Which rhetoric would you be drawn to?

OR




I'm partial to the Hymns and this Hymn "Softly and Tenderly" speaks such a gentle and truthful invitation for someone to commit to Christ. I don't know about you, but I would much be drawn to wanting to step foot into the house of worship that sings this song and doesn't have a sign like the above. It's the difference between the Truth "punch in the face" and the Truth "hug of love." Your thoughts?

ChristopherMoeller.com is now my blog!

Interesting thing. All this time I have owned www.ChristopherMoeller.com and had a website on it for the last three years. Traffic? What's Traffic? ;-) The webhosting contract came to a close this month and I thought, what should I do? I'm like.. Free is better than Not-free, so I said goodbye to my website and hello to my blog as the new www.ChristopherMoeller.com. Here it is!! Welcome if you've come because of my Tweet.

Here's an interesting fact. Apparently Christopher Moeller (not me) is a famous Anime' artist... Unfortunately he didn't jump on the website domain name thing as soon as I did. Unfortunate for me that I receive occasional emails for autographs on some picture of a dragon. Hmm...

Peace!
Moellerd

I'm sure you'll enjoy this

Ever heard of the idea that if you have an irrational fear of something, the best way to get over it is to meet your fear face to face? Well, apparently not. This poor lady's fear of falling just got worse.

Umm... Thoughts

So I haven't blogged in a while. So since I owe my two readers an update I figured I'd try to make it a humorous one.
I walked by a safety pin on the ground yesterday that was opened. I thought to myself: "was 'safety' really the first word that came to mind when describing those little spring loaded things?" I'm pretty sure the safety pin naming committee failed miserably.
The coffee machine here at work has a button for "cafe latte" and a button for "cappuccino" however, it does not matter which button you press, because the same drink comes out. I've tasted it, I'm a coffee snob... it's the same.
I recently discovered that Sharpie makes a pen that doesn't "bleed through." Congratulations! It still doesn't make up for the countless ruined desks and art projects or Goodness, what happens when one of those markers goes through the wash.
When I see a label on an article of clothing that says, "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" pretty much translates as "I will never wash this."
The worst place to get a zit is in the cleft of your nostril. Enough said.
I eat lunch with Junior High students occasionally at the school here at work, and I'm convinced that if I were in the stock market, I'd invest in Zumiez and PacSun. Studded belt anyone?
I think it's fair to say that the baseball cap no longer serves the purpose of which it was named.
The pinnacle of an awkward conversation is the point where you were in the middle of what you were saying forgetting where you were going and recovering instinctively with looking at your phone as if you got a text message and then looking up and saying, "so. yeah.."
It is always awkward when you just get done going up a few flights of stairs in a hurry for a meeting and then trying to cover up your out-of-shapeness and nearly suffocating to death.
I peeled the game label off of my fast food cup today and it read: INSTANT WIN and then below said:"not an instant winner." Boy if that isn't the cherry on my sundae!
All in all, I can't help but be sarcastic about some things. It really helps get through the day with a tinge of humor. Enjoy

moellerd

Forever Reminders

Are there some things in your life that you constantly are reminded and will be forever of either an event that occurred or a truth about something? Let me clear that up with an example. Most people, when they want to rebel or make a statement, will get a tattoo. I decided not to do the tattoo thing, but go a step further and get branded. I got a cross branded over my heart on my chest. Hurt? Yes. Worth it? I think so. Reversible? No. That brand will be on my chest forever and every time I look at it, I'll be reminded of why I got it. To make a statement of my salvation and not rebellion.

I want to jump back into the story of Noah to point to a "forever reminder" that the Lord made with Noah. This reminder is something that we now take for granted and even defile in our world today: The rainbow. Why is the rainbow the symbol for homosexuality? Why would something, which we will see as a sign of God's covenant, defiled in such a way? Why is the rainbow associated with leprechauns? The rainbow, seen in a simple, harmless, majestic, and somewhat weak connotation is anything but that.

In Genesis 9, the rainbow was God's forever reminder, otherwise known as a covenant, that He would never destroy all mankind again with a flood. The rainbow is a sign of peace really. It is not just a scientific wonder, but a faithful reminder of God's love and patience with mankind forever!

9:12-17 "And God said, "this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it an remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.""

