I love that.  It doesn’t say there is time for everything, it says there is a time for everything.

Where Are You, Where am I

For the purpose of this article, I have it in my head we are all generally in one of three places in our lives. A birth, wedding, or death. As a photographer, I look at other photography sites and usually look at a ton of photos.

It isn’t new to me, but if you look closely, I bet a huge huge percentage of photographs taken each year are at one of these events. Maybe not the last, but if you were to quantify photos of a birth (or infants), and images from weddings, it’s huge.

We always seem to be in some transition in life, because we usually are moving from one of these areas to the other.

A Birth (Age 0 to about 12)

We are all born, don’t have much choice there, but I consider this time period really from the time of our actual birth until the time of understanding (as I would put it), around age 12. This is a transition period in our life where we are pushing forward to the “wedding”.

How much influence is given to us through our parents, our church, our friends. I know many who have been altered for life from events or things that happened to them in this time period.

A Wedding (Age 12 to ????)

A wedding here, is our relationship with Christ. So, in essence, some may never hit this stage, they may go from birth to death. There isn’t a time frame put on this time period in our lives. We look for relationships, we develop some, break others, but we do, if we are breathing, have relationships with other people of some kind.

At what point do we make that transition in our relationship with Christ where He is the center focus of our life? It could be at age 15 or age 50, or never, but either way, we are all still moving towards the third stage of our earthly lives.

After the wedding day, the time period between the wedding and the death is our maturity. How much do we grow, how much do we learn, teach, understand, and what are we doing to help others move from their birth to their wedding?

A Death (Age ??? to Eternity)

I read something the other day on all these things someone wanted to get accomplished. He used the often used example of if you only had so many days to live, who would you call and say I love you to?  His answer was, then you better go do it, now. We don’t like to think about it, or talk about it, or think about talking about it, but it doesn’t change the fact that this stage is on its way for all of us.

At some point, we have accomplished what God wants us to get done here, and he will call us home, and it never seems to be at a convenient time for us, we always have things to do. When my mother in law died, she had stacks of pots she was using to replant all her house plants from the Winter months moving into the Spring. She had a lot left to do. As I re-potted her plants I realized, this was no longer on her busy list of things to do.

Where Are We in Our Transition

I think the last stage in our lives can actually come well before our physical death. It comes when we are spiritually dead, or when we can grow no more in our walk. In Philippians we are told to press on to the prize (of heaven).

Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

I think that when we come to a point in our lives where we are resigned to stay where we are, not move ahead and learn and grow we have begun the transition into the process of death. Perhaps it is a long slow process for some, perhaps it is instantaneous when the Lord calls our name.

I know for most reading this, we are in between the Wedding and Death stage. There is a song called Pushing Up Daisies and the chorus says:

There’s two dates in time
That they’ll carve on your stone
And everyone knows what they mean
What’s more important
Is the time that is known
In that little dash there in between
That little dash there in between

That is really the point of this post I guess. What are we doing with the little dash there in between?

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Although I did not know him or his family, our prayer are extended to them this morning.

You can read the full story in the news here, but if you are not familiar with what this man did in his life you can also read the Tony Snow Wikipedia file which has some interesting information about his life as well.

He was a punch bag and a punch line for the left, but just as with the loss of Tim Russert, you can see how much of their lives were spent engaged with the well being of this country. I was no less saddened to see Tim Russert pass on as Snow, you can’t have one side without the other.

This has been a strange year of loss at and around our household, and the country, (Michael Debakey also died this morning), and although I wouldn’t begin to say this is a loss for us over what his family has now lost, it is a loss for the nation as a whole. Regardless of what political side you are on, he was a man of courage and integrity and our house will miss seeing him.

It only reinforces the importance of our relationship with our Lord, and the fact that no, none of us are long for this side of eternity.

Another Post of Interest From This Blog

• Creative Chaos // 14, Allow God to Work
• Part of Fulfilling the Great Commission?
• Creative Chaos // 10, Fluid Cards
• Blogger Small Group, Romans 3:9-20
• The Complaining Christian Can Leave

Dear islandzephyr,

Hello, i would like to send you some more money for shipping and supplies and shipping insurance if possible, I would much rather you pack it well and i dont think 10.00 would cover that, I want to paypal you an extra 20.00. thanks paul

This may not seem like a whole lot to some of you who don’t go through the daily packaging and processing of orders, but in 15 years of doing business on the Internet, this is the first time anyone has ever sent an email like that to me.  I have even had people complain about shipping when it was free, but not like this.

