I’ve taken the courses.

There is no shortage of sound, Biblical advice out there when it comes to our finances. But no matter what expert you listen to, they all seem to leave something out.

After racking up more than $10k in credit card debt in 2007, I knew something needed to change. I was a chronic spender throughout my 20′s, living beyond my means and robbing Peter to pay Paul. I tithed more than 10% and spent more than 100% of each paycheck. As the Federal Reserve can attest, this is the sort of fuzzy math that can get you into trouble.

When my interest payments finally caught up to my income, I quickly realized what a world of hurt my finances were in. I prayed for God to teach me about finances, to help me be a good steward of what He has blessed me with.

Before I knew it, I was enrolled in a Crown Financial class. Meeting others in my unfortunate financial position was comforting, but it also opened my eyes to how widespread poor stewardship in the church had become. After 10 weeks of immersion into a subject I previously knew little about, I was fired up and ready to lay some serious skid marks down the road to financial freedom.

To be honest, most of the financial books I devoured during that intensive learning period, from Christian advisors like Ron Blue, Randy Alcorn and Matt Bell, spit the same step-by-step strategy (Dave Ramsey refers to the order as “Baby Steps”). Give or take a detail or two, they all go something like this:

1. Start an emergency fund (usually around $1000, to be used only when unforeseen circumstances arise)

2. Pay off credit cards (Some diehards insist “cash is king,” and that not using credit cards, or even debit cards, is the wisest decision)

3. Build three to six months of savings (in case you lose your job and need a buffer while you seek employment)

I’ve seen the remaining steps in varying orders, but they usually include: paying off your mortgage, saving for large purchases and investing for retirement.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Dave Ramsey’s radio show, and admire his no-guff tendency to respond to poor financial decisions with, “That’s stupid.” I think he’d probably agree with what I’m about to say in theory.

What I read in Scripture, from the same Book referenced in Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, is story after story about faith.

Simple, trusting, unadulterated faith.

When I tell someone about a ministry opportunity, and they answer me with, “I’d love to, but I’m only on ‘Baby Step Two,’” I get concerned.

Read the books.

Enroll in courses.

Learn everything you can about being a good steward and preparing for the future. Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper fable comes to mind. Just don’t rely on any gimmick, strategy or certification to give you peace – financial or otherwise. Surrendering your life, and everything in it, to the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, is the prudent course.

Be obedient when you hear the Spirit calling you out of your comfort zone. If God has given you a vision you feel is laughable when looking at your current financial situation, may you be bold enough to answer the call anyway.

So, what do you think?  Is the Bible promoting financial peace, spiritual prosperity, or both? In Scripture, does God seem in favor of substantial IRA accounts, or men who will leave it all behind and follow Him with reckless abandon?

Photo credit: Flickr

One day she called and asked if I wanted to hang out, “I can’t” I replied, and I gave some silly, but somewhat true, response regarding a list of chores my mom had for me.  My wife still makes fun of me for that.  But the words that came so freely to my lips, the phrase I was so comfortable with uttering, is one that has so often limited my life, and held me back from experiencing all that God has for me: I can’t.

I live in a world of, “I can’t.”  I am the annoying guy in the book that assures the hero his lavish plot will fail.  I’m the screaming idiot in bad horror movies that is always saying, “This won’t end well.”  I have always been poor, and when people go and spend money on entertainment, even to this day, I am forced to mutter, “I can’t.”  Yep, that’s me.  The chronic man of, “I can’t.”

Perhaps, in my youth, I believed too much was possible.  Maybe I was always disappointed.  Maybe I dared to dream, and those dreams were often ruined, despite my best efforts.  I am the one percent guy.  If it will work for 99% of the people, it will not work for me.  I’m like the one dentist that likes the other tooth brush.  This mathematical reality has its advantages, I can make the one percent shot in hockey, or the one percent attack on Mordor in Lord of the Rings Risk, and make it work.  That is all well and good, but in the real world, the one percent life can sometimes be a burden.  I’m not being a drama queen, it’s just a hypothesis from thirty years of critical observation of my own life.  The net result of my findings?  I am the Man of, “I can’t.”

