, that even if entire nation wants one thing, it might not always be the best. It shows that God, in his infinite wisdom, might just give you what you selfishly want, knowing that you are going to be completely miserable. What's worse about this scenario, is God might actually tell you that you are going to completely miserable. Just like Israel, we will learn a valuable lesson. And just like Israel, we might be completely miserable, but we are still, and will always be God's chosen people.

Thought of the Day

Social justice has become a very prominent issue in the church in the past few years. What is the church supposed to do about it? Are we to be involved? What is our role? First, I would like to pose that social justice is an oxymoron. Social justice implies that we, the church, are in a separate class, that we don't need it, that it is only for, "those people over there"(thanks to Scot McKnight for the thought). Not so. We are a part of the system, we are the people that need justice. This indeed is why Christ came-for our justification.

Would you rather...

Would you rather live without music or internet? Tough one.

First Post

This is my first venture into the blogging world. I've been a little hesitant about starting one but finally took the dive. Looking forward to hearing from everyone!