If you are ever in a place where you're wondering how God is present and faithful even in an evil and awful world, look up after the storm and see the rainbow. We are so blessed by the seeing of a rainbow because God is keeping his covenant. There are other covenants that the Lord made with different kings and people in the Bible, but this one, alongside of the Abrahamic covenant (descendants being like the sand of the seashore), is the most evident even today! Let us hold fast to our devotion to a faithful God!

~Moellerd

Noah: Obedience=Faith

I'm amazed sometimes at how impatient our world can be. They make coffee machines now, one of which I have, that take these pre-packaged pods and make a cup in under a minute! Is it really to much to way the 10 min or so that it takes to make a whole pot which, in its entirety, costs a fraction of what one of those pods costs? Anyways, our earth is so impatient, and our reflection today is how patience and obedience go hand in hand. And both of those together go hand in hand with our faith.

There are many different passages that we could go here on this subject, including Galatians 5 and the fruits of the Spirit, James 2 and the working out of faith, or even the whole book of Romans centered around the idea of "obedience of faith" (Roman 1:5, 16:26). But the passage I want to focus on today is the story of Noah and the flood. Carrying right along with our journey through Genesis, as it seems, we backtrack from my prior post on Babel and return to the story of Noah's amazing faith evident in his patience and obedience.

In Genesis 6:13-21 God approaches Noah with His plan of destroying mankind on the earth because of Evil and for Noah, the one person who found favor in God's eyes, to build this massive structure we call and ark. The key verse in this passage is in verse 22, "Noah did this; he did all that God had commanded him..."

I feel like I would be a little more hesitant, like, "Now God, can't we talk about this? You want to destroy the whole earth? Really? Can't we work something out?" Or perhaps... "That's a little big God, that's going to take me a long time to build, what about something maybe a little more family friendly, and perhaps, less zoo?" I'd like to say I'd do what Noah did, but I live in a culture that is so impatient and in a mindset of "if it's an inconvenience to me, I don't want to do it..." However, I believe, even in my fallen nature and humbled state while reading this passage, I can say I'm glad God picked Noah and not me for that task.

We need to learn from Noah in this simple thing of his agreeing to do this. The fact that he didn't respond like the above points out two things: 1.) he agrees with the Lord on the state of the world and is completely on board with the plan. Noah did not question the Lord. That's something we should really take to heart in this passage. 2.) he did exactly what the Lord said, the first time. His obedience here show's his fear of the Lord which surpassed the fear of what the world thought of him building this structure, as well as the fear of what was to come. Obedience comes from a fear of God, something we all need more of.

Where does patience come in? And how does patience and obedience go hand in hand? Turn ahead to 8: 13-18. Noah sent out the dove and it did not return back. So what did he do? He opened up the covering of the ark and checked for himself, sure enough, the waters subsided and the earth was dry! Perfect!! Let's get off this naturally assumed to be extremely potent smelling ark! Nope, he stayed on for another month and a half! Why? The earth was dry? Why stay on the ark? Because the Lord didn't tell him to get off yet! Talk about patience AND obedience. Noah knew that God knew what he was doing, so he didn't want to do anything to hinder God's timing. He waited for another month and half while knowing the ground was dry, so that he would be obedient to the Lord. And that's what happened. The Lord in the 2nd month told him that he was now allowed to get off the ark with all the animals and thus the story continues from there.

Patience, Obedience and Faith. Noah's faith was so evident in this story. Why? Because he was patient: 100 years building an ark with no rain, much less flood waters, as well as the torment those around him were probably giving him about building it. Obedience in the fact that he did it. They all point to the fact that he Feared the Lord and did exactly what God said! Why? FAITH.

Let us go about our day today making our faith evident using Noah as our example. Let us be patient with others. Let us be obedient to authority and to the Word of God. Let us be known by the same phrase that Noah was known by: "and he did just as the Lord had commanded."

~Moellerd

Loving Prevention Part 2: Babel

One of the things I love about being in the Chicagoland area is the fact that many cultures and races of people live here. I used to be the music director at Harvest Bible Chapel in Niles, IL, a suburb very close to downtown. Something I'll never forget there was the fact that I, being Caucasian and an English speaker, was the minority. I loved that when I walked through the lobby, the first language I'd hear was Polish, or perhaps Spanish. Our service was translated into both of those languages as well. It makes me reflect on how our differing languages started.