The last year I have made a very real and difficult attempt to turn this reality around.  I have said yes, when my entire being cried no.  I have forced myself to be social.  I have tried to make new friends.  I have laughed at jokes that weren’t funny, and agreed to spend time in places I had no interest in being, all in the hope that I could become the Godly Man of, “I can.”  Yes I can go back to school.  Yes I can quit the job I hate.  Yes I can swallow my pride and make less money.  Yes I can write for a website.  Yes I can start going to church again.  Yes I can make new friends.  Yes I can fix my car by myself.  Yes I can be the man my wife wishes I was.  Yes, Jesus, I can follow you.

“I can’t,” is easy.  It will always be true won’t it?  If you say, “I can’t,” it is so easy to make the reality come true, but to dare to be a Man of, “I can,” is to follow Christ into the wilderness.  Saying, “I can,” allows us to follow His footsteps in the sand as He roamed the desert.  There we will be tempted.  There we will be challenged.  But there, with the freeing power of Christ, we can overcome temptation, and roll over the challenges.  Jesus was saying, “Yes, we can,” long before Obama ruined the phrase.

Let the moments of, “I can’t” be a distant memory.  Accept that with God all things are possible, move forward in a new world of victory, abandon the land of failure and embrace the triumph of Christ’s eternal promise.

Rambo, having lost his recent love to the evil Vietnamese Army, is now on a one-man mission to take out the bad guys and resolutely rescue the P.O.W.s. The buildup involves Rambo stalking members of the army one by one, taking them out in stealthy fashion, one being pulled down into a cave and strangled, the other taken out quick and quiet with Rambo’s signature compound bow and arrow. He’s relentless and fearless.

Then comes the scene.

We see the Russian soldier walking along a muddy ridge, his eyes scanning here and there for any sign of Rambo’s whereabouts. The foreground with the soldier blurs and the focus lies on the muddy wall. For a moment we see nothing, but then, out of nowhere, two eyes blink out from the mud and we begin to see the faintest outline of America’s great hero, John J. Rambo, camouflaged perfectly with the mud. Of course, Rambo takes his man out, along with what appears to be the rest of the country, saves the day, and lives to fight another.

While part of me thinks that’s just stinking cool (and it is), the other part of me sees much of myself in that scene. What I mean to say is that, for many, many years, I’ve played the part of the chameleon. I’ve always done my best to adapt to my circumstances. Whether it was with my older neighbor who was into surfing, my friend who was a video game freak, or even my friend who loved Disney songs, I found a way to intermingle with them all. While some in my high school fell into decidedly obvious categories (jocks, geeks, rednecks, etc), I seamlessly navigated the waters, holding court with them all.

Now, some might see this as a great ability. “How cool,” you might be saying, “You’re able to connect with everybody! I wish I could do that!” But you’re missing the point.

The whole point is that I camouflaged myself because, frankly, I was afraid. I was afraid of what would happen if I truly showed who I was to them. I was afraid of not being accepted, of being rejected, and of being left behind. That’s why my vocabulary became peppered with words like “rad” and “half-pipe” and why, to this very day, I can still sing along to “A Whole New World.” I was afraid of not being accepted and of falling short of what people wanted me to be.

As I’ve grown older and matured, sure, I’ve learned to deal with these things a bit. I realize deep down that we can’t please all the people all the time and, even if we could, why would we want to? And yes, certainly, my relationship with God has definitely helped to flesh out more of who I am. I am created in His image and am to reflect His glory. Yet, I can’t help but find myself falling into certain circumstances where it’s just easier to play the game, to shape shift, to plant myself into that mud and wait for them to pass. Because, sometimes, deep down, I’m just not sure that I really do have what it takes.

At first the cake came from a box. Add an egg, maybe some milk, and Betty Crocker did the rest. Although the cakes were from a box, people raved about how they tasted. The cake was moist and flavorful, much better than any “box” cake they had ever tasted. My wife felt a little guilty, and decided to attempt cakes from scratch.

To my dimwitted and un-learned palate, a “box” cake was the same as a cake from scratch, only easier and cheaper. Having now sampled the real thing, in excess, I must confess, I am now startlingly aware of the glaring differences.

The buzz word “authenticity” comes to my mind. We are all seeking it, and we all notice it’s absence. It’s an epidemic in churches and ministries. We are all sucking down the boxed cakes, mostly satisfied with the product, but when we get a sample of something real and authentic, we soon regurgitate the dry flavorless offerings that once seemed so tasty.

