The Office

sorry, been almost 2 weeks since i last posted...you all need to calm down about it and get off my back for not posting sooner :).

so uh i recently jumped on board, i’m completely on the band wagon now...yes the band wagon is this tremendous phenomenon called "the office". michael scott is probably the greatest most hated boss of our time and i absolutely am hooked on this show. it took all my nights up this last week as i am trying to catch up to season 4…just finishing season 2 right now...

there is a character on the show who plays her part so well, named angela martin. she consequently is the "christian" character. i have to laugh because she is typed cast as most movies and shows portray christians, the very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality christian. although i find myself laughing out loud at some of her antics, well mostly michael scotts , i can't help but feel a little bummed about her characters portrayal of christians. remember, hollywood is portraying what most people feel that christianity is...a very judgmental, bible verse quoting, plain, hypocritical, with no personality religion, but it isn’t that at all. well meaning judgmental christians for decades have made it hard for those of us who love jesus to be an effective witness. they themselves are like angela martin. preachers get up on national tv and say hurricane katrina was God judging new orleans because of its horrible sin…and that's just one of 100's of examples of well known preachers saying stupid stuff like that. by the way, last time i checked God flooded the earth way back when noah was still alive...God said he would NEVER flood the earth again back then, so either God is a liar or he is not. and well uh yeah God wasn’t lying FYI. GOD DIDN'T JUDGE NEW ORLEANS. he judged new orleans when he judged Jesus on the cross, when he judged everybody. Jesus took our judgment, Jesus saved us from judgment. he took it for us. on and on and on my soap box i go!!!

in my office at work if i say i am a christian or "worship leader" at my church i immediately get typed cast like angela martin on the office. because of this i have to show people that i am normal almost always before i just completely open up about what i do and who i am and my love for God. am i ashamed or scared to talk about jesus? absolutely not, but it seems that when i say i am a christian or open up about my church i am all of a sudden a mean judgmental person or weird. this is why i choose, at work, to let people see me as i am, not as they think i would be in there mind. now everyone around me certainly knows i am a christian but they also know me as the crazy guy or goof ball who likes to have a good time too. they have seen me pray with fellow coworkers out loud but because they know i am real i now get a chance to be a light to them. they aren't closed off by me saying jesus and the biggest reason is because they have seen me be me. ironically i have allot of christians on my team, and thankfully they aren't weird, actually they are the most popular people on my team and the best in sales (for the most part)...pretty cool.

luke 19:10 says "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost". jesus came and was the light and then passed it on to us when he left planet earth. yeap, continue that light. this light is a light of love and acceptance and that God has reconciled man "the Gospel"...it's awesome, the more i get closer to God the more tolerating and accepting of people i am. NO i didn't say i overlook the wrong someone might do but i am allot more forgiving when i am close to jesus...truth be told jesus is allot more accepting than we are. the more i dig into His word i can see a recurring theme in the new testament...and that is God paid a price through his son so that man could be accepted by God. this is the Gospel.

one of my favorite scriptures ever is john 3:17 and it says "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved".

in closing...that scripture frees me from having to be the type cast christian hollywood makes me out to be. if jesus didn't come to condemn anybody then that frees me up from having to condemn anybody and who am i to judge anybody anyway...like i don't have things i could be judged for too. what it does do is it frees me to be a light and to seek and save (jesus is the savior, i can’t save anybody) that which was lost. i guess my ending thought is jesus had sinners all around him that loved and accepted him as there friend, do you? or are you another angela martin proving Hollywood writers and most people’s point of view of a christian right?

peace