Language barriers are just that, barriers. As cool as it was to have a very diverse church family in Niles, the fact of the matter is, having a language barrier makes things difficult sometimes. It's almost as if God wanted us to have a difficult time working internationally, or dealing with people who aren't American. But the truth is, even the creation of language differentiation was another one of God's intention to prevent out of LOVE! God always has a loving intention because God IS love (1Jn. 4:16). In the previous blog, I wrote on God's loving intention in the circumstance of man being banished from the Garden of Eden. Eight Chapters later, we now see another circumstance where God's love is the motivation behind what we could quickly call an inconvenience.

Genesis 11:5-7 "And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."

Have you ever looked at this passage, like I have before, and thought, "awe man! why did God have to do that!? Now I'm stuck having to take Spanish in school." I mean, why did God really feel the need to have to confuse the languages of the people, they were just building a tower weren't they?

The context of the passage is that the whole earth prior to God's confusion of the language was completely uniform in words and speech. The people were realizing that they were starting to become fairly populated and great in number. Naturally, since humans are pride driven more often than not, they wanted to make sure that before they got too big that they made sure the rest of the world after them would recognize the amazing feat of which they were to accomplish of a "capital" with a huge tower. The tower was meant to be so large that it reached the heavens giving them divine status. The Lord saw this and out of Love came down and prevented them from doing this.

A loving intention became a grand prevention of rebellion. See, the omniscient Lord knew what a sinful humanity was capable of unified: "and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."(vs6) By confusing and scattering humanity in this famous historical event, the Lord prevented humanity from uniting in sinful desires. A whole world of humans united against the Lord is a rebellion that the Lord prevented with his act of Love.

This sets up perfectly for what was to come in His Son Jesus, who would, in His truth and promise, reverse the effect of the Tower of Babel by opening the door to all nations to receive the membership to the eternal life club. The Gospel going out to all nations is God's love in action by saying, "remember how I had to split you up so that you wouldn't combine and rebel against me, now you can join together in my family and reap the benefits and enjoy my free gift to you: Life everlasting!"

Back to my experience in Niles, IL, I rejoice now seeing God's reversal of the Tower of Babel for His glory by the many cultures, tongues and peoples coming together to do nothing but lift high the name of Jesus Christ and proclaim His truth throughout the world! Till one day the ultimate reversal of Babel will occur when we all together will join in and praise, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!" (Rev 7:9-12)

Let's stay eternally focused, and not stress or worry about the small things today that seem inconvenient but may be a way that God lovingly intended for Good, and ultimately to give glory to Him and Him alone!

~Moellerd

Banished from Eden= God's Love

I remember growing up and thinking after I heard the story of Adam and Eve that God must have been super angry and in His anger punished Adam and Eve by not letting them stay in the Garden of Eden. In my eyes, as a child, I thought that banishing them from the garden was no different than getting your gameboy taken away because you slapped your sister. The interesting thing is that was not understood in my part was the fact that God's love in the punishment of Adam and Eve was the most evident of any of His attributes.
Genesis 3:22-24 is the passage at hand here. It says, "Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life..."
The first thing that we understand from this passage is that man had sinned and it was for this reason that they were banished. "Knowing good and evil" means directly disobeying God's command not to eat of the fruit. Man was now stained with sin and it turns from there into a downward spiral for the rest of mankind. The "curse" of sin, as it is called, affects every aspect of the human life both physical and emotional. You see this in the form of "pain of childbirth" and "in pain you shall eat" in 3:16,17. Sin is painful. Physical pain and hardship are thus a result of the fall of man. Think of what this means in regards to man being banished from the Garden. We'll come back to that.
Another thing that we know as a result of the fall of man is physical death. 3:19 says "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Think of what this means in regards to man being banished from the Garden!
How is it a loving thing that God banished man from the Garden, having trees and provision for food, and making them live outside of it and work the ground for food and deal with the pain of sin and eventually die? First thought, do we deserve anything better than that? No. Disobedience doesn't merit entitlement. Second thought, what does the passage say why God did this? God did not banish man from the garden for those reasons, he banished them from the garden so that they wouldn't do something stupid by eating from the tree of life! "Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever..." The key phrase in there is the "live forever" phrase. What's so bad about that? Here it is: Living forever in their current state, would be AWFUL. Why? because they are sinful. Forever sinful means no possibility for deliverance from sin.
No one can look at the book of Genesis, much less this passage specifically and say that God didn't have a plan for salvation from the beginning! Genesis 3:15 is a direct reference to Christ's defeating Satan, but this passage 3:22-24 is the first move by an omnipotent God in the chess game of life that points towards Christ. It was as if God said... "you're not going to like this, but I love you so much that I can't bear to allow you to ruin your chance to meet my son and live forever indeed, but WITHOUT sin!"
What I thought long ago was God's way of punishment out of anger was actually God's love in prevention. The Grace of God that prevents us from Death is seen here in this passage and revealed throughout the rest of scripture leading to the most magnificent act of grace: Jesus Christ's sacrifice.
How much better would life be if we understand God's LOVING intentions on all of His works, and forget of our ill-conceived ideas of the "big guy who punishes people." Let us live our lives today knowing that every circumstance that we go through, be it trial or vacation that we would see God's loving plan of salvation through it all and constantly be reminding ourselves of what he did on the Cross. Always come back to the Cross of Christ where our sins as scarlet were washed away making us white as snow.
Glory to God