Do we really need another box church? Seriously. Requisite PowerPoint. Youthful, enthusiastic worship team, probably now a worship band because bands are cooler, duh. Brand name coffee in the hipster-driven entryway, where it’s cool to talk loudly to one another as the first worship songs play, leaning in to shout into the other person’s ear, club-style.

There isn’t anything wrong with this. It works. It really works. It works so well the places are crowded, and the same empty chatter that accompanies lattes, and decorative summer-time knit caps, in coffee shops, becomes the same inane, hollow chatter filling the church walls.

Or maybe it’s a committee meeting about how the annoying youth kids keep bringing refreshments (and if you call them refreshments, we know your hair is gray and your couch is covered in plastic) into the newly carpeted sanctuary and narthex. It’s not about bringing more kids into the ancient church building to hear ancient hymns played on an ancient organ, it’s about protecting the facilities. Mowing the lawn. Preserving the space. It’s about order. It’s about rules. It’s just a box of religion.

Both end up accomplishing the same thing. It’s just a box. It’s not homemade. It’s not authentic. We may not articulate that feeling we get in our guts. The taste is good, familiar, but we remember times when we’ve tasted something better. Hints of times long past and never regained. Times of small gatherings, intimate settings, and homemade fellowship waft in our minds like a pleasant, memory-infused aroma.

This is why mission trips are so powerful. They feel authentic. The box has been recycled and what remains is a small group of people living the challenging call of Christ. This is why small groups work so well. The genuine, homemade, hand-crafted life drama you’ll taste in a small group, will leave you hungry for more. It will cast a glaring light on the boxed Christianity so many of us have been stuck masticating.

Non-Christians see it. They reject it rapidly. The world is tired of being told they’ve got it all wrong, when we can’t prove to them we’ve got anything right. We are feeding them box cakes, and they spit it into our faces. Instead of doing the work in the kitchen, we keep running into the dinning room with the next quick fix, the next tasty vessel of empty calories, but they’ve caught on, and the meals are being sent back to the kitchen. Even the servers are getting tired of the same old fare.

Jesus fed us nothing out of a box. His daily bread is homemade all day, every day. Stop feeding a hungry world bull shit from a box. Tell them the truth. The ugly, scarred, bloody, puss-filled truth about you, and who are you, and who you’ll never be.

Be homemade, and leave the box Christianity on the shelf where it belongs.

I sat down with my guitar today to sing to God, and what came out was a song, one of the more honest songs I’ve ever written, called “Secretly Suicidal.”

Here are the words:

Seize this moment before it seizes you, breathe in deep swallow it down
Seize the day before it runs you through, it’ll hold your head like a bully to the ground
And I believe we have to ask ourselves some questions
“Are we just slaves to death?
Are we waiting for the end, secretly suicidal?
Why are we?”

Day to day, looking for the next distraction, searching for that next release
Wake each morning, praying that the day
Praying that the day might bring some peace
And I believe I have to ask myself some questions
“Am I just another slave to death?
Am I waiting for my end, secretly suicidal?
Why am I awake?”

Because we’ve been waiting so long to die
Looking forward to that moment, when the vile arms of death are open wide
I don’t want to live like the dead anymore
I don’t want to walk like the dead anymore
I want to know what you’ve got in store for me

Lift our heads, Lift our eyes. . .
Lift our gaze away from all around that dies

I wrote that while dwelling on the way I interact with God. The truth is, when I’m honest, I’m often desperately looking for it to all end. To finally be done working. To crash. To rest. I guess I’ve had a secret love affair with death.

With all of  this comes a desperate desire to please God. I want so bad to make Him happy. I want to be worth something to the Church. I don’t want to be dead weight.

But a deeper problem is my desire for pain. Now this is where I need you guys to be honest with me and yourselves. Let’s look at the definition:

I sense He is pleased with the scene, this comfortable setting commonplace in 2012 American culture, but His calling has not changed. Not for me.

I instantly see, in my mind’s eye, a sea of black faces. Poverty. Mud huts. I’m pulled back to reality at the sound of my wife laughing at something, and fight the urge to answer Christ’s call with, “I don’t want to leave.”

