There are several reasons for this decision chief of which is that I decided to update pretty frequently during the elections last November while I monitored activity. There was such little traffic that it caused me to ask the question the value of the site… so until I acquire fresh vision I will take a break… if you have any ideas feel free to comment on this article or to email me @ markslomka@yahoo.com!

Finally if you haven’t seen the video of Susan Boyle from Britains Got Talent check this out!

The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching. John Wooden said that, or maybe it was Spider-Man. Whatever, it still holds true; being noble and upstanding is easy enough when you’ve got people watching, but when you’re alone with yourself, when you could do the wrong thing (or avoid the right thing) and get away with it, well — that’s when you find out what kind of person you are.

By that standard, then, J.P. Hayes is among the best that sports has to offer. He played a nonconforming ball for a single hole of the second stage of Q School last weekend. He realized it more than a day after the “violation,” called it on himself, and thus disqualified himself from Q School… with some severe, career-altering effects down the line.

So how did this go down? So easily, you’ll cringe:

On his 12th hole of the first round at Deerwood Country Club last Wednesday, Hayes’ caddie reached into his golf bag, pulled out a ball and flipped it to Hayes, who missed the green with his tee shot. He then chipped on and marked his ball. It was then that Hayes realized the ball was not the same model Titleist with which he had started his round. That was in violation of the one-ball rule, which stipulates that a player must play the same model throughout a round.

Okay, so, two-stroke penalty, no big deal. He recovered well enough to put himself in position to finish in the top 20 and advance to the third and final round of Q School. The top 25 finishers in that round, plus ties, earn exempt status for the entire 2009 PGA season. So, breathe deep, think about how close you came to disaster, then tee it up for the next round.

Only, while Hayes was breathing deep, he realized something else — not only did he play the wrong ball, he might have played a ball that wasn’t even approved for play at all.

“It was a Titleist prototype, and somehow it had gotten into my bag,” he said. “It had been four weeks since Titleist gave me some prototype balls and I tested them. I have no idea how or why it was still in there … I called an official in Houston that night and said, ‘I think I may have a problem. He said they’d call Titleist the next day. I pretty much knew at that point I was going to be disqualified.”

Now, the easy move here would be to either do nothing or blame the caddy. Hayes rose above both those temptations, putting all the blame on himself and asserting that everybody else on the PGA in his shoes would have done the exact same thing. We’ll never know, but let’s hope so.

Also, Hayes already has more than $7 million in career earnings, so it’s not like he’d consigned himself to another year working the counter at the Quik Stop. But still, knowing you’re taking yourself out of the running for a year of career stability and wealth takes some serious situational ethics.

Would you do it?

Really?

I think this obsession/fetish began when I first became a follower of Jesus… I had an insatiable need to understand what I was reading. People I respected used a Harper Study Bible and so I purchased one too… I found it very helpful to have a resource I could carry with me that had introductions and explanatory notes that help me navigate the message of the Bible– especially what struck me as weird and confusing. 

The problem is that, although I do not have the same need for the study bible as a personal resource,  I still have this fascination and affection for study bibles! (I hope I still have the same hunger to understand too!) I think I have bought every study bible published over the years and I usually end up giving them away… 

So fast forward to last month when both the ESV and NLT study bibles were published– a date I had been tracking for 6 months! And what is my impression? In a nutshell: These are both exceptional offerings with one warning– their weight may give you a hernia! While neither requires a forklift  I would not consider either of them my personal-take-with-me-anywhere-bible.

Both of these study bibles pack a tremendous amount of information between their covers. Their book introductions are extensive despite an economy of words; they offer outstanding commentary on the text, make extensive use of charts, maps, and graphics, and both possess extended articles on a wide range of themes. The ESV study bible strikes a slightly more academic tone but neither are intended as popular devotional aids. Both strive to provide resources that will allow us to hear the message of Scripture in a manner consistent with the author’s first intentions.  Where godly scholarship differs in understanding– for example in Revelation 20 on the meaning of the millennium– both strive to present multiple perspectives. The ESV does include a theological dictionary that has articles on the great themes of Scripture.

You can view/download sample pages of the ESV or the NLT online– you can’t go wrong with either one… Both would make generous Christmas gifts for someone you love!

“… that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.”

Next week Proposition 8 asks California voters to constitutionally clarify for our state the definition of marriage by approving or disapproving the phrase: “only marriage between a man and woman shall be valid or recognized in California .” I will be voting “Yes” on Proposition 8 … for reasons described below. However, this letter is not intended to tell you how to vote– I trust each of you to vote every candidate and proposition with a conscience alive and responsive to Jesus’ call upon us.  

I am writing because I wanted to share my thoughts on Proposition 8 within my larger pastoral call and understanding of who God has called us to be here at Faith Community… If this doesn’t interest you, then read no further!