~Moellerd

I'm Getting Married in 11 days

I just want to take this time right now to let the 2 followers that I have know that I tie the knot in 11 days. I'm pumped and so blessed! God has gifted me with a phenomenal woman of God who continues to amaze me each day with her heart.
I also wanted to share a praise with yall about the blessing it is to have overwhelming support by all of my friends and family in this time and into our marriage. I am so amazed at God's faithfulness in our relationship and to top it off having our friends and family encourage us and build us up is such an amazing blessing. I really can't describe how God's love has shown through all of our friends who are standing behind us. God is good, and I want everyone to know it.
Jesus is Lord of my and my fiancee's life and I hope He is of yours too. With Jesus as our foundation we may hit weather but won't be shaken.

Peace!
Moellerd

On Death's Doorstep

Just a few days ago my wonderful fiancee and I were traveling to Ft. Wayne Indiana to celebrate our coming marriage with my extended family. The day started out delightful, working at church and then leaving early at lunch to make the 3 hour trip to Indiana. This 3 hour trip ended up being more like 5 hours. The first reason for this was Memorial Day traffic going into downtown Chicago. The second reason was something that will end up changing our perception of the fragility of life.
Traffic was finally picking up out on 80/90 past Gary Indiana when we made the exit onto 49 going south. We would only be on this road 9 miles but ended up taking us 45 minutes. Why? Because of witnessing the most horrific thing I think I've ever seen.
I was in the middle of calling my aunt telling her we were about 2 hours away when I had to hang up the phone. The Lincoln Navigator directly in front of my car, going 65mph, was starting to go off the road toward the median. Both Carolyn and I noticed it at the same time and immediately started that nervous, "what on earth are they doing?" inhale through our teeth. What happened next would end up being burned onto our brains for the rest of our lives. The SUV hits the rumble strip and the driver apparently realizes at that moment she was going off the road. Instead of slowly correcting, she jerked the wheel, overcompensating, throwing the car out of control at this highway speed. The car swerved right and then left and then right again going completely perpendicular to the direction we were traveling. The driver's side wheels caught on the road and then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The SUV flipped crushing the driver's side windows and continuing all the way over. On the up turn at about 50mph we see the driver hanging out of the window half way and then flung from the vehicle, landing in the median. The SUV continued about 50 feet more stopping in the median right-side up. There was debris all over the road as if a suitcase exploded. Glass was everywhere and the woman driver was laying motionless in the median. We had not time to think but only act. By God's grace we both kicked into action and ran out to the woman. At the same time her two girls (about 10 and 12yrs old) ran from the SUV screaming and in utter fright. "Call 911!!MOMMY!!" I immediately got my phone out and called 911 but didn't know, in the moment, where we were. The truck driver who stopped behind me took the phone and told the dispatcher exactly where we were. Carolyn during this time took both of the girls in her loving embrace and comforted them and told them "it's ok, everything is going to be ok..." I ran over to the SUV to check to see if anyone else was in the car. A few guys and myself had to get the keys out of the still running SUV for fear of an explosion. The doors couldn't be opened and the whole cabin was crushed in. The mother laying on the ground was in shock but responsive, bleeding profusely from various areas. She was fading in and out and her girls were yelling "Keep praying momma! Keep praying!" I asked the girls if they were believers and if we could pray with them. They said, "yes, we are.. please pray.." The paramedics took them before we were able to pray together, but we were all praying individually that whole day. It was amazing, the first ambulance was there within 3 minutes. The police were there shortly after and being the first person on the scene, I had to write out the witness statement for the police. They loaded the three up in the ambulances and rushed off to the hospital. Carolyn was left with blood all over her from the little girls crying into her.
During that time with the girls, they used my phone to try to get a hold of their father. He wasn't answering, but eventually they got through. Carolyn and I, about a half hour later got back in the car and drove off. We prayed for all three of them, especially for Megan and Kirsten, who being so young saw their mother on death's doorstep.
The next day, I received a phone call from an unknown number. It was the father of the girls. "Is this the man who stopped and comforted my girls during the accident yesterday?" I said, "yes, my fiancee and I were both there with them, How are they doing? How is your wife?" He then proceeded in tears to thank us for comforting and praying with the three most important woman in his life. He said that his girls were so comforted by Carolyn's sitting with them on the highway median and loving on them. He was so grateful. He said that his wife was stabilized after going through surgery to patch up a few areas that were rubbed down to the bone, but that she was going to be ok. He didn't have much time, but said he was going to call back in about a week to talk some more.
I am waiting eagerly for his phone call. I may even call him before he gets the chance and check in. He had mentioned that his girls said that we told them that we were believers and he so much appreciated that. "Normal people would have called 911 and driven off... you two stayed and comforted my girls..."
Normal doesn't cut it for me. And I hope it doesn't you either. The fact that we were able to be there for those girls is by God's grace and we were only doing what we are called to do as Christians, share Christ's love. I plan on laying out the gospel to this family in due time and I pray that God would give me the right words to speak and that their hearts are receptive to the good news. If they are already believers, praise the Lord that family could be there in their time of distress and how God brings people together.
Thank you Lord for preserving their lives, and preserving our lives eternally through Your son.