************

Kids are crying. As they hug each other, they whisper promises. They exchange e-mails and addresses. They intend to be lifelong pen pals – and they mean it.

The year was 2005, and I was one of the leaders on a youth mission trip to Romania. We ministered in a gypsy village, took bread to the hungry in a concrete block apartment complex, and performed puppet skits for kids living in squalor. And when our time on foreign soil was up, our youth, the very ones who grimaced at the homeless outside the airport shortly after we arrived, who cried the first few days because they missed their amenity-lavished homes, didn’t want to leave.

They had gotten a brief glimpse of the life God calls us to live – a life lived for others. And they weren’t looking forward to returning to a self-absorbed existence.

************

Third Option Men will be heading to Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua this summer. Each trip will have a slightly different focus, but the same three common denominators: it will be hot, it will cost you, and you will have to leave your comfort zone. Should you decide to step out in faith, and join other men answering a divine call, or simply seeking adventure, it is my experience that you will not regret it. Not for a second.

Keep in mind, the mission field doesn’t exist solely on foreign soil. It truly is anywhere you are; your neighborhood, office, gym and fast food hangouts are waiting to be harvested. Jesus paints a geographical picture for how the disciples were to spread their faith:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” – Acts 1:8

Notice the gradual, outward gradation? They were in Jerusalem when Christ relayed this prophesy to them. Translation: start where you are. As men of God, this means our homes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but nowhere is the Holy Spirit’s power needed, like in the realm of family. This is where life lessons, the good, bad and ugly, are taught – with and without words.

God help us lead our families down the narrow path. Let us be the examples you’ve called us to be. And when it’s time to spread Your love to others, wherever that need may be, may Your Spirit give us boldness, especially when we don’t want to leave.

About three hours later I was sitting at my desk, working on some paperwork, and I rested my face against my hand. Suddenly I got a faint whisper of my wife’s perfume. I was whisked back to this morning and that sweet embrace. Over the next couple of hours I moved my hand to my face to breathe in the essence of the love of my life. It was just a whiff of perfume, but it reminded me of her and all that she means to me.

My wife is very special to me. We have been through thick and thin, mostly me being thick and her being thin! We have had times when we had nothing, yet we held on. Everything we’ve gone through could have torn us apart, but it has brought us closer together. Her perfume was a sweet reminder that I have no closer friend on earth, and no person who means more to me. The scent became a way of being with her.

In the same way, Christians are a supposed to be a whiff of God everywhere they go. As we walk the hallways at work, school, or even Wal-Mart, a faint vapor trail that reminds others of the God we serve should follow us wherever we go.

“Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.  Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.” (2 Corinthians 2:14,15)

When you pass among the people you see each day, and even the ones you don’t see, what is their impression? When they see you, who do they see? Are you representing God and his love for you and for the world by the things you say and do? Can the world smell Jesus on you?

Imagine eating at a burger restaurant. As you walk in the front door the scent of onions, fresh baked bread and grilled burgers draws you in and makes you even hungrier. You order a huge bacon cheeseburger and fries and sit at the table in anticipation, the great aroma making you hungrier and hungrier. When your burger finally lands in front of you, you raise it to your lips, and take a big bite, expecting a carnivorous nirvana. Instead, you got a mouthful of half done meat that tastes like it had been left on the counter too long. What a disappointment! The aroma and the reality didn’t line up.

So what are you? A whiff of sweet perfume that reminds others of a great Savior, or a burger that smells great but doesn’t quite live up to its promise? It’s up to you.

Basking in the scent of my wife’s perfume… Jerry

More bad news? If you have an avocado-colored refrigerator, wood paneling, shag carpet or orange countertops, your home is going to need some serious renovations before you can sell it.

If you are anything like me, the speed things change is pretty overwhelming. My dad is a lawyer who refuses to use e-mail most of the time, and he may still have a fax machine that uses that weird paper that came on rolls. It’s almost impossible to keep up with the iPad or the smartphone, or all of the apps that are available for each of them, since they are in a constant state of flux.

Here’s the worst news of all. If you still define men’s ministry as a Saturday morning breakfast or Bible Study, then you might as well stick a fork in it, because it’s done. Times have changed, and so have men. Maybe you’ve noticed that, no matter how many times you invite someone to a men’s event, it’s the precise day that he has to mow the grass, coach soccer or do his hair?