Beloved, I feel the liberty to write this to you because I trust that together we share  

   a common and growing passion for Jesus,    
      a devoted love for His gospel Word,       
         a dedicated commitment to live faithfully before Him, and  
            a fervent desire to see every life, including our own, transformed by His present grace.

I am writing you because I trust we value Christ’s call to follow well, to love well, & to serve well. 

Every Christian community must have her understanding of sexuality shaped by the redemptive revelation of God’s Word. We cannot follow well if we do not recognize the authority of His Word. We never want to be indifferent to Christ’s rule, redeeming love, and coming Kingdom that is revealed in Scripture. Here is a very brief summary of what I see in Scripture concerning sexuality and marriage:

Jesus Christ is Lord and Head of His Church. Through Him we are all created male and female. He calls us to a personal, loving, and intimate union with Himself individually and through the fellowship of Christians that we call the Church. Scripture teaches us that the marital union of a man and a woman illustrates the union of Jesus Christ with His Church.

Furthermore, the supreme and universal lordship of Jesus at His Second Coming is frequently portrayed in wedding imagery.

The Scriptures of the Old Testament abundantly testify to the final “Day of the Lord” in a similar fashion. For example, many biblical scholars have long noted that the Song of Solomon is more than merely the sonnet of two lovers celebrating their love and anticipating the joys of their pending union through marriage. It also illustrates the relationship between God and His people. The apostle Paul describes marriage as a rich and sublime metaphor that illustrates the relationship between Jesus and His Church: “This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church.”

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This instruction was given amidst the wonder of God’s creative splendor before sin had corrupted the perfection of His hand. God announced for all time: “A man shall be joined with his wife”—thereby guaranteeing that the ongoing flow of life that was sparked in creation would be sustained through this union. This heterosexual union was established as the normative pattern for man and woman before the devastation of sin could erase this imprint on humanity. Marriage has always been the DNA of society. We recognize that there is no cultural absolute to the practice of marriage throughout the world in times past or present except this– marriage has always embraced and solely recognized heterosexual relationships until the current debate.

I realize that some would caution that historically Christians have been wrong on slavery, civil rights, and  the equality of women and their gifts for ministry and service in the church. The truth is that we have been wrong on these and many other issues on God’s heart that we are blind, insensitive, and/or indifferent to. Nevertheless, in each instance cited it has been the responsible study of Scripture as God’s authoritative Word that has penetrated surrendered minds and hearts to repent and bring the Body of Christ into alignment with God’s will and Word on these significant issues. Therefore I perceive that any definition of marriage that embraces homosexual relationships will ultimately harden minds and hearts to Jesus because we must repudiate the clear teaching of Scripture.

In short, this is why I will be voting “Yes” on Proposition 8. 

I am writing you because I desire for us to maintain a realistic and Kingdom perspective amidst the heightened awareness and reactivity Proposition 8 has created.

Dear ones, as I have repeatedly stated on Sunday: the biggest threat to marriage is not the Gay agenda… it is the rampant and ravaging impact of divorce that has been and continues to be the threat to marriage.  Divorce redefined “marriage” and “family” long before the advocacy for gay marriage. Marriages broken by betrayal, abuse, dishonesty, recklessness, and laziness have redefined “marriage” and “family” as parents remarry (frequently more than once) creating families of multiple dads, moms, grand-parents, step-brothers, etc. Long before “Tommy had  2 daddies,” Tommy may have had 2 or more daddies, 2 or more mommies; 8 or more grandparents,  instant (step) brothers and sisters– not to mention how many aunts and uncles! Are we really  surprised that a secular world would express a growing advocacy for gay marriage out of this quagmire of brokenness and confusion?! 

Proposition 8, if it really wanted to fully define marriage for our state would read something like: “marriage is a loving relationship between a man and a woman intended to last a lifetime.” Our definition needs more than a clarification of sexual orientation. It also needs a recognition of its intended intimacy and permanency. But I doubt that this definition would stand a chance. 

I trust that we want to be a community that celebrates and values the uniqueness and life-giving permanence of marriage. We can be a community that confidently declares that marriage can be loving, life-giving, and life-long by coming in the opposite spirit to what exists in our world today. We can be a community that encourages healthy relationships and mends broken ones too.   The Gospel we express, experience, and extol is a gospel of grace wherein God promises to heal, mend, restore, and reconcile.

I am writing to you because I trust that we recognize that God is still in Christ reconciling our city, state, nation, and world through the person and power of Jesus Christ. 

I trust we value our State and her people… together we believe that everyone is worth contending for in the love and authority of Jesus’ name. The challenge before us is to create an understanding of God’s heart for all people. Dear ones, we must make every effort to insure that ours is an unconditional compassion that will not be dissuaded even by refusal or rejection. Patient, relentless, clear, approachable, concerned, generous, and loving must be the observations of others of our relationships, speech and conduct. It must be clear that we are not mere contrarians living by a narrow, fearful, prudish, and legalistic religious manifesto. Our position is not because a conflicting perspective makes us feel insecure or threatened… or simply that we are change-averse! We care because we recognize that sexual brokenness (whether heterosexual or homosexual) leaves a trail of human brokenness that will devastate future generations and harden children, youth, women, and men before the grace, wisdom, and love of God. Dear ones, this is about Truth… but we must always remember that we know that Truth is a person—Jesus—and seek to live before others as He did.