My Church!

Here's a video of the main campus of my church doing the song "Was it a Morning Like This" featuring Heather Headley. If you don't have her new gospel album yet, what's the matter with you!? www.heatherheadley.com Peace!


Was it a Morning Like This from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

Doubting (a dialogue)

A friend of mine sends me an email on his struggle with doubt. Here's the beginning of a dialogue where I sought to encourage him:

Hey dude!

Doubt is a common, yet very serious thing that a believer goes through. I've gone through many doubts in my time. Doubts of whether or not God is there, Doubts whether or not He's the only God out there.. Doubts on whether or not I'm truly saved. Doubts on whether or not I'm one of God's "chosen." All of which during my period of doubting I never really lost faith in the reality of each of them. I always knew that God existed, I always knew that he is the ONLY God in the universe and I always am affirmed of my salvation by the truth of the Gospel.
So the question remains. Why do we have doubts?
James pointed it out this weekend: Sin.

Our sin leads to guilt which leads to doubt.
The question of how to defeat doubt is growing your faith, like James said. "the opposite of Fear is Faith." Doubting is a form of fear; fear of the unknown if you will.
Growing your faith will help you in your battle with sin, which will also help you concurrently with your battle of guilt. Another thing that a growing faith will do, however, is point out OTHER areas in your life that need working on and are spots of guilt as well. Keep in mind that the Christian walk is not perfection, it is "increasing" towards Christ-likeness. What I mean by that is, someday when you may get over some of the doubts you have or defeat some of the struggles with sin that you are facing right now, your eyes will be opened to OTHER things in your life that have always been there, but not realized because of the other sins. So when those are brought out into the light as well, you are furthering your sanctification in an increasing way, though will not reach perfection until the day that Christ returns to take us home to heaven.

With doubt, the best way to get answers is getting in God's word. You will find that that is the answer to almost/if not every sin: go to God, and you have that ability and availability by his WORD (John 1:1)

With that said, what are some of your doubts? We can get through some of them together and study up on them etc. but ultimately man, you are the one who needs to make this a priority in your life to further your walk with the Lord. i.e. Study God's Word and TRUST in Him, even when you don't understand or don't have "solid" proof. Trust is not based on evidence, it's based on faith.Grow your time in God's word--> Grow your faith--> Grow your trust-->Dissolve your doubts.