Craig Groeshel, pastor of Oklahoma City’s Lifechurch.tv and creator of the YouVersion Bible smartphone application, just tweeted last week that the YouVersion “app” was opened 43 times per second in January 2012. That’s 2,850 times per minute. That should give you a pretty good indication of how today’s man is spending time in the Word.

What’s even more compelling is that men are often connected to a church, yet completely disconnected from Jesus, the Word, and other men. You ask how this can happen? Simple. We are totally missing the mark when it comes to reaching men. Men are moving at Mach 2 and we are still building propeller airplanes for them. They see no value in what we are doing, so they don’t show up.

Let’s put this in sports terminology for a minute. I live in Tampa Bay, Florida, and I am not a hockey fan. In spite of winning the Stanley Cup in 2004, I just can’t get into the Lightning. If a guy I barely knew offered me a ticket, I would probably pass. Now if that same guy offered me a ticket to see the Florida Gators play football, I’m going. Period. Now if a good friend invited me to that same Lightning game, I would probably take him up on it, just to hang out with him. The difference is obvious. There is a relationship there which transcends whether I enjoy what I’m about to attend.

In ministry, we have this misconception that it’s all about the “what” we’re doing, and not the “who” we’re doing it with. Now I am a pretty big Bible reader, but if a guy who I barely know invites me to a 32-week study of Leviticus, I can assure you that I will be mowing the yard. Yet this is what we do as men’s ministry people year after year. It’s really the definition of insanity personified. Shame on us.

Yes, I truly believe that the Word is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword (Heb 4:12). I absolutely believe that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). It’s not the Word that has changed, but much like an 8-track or a VHS tape, we absolutely must change the way we are getting men exposed to the Word of God. They are ready, but our methods are archaic and we are losing men fast.

If we want to get guys to know each other, and Jesus, then it’s time to catch up to them. It’s time to create avenues where men can just be real and get to know each other. Keep it short, meet real needs and encourage men to accept others. Once they trust us, then God will inspire them to spend time with Him, too. And that’s Good News!

We have two guests weighing in with their thoughts, and welcome any comments you might have concerning their viewpoints.

There is a major buzz taking place in the Christian community (as well as the world at large – thanks to an appearance on GMA this week) over the new book by noted author and pastor of Mars Hill Church – Rob Bell. The book is called Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Many believe the book endorses Universalism (The theory that everyone will ultimately end up in heaven.) I haven’t read the book and I probably won’t line Bell’s pockets with my money. I have read enough reviews and have heard enough of Bell’s interviews and videos promoting the book to get a pretty good take on what he’s doing. I have yet to hear him say that he doesn’t believe hell exists or that he is a Universalist. What he does is raise questions and then leaves them unanswered. What he does is take scripture out of context and misapplies it. In fact it appears as though he takes great joy in doing so. And it is a morally reprehensible thing to do!

You see, this world is looking for answers! For me, that’s what the Bible is – It’s an answer book. I’m not saying it answers all my questions, but it answers the ones that truly matter. To undermine that and rob (no pun intended) people with serious questions about life, death and eternity of the certainties God has provided is inexcusable. It may sell books, and it may pack out auditoriums but it blatantly disregards many of God’s direct commands!

“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. 11 You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Titus 3:9-11

God’s Word makes it clear that Satan is the author of confusion. It seems he has enlisted the help of one of the most gifted communicators of our time to write what promises to be one of the best sellers of confusion that’s come along in quite a while!

Oh that scandalous grace.

We’ve been in the business of drawing lines for a long time.  When Jesus came along, the questions were, who is pure and who is a sinner?  Who is allowed in the temple and who must remain on the outer edges?  The people posing the questions were the religious elite, the ones holding onto the fact that God was on their side of the line.  But Jesus stepped in and said, “I know how things have been done around here.  But I am here to show you that things are about to change.  You see these lines you drew?  Forget ‘em.  I came for the sick, not the well.”

Everyone here knows the meaning of the symbolic tearing of the curtain.  God was tearing down the barriers.  Where God had been available only to a select few, God was declaring He was for everyone.

