My brother Steve told me he started using Conditioner as hair gel instead of hair gel.

So I tried it.

Its much cheaper than buying hair gel, plus when it falls down, it leaves your hair nice and soft.

~Oneazn2nv

1. Drugs - Knowing I can brew a fresh pot of Pete’s Coffee at work for free.
2. Money - Knowing that if I don’t get to BART by 7:15 I won’t be able to find parking.  I’d have to drive to work and it’ll cost me about $15 to park.

~Oneazn2nv

I assure you.  Our band name had nothing to do with the recent Prop 8.

~Oneazn2nv

Homosexuality... Do I have your attention now?

A Black and white issues right?
These are issues that drive my friends away from the church and to the world for answers... Why?
Because they think the church has spoken and we are the righteous!
So the Church, instead of reaching people for Jesus, we create a barrier and drive people away from him.  Do you think that's the way Jesus would have behaved?

I'm sure I'm the only Christian Prop 8 has rubbed the wrong way.  Surely no other Chrisitans struggle with this proposition except for me.  But Could there be others who are Christian who had mixed feelings about Prop 8? My gut tells me that if you're still reading this, than maybe you feel the same way too...  Did it leave you screaming for answers to your questions?
So what is the answer?  What can we do?  What does the Bible say?

I think the Bible is pretty clear on this issue... Homosexuality is a sin.  So there you have it.  You can google the Bible and pull up passages that say Homosexuality is a sin. You can also find out all about other sins that are in the Bible... Eating too much, lusting with your eyes... etc. 

So, just because the Bible says its a sin, we should condemn people and judge people for it?

But Philip... Its in the Bible!

Maybe God knew that Christians would struggle with similar issues... Because Jesus faced a similar issue...

What did Jesus do?

John 8: 1-11.

 1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

   But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

 11"No one, sir," she said.
      "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

-------------------------------------------
This is a clear instance where Jesus, instead of arguing about what is right, he chose to win her heart.
Jesus was the only one without sin there.  He could have picked up that stone.  He had the law of God on his side. He had the backing from the church leaders at the time....  But instead, he let her go and showed her compassion.  Instead of winning this small battle, he won her heart and she left her life of sin.  Instead of condemning her he won her heart! 

Maybe this thing Jesus did is something we can all learn from.  Maybe we Christians can show love instead of pushing people away from Jesus.  Maybe we could stop arguing about what is right and start winning hearts instead.

What if we all stopped arguing about this issue and started to focus on the gay and lesbian community to show them the Love that Jesus would want us to show them.  What would our world look like?  Those millions of dollars spent campaigning, what if that money was spent on trying to reach out to these people in need?  Many of the people in the Gay and Lesbian community have had to run away from their own families and friends who rejected them.  Who do they run to now?  What if they ran to the church or to God instead?  What if the Church was somewhere Gays and Lesbians would be able to find relief from the judgement of the world?  And what if the Church received them with LOVE?

So what do we do now?  Practically what can we do?  Well, we can stop arguing with people that the Bible says Homosexuality is a sin, because SUPRISINGLY, some people don't listen to the Bible.  Instead, we can reach out to this community in Love and show them that we genuinely care.  I'm going to try this, and you're willing to try it out with me... I'm going to set my clock on my phone to 6pm for every night this week and spend at least half an hour praying for the Gay and Lesbian community that CHRISTIANS will be the ones to show them the love of Jesus. I'll also pray that God will work in my heart to know what to do and say to win the hearts of the Gay and Lesbian communities to him, not drive them away.

~Oneazn2nv

So, What did we win?

So, now they can't call it "marriage"

So what's to stop them from calling it "gay marriage" or "lesbian marriage"?  Shall we ban that too? Make it illegal?

Sure, we've won this battle but I think we may have lost the war.

America spent so much time focusing on winning the battle in Iraq and they never have found Bin Laden...

~Phil

YES now I can eat Nonfat frozen Yogurt at work for 1 dollar!

Too bad Sugar free Yogurt isn't going to be here until 20008...  I guess It wasn't meant to be.

~Oneazn2nv

On my way to work this morning, I saw someone who got hit by a large truck.

She was stuck underneath the truck and it took about twenty minutes for the fire department to get her out and on to an ambulance

Reminds me how fragile life is...

~Phil

I just found out that Ron Paul is now a "write in" candidate for Calfiornia and a few other states.  Sure he won't win in the end... but I'll write his name in anyway and it will count as a vote for him =)

~Oneazn2nv

Well,  its been a few weeks now since I've seen those kids out on the street.   They've been replaced by a few people with Barrack Obama T-shirts and pins who randomly yell "Obama!"

I usually like to lean over and tell them "I don't think Obama's here dude.  You might want to check the white house in January."   - They don't always laugh and that hurts my feelings.   Mean Obama supporters!

Perhaps the children pan handlers have gone to another street to pan handle.   Or maybe my phone calls to the CPS and police made a difference.   Either way, I haven't seen them for a while and that's good.

I carry CPS's phone numer in my pocket on little pieces of paper just in case I see them again.

~Oneazn2nv

 

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at around 11:30am till around 5pm I see about 5 children (ages 10-14) begging for “donations for their St. Andrews school”.  They are usually accompanied by 2 adults who make them stand on the corner and beg for donations.  They also have a basket with “goodies” to entice you to stop and donate money to them.

 

(First Encounter)

 

Phil: “Why aren’t you kids in school learning?”

Kids: “this is an after school program”.

Phil: “After school?  It’s only 11:30am”

Kids: “We get out early for our after school program.”

Phil:  “You should be in school, not out here in Oakland begging.”

 

Adult: “This is a Legitimate after school program”

Phil: “Do the parents know the kids are out here doing this?”

Adult: “Yes and they have permission to do it.”

Phil: “You should have them in school learning instead of forcing them to come out here and beg”

Adult: “You’re just looking for something wrong.”

Phil: “I don’t have to look far, its too blatant not to notice.”

 

So these kids are here, not just 1 day a week, but 3 days a week.  Maybe more.

 

(Second Encounter)

Kids: “Excuse me sir! Would you like to help donate some money?”

Phil: “Excuse me kid, you need to be in school.  What happened to your arm?!”

Kid: “I fell down.”

Phil: “Fell down huh?”

Adult: “You’re not allowed to talk to the kids out here anymore.  Every time you’re out here you find a way to harass them.  I’m going to file a complaint against you.”

Phil: “Go ahead.  I’ll just call the cops next time I see you out here.”

 

So I called the cops and let them know that I think these kids are being forced to be on the corner begging for money.

 

~Oneazn2nv