My standard customer seems to be related to one of my previous rants, called The Complaining Christian Can Leave where we tend to get nickel and dimed to death over petty issues. Not this time.

It just reminded me of how something very short, and positive, can change the whole outlook of a day, and this goes both ways. It had nothing to do with the money, it was just the caring of the other individual. Thanks Paul for showing me another side of who our customers are, a stark contrast to the buyers described in my other article.

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• Quotes and Quips // a Real Life

This lawsuit has now been appealed by the ADF (Alliance Defense Fund) and you can read the appeal document here. According to the ADF, they are:

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith.… …to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

and they have now, as of July 1st, filed suit against the N.M. Commission’s ruling. In their press release, they say, in part:

The commission ruled that the company, run by a Christian husband and wife, was guilty of “sexual orientation” discrimination under state antidiscrimination laws for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.”

“Christians in the marketplace should not be penalized for abiding by their beliefs anymore than anyone else should,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence… The commission’s decision demonstrated stunning disregard for our client’s First Amendment rights.” read the rest here…

This is a very interesting case to me. The fact that a photographer was told, by the state, they had to take a job they didn’t want because it went against their beliefs (besides a whole host of other issues at hand), is just not what this country represents.

Hopefully the appeal will go well and we will not be confirmed into a state of sexual toleration over first amendment rights and basic freedoms we have by living in this country.

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• Christian Photographer Refused Gay Wedding, Lost Lawsuit

This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post (see Small Blogger Group // New Entries Post Here to post your link) on Romans Chapter 4. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidelines). Right now we are several weeks into the group, which started in James, and this week I am hosting the group, so to post your entry just follow the link above called “new entries post here”.

No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

This week we continue in the justification by faith but through the Old Testament. Always a fun and exciting topic, one that we as Christians love to bounce around and argue about over various topics and pieces, so I am looking forward to reading the other members posts here today as well.

A Little Background on Romans 4

Here in Chapter 4 Paul is talking to us again about being justified by faith, not by works. Paul uses two illistrations here from the Old Testament, Abraham and David. He also quotes the OT several times and is leading us into the results of justification starting in Chapter 5.

We can break down this chapter into 4 smaller sections. (1) By Faith Not Works v1-8, (2) By Faith Not Rite v9-12, (3) By Faith Not the Law v13-17, and finally (4) By Faith in Gods Promise v18-25. I am going to very briefly touch on each of these.

By Faith Not Works (4:1-8)

Paul starts off by introducing Abraham and talks about how if anyone is justified by works, it would be Abraham. In these times, the Rabbis taught that Abraham has an over abundance of righteousness that would be passed down to his decedents (David being one of them).

Paul agrees here that he did great works, but says that it was only for men, not for God. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 here:

Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Paul again quotes the OT and then explains to us that Abraham was justified through God not because of his works, but because he believed in and trusted God. This is still something I think many of us struggle with today. We did this good work, so now we are justified.

I think our society today embraces this quality. I was amazed at a study of how many people believed that if you were a “good person” you would go to heaven. It is something that has been passed down from unbelieving generation to generation. Be a “good person” and you will be rewarded.

The problem with that is who determines what a good person is or does? I certainly don’t want to be compared against Billy Graham, do you? I always loved when a pastor of mine use to say. Works doesn’t get us into heaven, but I still don’t want to be standing in line behind Billy Graham. We can not have faith and trust in our own works, it is worthless.

By Faith Not Rite (4:9-12)

This next section once again brings up the topic of who is included. It is the Jews or the Gentiles? Paul starts to talk about how and when Abraham was justified. Was it before or after he was circumcised? Paul answers his own question, it was before.

Abraham was to perform this on all male decedents as a covenant with God, and this was done when Abraham was 99 years old (Genesis 17:24). It is generally stated that Abraham was 86 when Hagar bore him Ishmael, he was told after that point to circumcise the family.

24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

Many jews who rely on the rite circumcision for salvation. We see here, it has nothing to do with actual salvation since it occurred before in Abraham’s life. Once again we are shown that we must have faith. Nothing we do on our own can make us righteous.

By Faith Not the Law (4:13-17)

Here again we can see that the promise God made to Abraham that his decendents would be the heirs to the world, is preceeded by the law by quite a few centuries.

Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

We can look at Galatians 3:17 and see it was over 400 years before the law was to be given out.