God bless!
Moellerd

Coolest thing I've seen this week so far

Started saving already ;-)

googlebdfe896cb007661e.html

Research Papers

I just got a swift kick in the teeth today figuring out that in the next 4 weeks I have 4 research papers due. If I told people I wanted to finish off Moody Bible Institute with a bang, I apparently wasn't lying. It just so happened to work out that my final semester here would be packed with the 4 classes that have the major senior papers. One of my classes, on top of a research paper on the cessation of the sign gifts, is a doctrinal statement regarding where I stand on all of the church doctrines (oh that would be paper #5 ;-( ).
It's times like these where I reminisce on the days of old in high school where IF we had a research paper, it would be stretched out in a time period of a whole year where we would practically write the paper together as a class in specific sectional assignments of the paper. Oh yea, there would only be one "research" paper per year, not per class. There is a downside to the high school research papers though. I hated doing them because of all of the note cards that the teacher MADE you do. I'll be honest, coming to college and writing papers as if it's my business, I did the whole note card thing once for part of one paper before I realized that that was the WORST idea ever.
In college, I've written papers in the 20's of pages regarding topics that I actually got to pick and enjoy writing. For example: "Contemporary vs. Traditional Worship in Church..." Talk about a hidden war splitting the church today.
Or what about my paper on "Swearing and Profanity in the Dorms" which rebuked the fowl language in the dorms at Calvin College a CHRISTIAN school. That was a paper that stirred some personal conviction, focusing on Matt 12:36 which says, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken..."
I also did a 20+ page paper this last year on Behavioral Genetics and It's infiltration into the church. This paper focused on the effect that scientific study regarding "sin genes" is having on the church and positions that the church is taking on certain subjects. I'm rather disturbed in the fact that the church is growing more lenient on certain sins because of so-called "scientific discovery." For example, "Don't judge him, alcoholism runs in his family..." or "He has the gene for homosexuality, we shouldn't try to have him fight something that he can't win because it's entrained in his DNA makeup!" I have news for you. Why should it surprise us that science is finding what the Bible has told us for over 2000 years that OUR FLESH IS SINFUL! Now we have proof, scientific proof, that we are fighting an earthly and spiritual battle with our own flesh that is SINFUL! Doesn't take a rocket scientologist to put 2 and 2 together on that one.
Anyways... I have 4 more research papers to go for this last semester of my 5th year of my BS in Biblical Studies. I start tonight on a paper with a subject yet to be determined.
I owe a lot to a man named Carl Arkema for my paper writing passion. I didn't have it until my senior year of high school where this man, my government teacher, took me aside and said, "son, you don't know how to write a paper..." and then proceeded the rest of that year to work with me to write a paper. God put this man in my life to help me out with that which, I'll tell ya, really has made being a Biblical Literature and Biblical studies major a lot easier! God bless you Carl Arkema and God bless all of you few people who actually read my blog.

Moellerd

I mean, I can be lazy sometimes, but this??!!

Could the world get any lazier that we have to have this? Escalators are great an all, but honestly....
-moellerd

MBI Science videos of 1957!?

www.archive.org even had some videos from the school I'm currently at. Moody Bible Institute in 1957 had a series of science videos through the Moody Institute of Science. It Stars Iwrin Moon who even today has a building on campus named after him: The "moon" building. Enjoy this video!

This one Goes Out to my Dad

I recently discovered this website www.archive.org which contains all of the media that was produced many many years ago and is open source now because of copyright being expired! There's a lot of great stuff on here. In the next few weeks I'll give you some examples.. Peace
Moellerd

My Little Brother Grant

This is the story about my little brother Grant. Powerful testimony of staying faithful and strong through a storm. Enjoy.

~Moellerd.


GAW - Grant Grossman from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

I Will Not Stand For This!!!

It goes without saying that child drug abuse is a serious epidemic. Until recently this news has gone under the radar and has been secret for too long. It is time the world sees the underground child drug ring and puts an end to it. This video was just released by a concerned father who caught on tape for the first time his 6 year old son "tripping out." Help this concerned father. Help the child victims of this underground drug regime and for heaven's sake put an end to child drug abuse!