Our life together in Jesus is worth sharing with others in hope that as we serve and love everyone well our “lights” will shine before others in a manner that will light their path to our Savior.  Consider this: There is no other people who are commissioned with this responsibility and endowed with the redemptive authority to carry out this task other than God’s beloved– the Church. We are to light up the world’s “night” (Matthew 5.14-16, Philippians 2.15) with Jesus– His presence, His power, His purposes, and His promises to everyone. 

I do not think our mission is to be at war with culture or people no matter how misunderstood we may be… I do believe that we are engaged in a redemptive conflict on behalf of the broken nation and culture we live in. I am certain that we are called to contend with unconditional love, that is defined by the Cross of Jesus, for women, men, youth, and children who knowingly (or unknowingly) are imprisoned, broken, tormented, oppressed, and afflicted by sin– the sins that are one’s responsibility as well as the uninvited sins that bend, break, and destroy lives.

Dear ones, we are called to a challenging task to unconditionally love a world that keeps trying to “improve” on God’s plan. Let us not shrink back. Let us not give up. No one is beyond the reach of Jesus. Together let us “shine like stars in the universe as we hold forth the word of life…”

Loved ones, may we use our freedom in Christ to do more than repudiate the sins evil promotes before us. Let us encourage each other to use our freedom in Christ to demonstrate 

a better way… 
   a greater freedom… 
       a more noble vision… and
           a passionate expectation for how life can be… 

Finally, I trust that we will enter next week prayerful for our city, state, and nation and with a fresh resolve to pray for our leaders no matter which candidate wins…

May God’s abundant grace and peace lift your eyes to the Redeemer and Prince who sits on the throne with patient sovereignty and unceasing love that wishes for none to perish but everyone to come into repentance and life…

Here’s an interesting campaign poll courtesy of 7-Eleven! Be sure to check out the fun facts!

another shopping poll… this time masks courtesy of Amazon!

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative–or known about a friend’s relative–who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

Why do our presidential candidates use half-truths and distortions to incite fear, mistrust, and anger? Is this healthy or conducive to building a United States of America?

Why do these campaigns use half-truths and outright lies? Is it possible that they are attempting to create an artificial distance between two candidates who are truly closer on the big issues than they would like us to believe?

Why do neither of the presidential candidates use this latest financial crisis to highlight the reality that this national crisis is the outward expression of a spiritual vacuum? Isn’t it time for our nation to pay closer attention to the inscription on our money rather than the “number” on our money? Why are both candidates failing to use this crisis to call our nation to repentance and self-examinaton?

Why do both candidates play the “Jesus card?” 

Why has neither candidate publicly expressed a Christian faith whose passion for Jesus reflects His sovereignty, supremacy, sacrifice, and service? 

Why have neither, out of a commitment to Christian integrity, reigned in the falsehoods of their respective campaigns?

Why do many evangelicals generate fear about the state of our nation if the Senator they support is not elected president? Can anyone identify that the spiritual health of our nation has improved under any administration over the last 16 years?! Has any administration positively impacted the spiritual climate of our nation? Isn’t that our responsibility?

Can we entrust the future of our country to God’s sovereignty recognizing that it is God who raises up and disciplines nations?

Will Christians truly pray for the candidate who wins? Even if it is not the one “we” wanted? Do we not get the leadership we (fail to) pray for? Do we believe that God can change the heart of a leader and give them wisdom? 

Why do we look to legislation and legislators to accomplish what Scripture indicates only salvation can do?

Who speaks, in Jesus name, to powers today without being confused with or a representative voice for the “powers that be?”

What is our theology of power? Are we seduced by our own “will to power?”

How do we live with passion, devotion, and surrender as followers of Jesus– first and only– and citizens of His Kingdom while fulfilling our responsibilities in a participatory democracy?

How does Jesus want to use us to express His Kingdom call (repent, believe, and receive) and His Kingdom presence (heal, deliver, restore, and reconcile) in a manner that transcends our nations politics and yet offers the promise of national transformation?

As I have been reading Matthew’s gospel, and the Sermon on the Mount in particular, I find myself asking: if Jesus was incarnate in the 21st century USA, what would he do and what would His message be? 

Here is my answer: it would look like the gospel of Matthew– or any other gospel for that matter… only the fashion and vocabulary might change in light of our cultural context. If we believe that the Scriptures contain God’s unchanging Word then His word is unchanging towards us and through us. This Word includes both the ministry and the message of Jesus. The ministry and message I am called to embrace, extend, and express…