17 What I mean is this: The Law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

Paul is going step by step here and it may not be the most common thing in our day, it was clear to his readers that he was telling them, you are not going to be justified by the Law, and neither are we.

We can still look at the Law today, it guides us in just about everything we do. Even if we are unaware of God’s Law, we are still governed under its rules today. We don’t run a red light because we are told, do not kill. We pay for things instead of steal them, and so on. None of this will get us right with God, only faith in Jesus Christ will do that.

By Faith in God’s Promise (4:18-25)

In the final section we see how much faith Abraham had in God. He had so much faith in God that he believed in an impossible situation, and Paul says this is why he was credited with righteousness.

There are so many things in our lives that we can decide we don’t want God to handle. We can give God control over part of our life in this situation, but not in that one. We (I include myself) waver back and forth between trusting ourselves, in our works, in our rites, and in the fact that we uphold the Law, that we loose site of God.

I really love seeing the faith of Abraham. It is not that he was a perfect person, or had some kind of super natural powers, he was an old man that put in trust and faith in one thing, God. I know people who have given up in faith. They felt that because their faith wavered that they were not worthy of God’s call, or hypocrites.

I wish one person in particular would understand we all do this. That is why we have a Savior to come back to when we stumble. We are not required to be perfect, all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed.

Visit the Other Bloggers in the Group

There are several other bloggers who participate each week. Be sure to read their posts and comment. Don’t forget to come back and leave a link to your post as well.

• 12 Steps Closer
• Cindy in South Dakota
• Consuming Worship
• Geoff Bradley
• Heath Spurlock
• Just Another Minute
• Mandy Conforth
• Scott Fillmer
• Worship Journey

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This Week with Consuming Worship, Romans 4

This weeks Small Group in partnership with Consuming Worship we start Romans chapter four [4] all verses. (Side Note: If you haven’t read Romans chapter four [4], but want to participate. Read it now and write about it. Any input is better than no input. Everyone is welcome.) [Mr. Linky is at the bottom]

If you’re new and not sure what to do, below I have posted the instructions to the group. Take the time to read them, it will help make this group much easier for you. INSTRUCTIONS

Small Blogger Group - Damascus Style

This week I am going to do the Mr Linky slightly different than Vagabondrunn. I have posted it right here on the page, so all you need to do is post the link to your study entry right here, and we should all be able to see the links for the other entries as well.

If you have any questions at all please just send me a quick email or twitter and I will get right back with you. I am going to post my own entry on a different blog post, so go ahead and leave your links here.

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My mother-in-law clipped out many different quotes she liked over the years. Being a music director in church most of her adult church life, this sounds like her.

Speed If you Must

If you must speed on the road, sing these hymns loudly;
at 45 mph…
“God Will Take Care of Me”
at 55 mph…
“Guide Me O Great Jehovah”
at 65 mph…
“Nearer My God to Thee”
at 75 mph…
“Nearer Still Nearer”
at 85 mph…
“This World is not My Home”
at 95 mph…
“Lord, I’m Coming Home”
at 100 mph…
“Precious Memories”

I hope you got a chance to relax a little bit this Sunday.

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So, anything goes now, it’s official. Now I understand from the start of this article that I live in Alabama, where I would probably be sued if I did take wedding photography of a gay marriage, but this is just over the edge.

This article is not about gay marriage, really. It is about the freedoms you have as a small business owner, and citizen of this country called America. Today, most of you are almost automatically bias and on a “side” depending on your current life situation, but still, this is really out of hand.

Vanessa Willock vs Elane Photography [HRD# 06-12-20-0685]

This morning while getting ready for service, I started reading my usual list of blogs and news articles when I came across the most ridiculous story I have seen in quite some time. In New Mexico there is a woman who has a wedding photography business called Elane Photography.

She was asked to shoot a wedding between two woman (one being Vanessa Willock, a professor at UNM) in New Mexico. When she refused to take the job saying she only shoots “traditional” weddings, she was sued.

Ok, nothing new here in this day and time I guess. Sad, but typical. In this country now, anyone can sue anyone for any reason at all, but one big difference in this case, she lost. The NM Human Rights Division found her guilty and required to pay damages.

Vanessa Willock Was Laying in Wait, it Seems

The gay couple who wanted Elane’s photography services, filed this complaint, but it looks like she was just waiting for someone to turn her down. Turns out of course that along with working for UNM, Ms. Vanessa Willock is also an EEO Compliance Representative with the Office of Equal Opportunity.