I Echo This Prayer by Billy Graham

I received this in an email from my mom, who I love dearly. Thanks mom for this..

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

My Favorite Super Bowl 2009 ads

This last weekend brought up yet another year of great advertisements for the Super Bowl. I'd decided to give you my top four.. Enjoy ;-) Moellerd.

A Little Random One Liners for my Lil' Bro Grantie G

No, this is no rap artist. No, he is not a famous still life artist either.. Neither is he a garbage truck driver, or an ice cream salesman. He has never once sold a parrot for a cracker nor has he eaten alligator meat. His name is not Bill, or Susan, or Tom, or George. His face is not big, nor small, nor wide, or tall. His knowledge of elevators is quite impressive not to mention his acute sense of smell. The man once known as a legend is quite certainly not a legend but the map itself. Follow this man and find a prize. Stand too close and it'll bring tears to your eyes. His cheerful hello and a happy goodbye; a fruit cup here and a putting on the side, takes its rightful place down memory lane with a can of orange juice concentrate mixed ever so effortlessly with a wooden spoon. How do you know him, some people ask. I simply reply without room to be sly, but the mood turns and a baby will cry, when I say, don't know, nor don't know why. How could it be, that so effortlessly, a young man follows his heart? A look toward the sky with a bright morning sigh takes a turn for the worse when a raindrop falls in my eye. I think, wow, what a tie, random and dry from the humor that is and can't always be. How funny? How random? How weird? That's me.

Football and Canceling Church

This video cracked me up! Thanks to Luke MacDonald for making my day with finding this video about a church who has canceled its evening service on account of the superbowl. Enjoy


Super Bowl Promo 2009 from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Let's Mean What We Sing

This is an interesting video of my pastor, James MacDonald, speaking on the reason why Harvest Bible Chapel does not sing particular songs. As one of the music directors at this church, I am asked a lot about the song choices and how songs are picked. Questions like, "Will you ever sing this song?" or "Why don't you sing this song?" or "Can you sing this song for me?" Hopefully this can clear up some questions about that.

Peace!
Moellerd

How Did I Get Into Gospel Music?

This excerpt from the mid 90's movie "Sister Act 2" is partly responsible for getting the ball rolling on my love of Gospel Choir music. This kid's name is Ryan Toby. Unfortunate he didn't go onto actually doing this genre of music. Enjoy.

Moellerd

Are You Offended?

This is a pretty interesting and powerful message targeting American Christianity. In my opinion, we need more preachers like this in the world, who really point out the severity of the situation! My goodness, we have a pandemic in this country if 70% of it claims the name "Christian" and we kill over 4000 babies a day!(just as an example) Are you kidding Me!? I hope your not offended, but if you are, start some personal reflection.
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless, of course, you fail the test?"
(2 Cor 13:5)

Peace!
Moellerd

Last Semester of School

I am just a few days away from starting my last semester of school. I'm so ready to be done with school that I've done something drastic. I heard that if you donate a kidney during your last semester of your senior year at the school I go to, you are exempt from the remainder of the year via the "self sacrifice clause."
From the student handbook:
"If a student is in his/her last semester of their last year and is put in the position to save a life donating a body organ, and carries through with the procedure, that student is given exemption from remaining class work and academic standing through graduation. We believe that generosity in this manner gives the student a great opportunity to show the example of Christ by giving of themselves to someone who needs it. We believe that this experience will provide great sermon content for the student's future ministry and thus the school will reward with academic exemption those students who are given this opportunity to save a life with organ donation."

I've only heard of two other students in the history of the school who attempted this. I am the third and am driven to be successful. I have registered myself in every single kidney, lung, eye, liver, pancreas and intestinal donation program in the country. I have studied and prepared for each of the surgeries that would correlate to the organ donation. I am certain that I will be donating either a kidney, a lung, one or both eyes, a liver, a pancreas or a piece of intestine sometime within the next 3 months.

Please please please, let me know soon if any of you need one of the above organs and are blood type O-pos. Note: priority given to anyone who lives in tropical weather. Might as well get a nice vacation out of it.

Moellerd.


(Note: this is not for real... don't worry, simple humor is all.)