Even after Jesus, history is full of God being closely guarded by the religious elite.  Martin Luther comes to mind.  When Luther nailed his letter to the door declaring that people have a direct line to God and no longer have to go through the church channels, he was blasted as a heretic.  Those on the inside were indignant.  Those on the outside celebrated the good news.

We’re still asking the same questions today.  Who gets it and who doesn’t?  Who is in and who is out?  And it is still the religious elite talking about all the people on the wrong side of the line.  We take our verses and make our arguments and draw the lines all over again.

We celebrate the tearing of the curtain while we stitch it back together.  We say, “God is not contained in the temple anymore, but you still have to come over here where we are to get Him.”

The Pharisees just knew that God was going to destroy their enemies, make Israel powerful, and return God’s chosen people to glory.  They even had a long list of verses backing that up, verses that said exactly those things.  Then Jesus came along and said, “Let me show you what this really means.”  And today we think how silly the Pharisees were.  Maybe it’s possible that the verses we quote go deeper than what we intend them for.

All that to say, I have no problem with Rob Bell posing some tough questions.  Whether or not he is right isn’t exactly the point.  The point is, as Christians we should be okay with challenging our lines of thinking and the depths of our own faith.  I am not saying anything goes, but we should be comfortable enough in our relationship with God to risk some critical thinking.  Why should it enrage us to think that perhaps, just maybe, God might have a few surprises waiting for us when we get to the other side?  What if God decided that He was going to pursue people’s hearts even after death?  We believe in Good News.  Might that actually be good news to a whole lot of people?

I like Rob Bell.  I really do.  I read Velvet Elvis a number of years back and proceeded to listen to as many of his podcasts and sermons as I could.  He is a great communicator who has an ability to make people look at things that have become common simply from overexposure, and turn them into thought-provoking, challenging, and deeply meaningful messages.

If I get the gist right, Rob Bell is simply saying that there is a lot of mystery to God, and we should embrace that fact.  The idea that love wins does not necessarily mean that everyone will make it into Heaven, but that while our actions and decisions on earth matter, God’s love is going to do the same thing it has always done; amaze us.

Fred doesn’t have any use for mysterious beings that are higher than him. He can’t put his hands on it, he has never seen evidence, never touched them, so he doesn’t believe. “If you can prove to me that there is something greater than me, I will believe it. But until I can comprehend it with my mind, until I can figure it out, I refuse to believe it exists.”

Just a few feet from where Fred lives, something he can’t even imagine is going on. The being that he doesn’t think exists is getting dressed for work, eating dinner with his wife and going about his daily routine. Just because Fred doesn’t understand or comprehend what he does doesn’t mean that he doesn’t exist.

Fred is an earthworm in my backyard. He would be totally shocked to find out that I am living just a few feet from him. He would be awestruck to find out that I have legs and move by walking. Cars, television and toasters would mystify him beyond his wildest dreams. The fact that Fred can’t figure me out doesn’t mean that I don’t exist and doesn’t diminish my life. It just means that Fred doesn’t have the capacity to fully understand someone like me.

John Wesley put it best, “Show me a worm who can comprehend a man, and I will show you a man who can comprehend God.” Just as it would be arrogance for Fred to deny my existence simply because his tiny brain can’t figure me out, so it is arrogance for people to say that there is no God simply because they can’t wrap their mind around it.

God is not diminished by unbelief. He is still just as magnificent, just as powerful, just as amazing. God isn’t diminished, but your life is. You’re missing out on the greatest thing that can happen to you, a relationship with the God who sent His own Son for you. It truly is amazing.

Deep within the core of the sun, the temperature is 27 million degrees. The pressure is 340 billion times what it is here on Earth. And in the sun’s core, that insanely hot temperature and unthinkable pressure combine to create nuclear reactions. In each reaction, 4 protons fuse together to create 1 alpha particle, which is .7 percent less massive than the 4 protons. The difference in mass is expelled as energy, and after one million years, through a process called convection, this energy from the core of the sun finally reaches the surface, where it’s expelled as heat and light.

Now that was all kind of interesting, but you know what? I didn’t need to know all that in order to get a tan! If you are one of the people out there who just can’t figure out God, quit trying. You don’t really need to understand God to worship Him.

Getting a tan and digging up Fred… Jerry