What does she do there? She investigates claims of discrimination and sexual harassment for the state, and to top it off, she is also a member of the Diversity Committee at the University of New Mexico.

All that begs the question of the motives Willock has or had when trying to hire this photographer and a case could be made that she was just waiting for someone to say no!

New Mexico Now Picking Your Clients?

Last time I checked we still lived in a free country? This is not some big organization under equal opportunity laws, this is a two person husband and wife photography business. I don’t know anyone that does freelance work that is required to take a job, but now the state of New Mexico is telling this couple what business clients they have to accept!

News West 9: The state Human Rights Commission ruled in April that Elane Photography violated the Human Rights Act by discriminating against Vanessa Willock on the basis of sexual orientation.

Willock contended Albuquerque photographer Elaine Huguenin told her that she photographed only traditional marriages.

I don’t really care what the issue is pertaining to, how in the world can the state tell a two person business what clients they can and can’t take. I know there are a ton of photographers who have refused certain jobs for one reason or another.

What happened if the “minister” refused to marry them (unlikely I know, they would have hand picked her) on the basis of Paul’s letter to the Romans or something. Is the state going to “force” religious institutions now to marry people just because the state says it is ok?

Any small business can be sued for any reason if they refuse their services to anyone now I guess. What ever happened to “we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”? Guess those days are long gone and the only thing that remains is the actual sign on the business door.

A free marketplace dictates that if one business refuses, another will receive that business. You know, Supply and demand, expenses, profit, all that business type stuff. Obviously the money is less important to Elane Photography than the issue, so just take your business somewhere else. Do we have to sue EVERYONE now?

New Mexico Getting Slammed for Good Reason

I guess this is where New Mexico wants to be. Apparently there are also 20 others states that have these types of refusal laws in place. You take one tiny, and I mean TINY minority (the gay population is said to be around 2%) of any kind, doesn’t matter what it is, their rights supersede those of everyone else.

There are so many issues with this particular case it is hard to know what to pick on, but leave it up to the bloggers and they will do a good job as always. So, blogs and news sites galore are slamming New Mexico for good reason. Just to name a few, we have:

• Christian Photographer Hauled before Commission for Refusing Same-Sex Job
• Christian Photographer tried before Human Rights Division in New Mexico
• Elane photography violated NM law, rules commision
• NM commission rules photographer discriminated against gay couple

and it really just goes on and on. I am sorry, but how stupid are these people on the New Mexico commission or the state in total for putting these ridiculous laws in place and for telling a two person business what clients they have to take.

Not only is the state telling me how to run my business but they are requiring someone to do something that is against their religious principles in favor of something that most people in this country are against in the first place.

Have You as a Photographer Ever Refused a Job?

So, I know there are tons of Christian Wedding photographers out there. Are you going to do a wedding because the state tells you to? I really don’t care what the issue is, gay marriage, the intelligence level of the bride/groom, green men from mars, who cares, you own your own business so you can take the clients you want to take, right?

Well, the suit is now up for appeal and The Alliance Defense Fund’s appeal asks the state district court to reverse the commission’s decision and dismiss Willock’s complaint.”

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and Ms Willock will have to pay for her own expenses and this won’t set a precedent across the states, making it illegal to not work, if you choose to do so.

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No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.

This week we dive into the theological rich area of justification by faith. Always a fun and exciting topic, one that we as Christians love to bounce around and argue about over various topics and pieces, so I am looking forward to reading the other members posts here today as well.

A Little Background on Romans 3:21-31

This section of scripture can be a little confusing or complicated, at least to me, but Paul is talking about righteousness being revealed by God. We do learn here, if we didn’t know already, that there is not one single human being (Jesus being the one single exception) that has ever, or ever will be able to meet the standards of God on his or her own merit.

I do have a few favorite verses and Romans 3:23 is one of them.

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

To me, this is the key verse in this section. There is no difference that exists between human beings because all have sinned.

A Little Run Through the Bible Dictionary

Sometimes there are big words in the Bible that we don’t understand fully, but there are some that I would deem as “religious” words that we turn off for one reason or another. I wanted to touch on a few that I have trouble with from time to time, just to remind myself of their meaning here in Romans 3.

I know I am not addressing the exact scriptures word by word or verse by verse, but I think these two terms below are important parts of this scripture, so today I just decided to focus on what they meant as a part of these passages in Romans (sorry for the deviation).

