First some videos.

This one just cracks me up. I still despise Verizon, but this is funny.

There are a tone of these here. Check out the street preacher one. It’s hilarious.

What can I say? Mainstream marketing is going gorilla and they’re good at it.

Finally, a trailer for a movie about a graffiti artist. I’m interested.

And – because I know you’re curious – here are some of the random thoughts that are floating around in my brain:

One. I think Obama is the false prophet. I don’t think he has it in him/meets the requirements to be the complete incarnation of the antichrist spirit that’s going to wreak havoc here in a bit, but I tell you what: When that man has some sort of spiritual awakening and starts following a charistmatic religious leader who can work lying signs and wonders … everyone will follow. I’m only partly kidding.

Two. The answer, for the last time, is Sin. For goodness sake. I’ve come across so many articles/blog posts/comment wars just in the past week about people losing their faith because they were exposed to corruption in the Church. Or because they just couldn’t get over tens of thousands of children orphaned by AIDS. Why? How? (I’m being very melodramatic in my head right now.) Yes, those things are terrible, and not Christ-like, and the rest of us Christians disagree whole-heartedly.

But come on, you lost your faith because of it? Because of people? You lost your faith in an uncreated, beautiful, self-sacrificing, humble God because some very created, finite, horrible people happen to know of the same God? Knock it off. ‘Cause if that’s how we’re going to play, I no longer believe in the U.S. government. Or our armed forces. Or local business, ’cause my husband had a run-in with a really rude bicycle repair shop owner last week. So now I will no longer ride my bike – despite the sense of freedom and the joy – because of the err of someone associated with bicycles.

Give me a break. And I realize I’m being kind of callous here, but I’ve heard/read it a dozen times in the past few days and it’s really starting to irritate me. It’s sin. People sin. People abuse children, share needles, have sex outside of marriage, etc. It’s not God’s fault. It’s people’s fault. Lose your faith in people, that makes more sense.

And you know, on the one hand we blame God for all of the stupid things that people do, but on the other hand we seem to get a kick out of rejecting God because “Christianity is all about rules.” Christianity is not all about rules, but there are rules. And there are rules so that children don’t get abused and so people don’t die of AIDS.

It’s sin. Freakin’ stop it already.

Three. Twitter, if you haven’t heard me say this before, is rad and weird. You know that earthquake in LA the other day? I knew about it at least 13 minutes before you did. Because I have Tweople in CA.

Just sitting at my desk and my TwitterFox box started going crazy with “Earthquake!” “That was a huge earthquake!” If you searched Twitter for “earthquake” in those 13 minutes, you would get a results page of the most recent 25 or so. By the time you scrolled to the bottom of the page (and we’re talking about 25, 140-character-at-most messages) there would be a small box at the top telling you, “There have been 1024 new Tweets matching your results since you searched. Would you like to refresh?”

By the time CNN had any info up about the magnitude or the 2.8 after-shock it was old news.

That’s cool. And that’s weird. Welcome to the digital revolution.

I’ve been reading First and Second Thessalonians over and over and over the past several days (and on and off for the past several weeks). I heard a teaching once – years ago – that challenged the audience to pick an epistle and read it every day for a month. I did it first with Philippians and wow. I highly recommend it, but this is about Thessalonians.

Usually the process starts to get boring around day four, which is where I can slip into “on and off” for a week or so. I’m past that with the Thess’ now, and have moved into being completely blown away by the concept of suffering for the kingdom of God.

Most, if not all, of the early Church suffered for the name of Jesus, but from these two short letters, it’s obvious that the Thess’ suffered more persecution and tribulation than most of the others. What’s really agonizing my soul, though, is the way Paul talks about it.

In 1 Thessalonians 2 (v. 13 -) Paul commends them in that when they heard the gospel, they received it as the word of God, and not the word of men. They believed that what they were hearing was of/from God, and how does Paul know? Because they did what other faithful churches did, and opened themselves to persecution for the Lord’s name. Verse 14 starts “For you, brethren …” They allowed the word of God to so work in their hearts that it incited their fellow countrymen to violence against them; violence that they persevered through instead of running from.

In 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul encourages their “patience and faith” through all the trials and persecutions, calling it “manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God.” Their endurance was manifest evidence of the righteousness of God, because it means they were found worthy to suffer for the kingdom, because “it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you.”

A couple verses later, Paul says they pray always that the Thessalonian church would be found worthy of that calling. When I think about being counted worthy, I tend to think about things like spending a lot of time in prayer, or giving to the Church or overseas missions. I don’t think about being persecuted, but I think it’s part of my mind that still needs to be renewed.

Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they persecute you.” In Acts 5, the apostles leave the council excited that they had been “counted worthy” to suffer for Christ. I know the principle is there, and I believe it’s coming to the Church in the West, but am I ready? Am I worthy?

And if enduring persecution is a sign that I’ve received the Word of God properly, and evidence of God’s righteousness, what’s the opposite? If persecution does come to our society, and I manage to evade it, I am not worthy of the Kingdom.

John 15:20/Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.