Righteousness

This word in the NT context is mainly used by Paul and one Bible dictionary talks about the Greek family of words that goes in to providing a proper definition of the word righteousness.

A single family of words expresses the concept. Dikaiosyne, which means “uprightness”, Dikaios is “just” and dikaioo means to “pronounce or treat a person as righteous or to vindicate or acquit”.

This was someone who met obligations to others in their community and to the “gods”, or in Jesus day it was viewed as behavioral conformity to the written or oral law. Here are a few other definitions I came across when looking this up.

adhering to moral principles
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Righteousness (also called rectitude) in this article refers to the important theological concept in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteousness

The quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it chiefly occurs, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law; A …
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/righteousness

Righteousness is an attribute of moral purity belonging to God alone (John 17:25 ). It is He alone who is truly righteous. …
www.carm.org/dictionary/dic_p-r.htm

The righteousness of faith is the gift of righteousness which the believer receives through the abundance of the Father’s grace. …
www.biblestudy.org/beginner/basic-bible-teachings.html

Righteousness is the moral perfection of God that is the standard of what is right. God’s righteousness is expressed in the Ten Commandments. …
www.cbcfargo.com/resources/promise/08.html

Living in truth, acting in justices. Life itself can be understood or viewed as motion or movement. It began at birth, and ends at death. One cannot reach the end without a means or vehicle. Thus, righteousness is the vehicle of life with truth as the guide and justice as the steerimg wheel.
www.liberationconcepts.com/maat

Justification

These two terms in the Bible are very similar. Sometimes Justification and Righteousness are used for the same meaning. In the NT terminology the word is dikaioo (same as used above) which means “to acquite” or “to vindicate”, or “to pronounce righteous”.

Some other definitions are:

something (such as a fact or circumstance) that shows an action to be reasonable or necessary; “he considered misrule a justification for …

a statement in explanation of some action or belief

the act of defending or explaining or making excuses for by reasoning; “the justification of barbarous means by holy ends”- H.J.Muller
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

In Christian theology, justification is God’s act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justification (theology)

The early church said to rejoice in the fact that God had pronounced them righteous (or justified) for all those believing in Jesus (Acts 13:39).

39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

Back to Romans 3:21-31

So that is all fine and good but where does that leave us with today’s passage. We started off in Romans chapters 1-3 with Paul starting what would be his argument that none of us are “righteous” in God’s sight, until he hits today’s verses.

Paul has now moved into an argument that righteousness is from God, given freely, and received by those of us who believe in his son Jesus Christ. This is the basis of all we are as Christians and something that we should all cling to.

We can not be justified or righteous on our own account, none of us can.

Do We Nullify the Law?

This is something we/I struggle with. So do we follow the law or not. Is the law applicable today or not. Well, Paul answers that question right here. Paul says here in the greek“me genoito!” Meaning, may it not be or God forbid, or basically, not at all.

I read a section in my study that put it like this:

The purpose of the Mosaic Law is fulfilled and its place in God’s total plan is confirmed when it leads an individual to faith in Jesus Christ. Paul repeatedly affirmed that faith, not works of the Law, is the way of salvation. He wrote the word “faith” eight times in Romans 3:22-31 (and twice in v31).

I think that says and shows the Law’s importance in our lives today. I know this was a little off topic but that is where I was led to go today, hope someone got something out of the information above, if not, I know I did.

Visit the Other Blogs on the Small Blogger Group

• 12 Steps Closer
• Cindy in South Dakota
• Consuming Worship
• Geoff Bradley
• Heath Spurlock
• Just Another Minute
• Mandy Conforth
• Scott Fillmer
• Worship Journey

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Creative Chaos 16 // Volunteer Celebration

We all know that churches need volunteers to function. Safe to say that it would be a different type of atmosphere if we didn’t have those great church volunteers to setup the tables and chairs, direct traffic, teach the kids, adults, Sunday School, and so on, the list is endless.

This church had a celebration for their volunteers in a Broadway musical type of skit that was just great. Not only did it thank the people who did volunteer but it probably got some others interested as well. Thanks to Heath Spurlock and Jack Fisher (who actually saw this in person at the time) for sharing this video, it was great.

The singing by those who probably don’t sing normally (I just guessing) is great. The church, Granger Community Church in Indiana, had a great idea for this weeks creative chaos post, thanks.

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• Creative Chaos 15, Cardboard Testimony