New Lyrics to T. Swift's Wildest Dreams

One Christian Family idea I have is to make up new words to songs.  I do this a lot.  Maybe I will do this with other songs.  Being a Taylor Swift fan in her younger years, I find that she is leaving reality in the song, "Wildest Dreams," in which, in my opinion she wants to have sexual intercourse with a man for one night.

God made sexual intercourse as a wonderful gift for humankind, so that one man and one woman can enjoy this gift in the committed relationship of Christian marriage.  Today sexual intercourse is seen by many as something to enjoy in any relationship.  This also seems to be the message of Taylor Swift's song.  This is nothing new to pop music.  But for the Christian families who have adolescent children, and for the parents, it is good to be reminded of the deception of the song by writing new lyrics.  Many of the lyrics I will keep the same, but add an element of truth to them so that the song is not a shroud of lies.  If you want to find the real lyrics to Wildest Dreams, I am guessing you can find them on the internet much easier than this blog.



"Wildest Dreams"

He said, "Let's get out of this town,
Drive out of the city, away from accountability."
I thought heaven can't see me now.
He won't last forever, but this is gonna take away my virginity

He's so tall and has a handsome face
He's so bad but he manipulates so well
I can see the end as it begins
My one condition is

Say you'll remember me standing in STD,
Staring at the HIV babe
Red lips and rosy cheeks
Say you'll see me again
Even if it's just in your venereal disease, ah-ha, venereal disease, ah-ha.

I said, "No one has to know what we do, "
Except that I just put it in a song, my facebook page just blew
a hidden camera in the background,
Nothing lasts forever but this is on snapchat now

He's so tall and has a handsome face
He's so bad but he manipulates so well
And when we've had our very last kiss
My last request it is

Say you'll remember me seeing your wife rip her wedding dress,
Seeing your kids on Prozac, babe
in diapers and rosy cheeks
Say you'll see me again
Even if it's just to wreck your home, ah-ha, wreck your home, ah-ha.

You see me in hindsight
Worshipping me all night
Burning you down
Someday when you leave me
 I bet my idol shrine
Follows you around

I'll see her in hindsight
Worshipping her all night
Burning me down
Someday when you leave me
I bet her idol shrine
Follows me around

Say you'll remember me with my ever fading dress,
Staring at my sunset, babe
pale lips and cold cheeks
Say you'll see me again
Even if it's just pretend

You won't remember me standing in any dress,
Staring at your sunset, babe
Red lips and rosy cheeks
Will turn to dust again
Even if it's just in your (just pretend, just pretend) funeral stone, ah-ha, in your funeral stone, ah-ha
(Even if it's just in your wildest dreams) ah-ha, in your funeral stone, ah-ha.

Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

http://www.fox.com/are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grader
Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
is a show on fox that makes some of us nervous.

What if I am not smarter than a fifth grader?

What if I am smarter than a fifth grader?  Will I then have to be smarter than a freshman?  A Ph.D.?

James 3:13 asks a similar question, "Who is wise and understanding among you?"
James, who wrote to the twelve tribes (James 1:1), may have picked this question up from Deuteronomy 1:13 where Moses says, "Choose wise and understanding men. . . . as your heads."

Imagine in your church or your community or even your extended family or friends picking the wise ones to be the leaders?  Who would you choose?  Would you want to be picked?  Would you pick a fifth grader?

It is one thing to be picked as wise and another thing to prove that I am wise.  James loves for us to prove things, and so he writes further in 3:13, "By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom."

Those men picked by the Israelites as their leaders did not seem to lead them very wisely in the next forty years of wandering.  Can I lead any better than they did?  What is my proof?

For James the proof is "the meekness of wisdom," and to understand that we need to look a a leader who was also a fifth grader.  No one knows for certain how old Solomon was when he became king, but some say he was 12 years old.  Even though most fifth graders are 10-11 years old as fifth graders, where I come from plenty of kids were 12.  Some people say Solomon could not have been 12 when he became king because he had a child a year before he became king, but again, where I come from some babies are born to some young kids, and looking at the family Solomon was brought up in, it is easy for me to imagine he had a child at a young age.  So play my game with me assuming that Solomon was a fifth grader when he became king.

In 1 Kings 3:5 God says to Solomon, "Ask what I shall give you."
Solomon's reply in the Danny Smith Paraphrase in 1 Kings 3;6-9 goes like this:
"You loved my dad, David.  You put me on His throne, even though I am just a fifth grader.  I can't even unlock the door or put the toilet seat where it should go.  I don't know what I am doing.  Give me wisdom because I do not have any and you, God, have all wisdom.  Without Your wisdom, I am likely to lead this people of Yours off a cliff."

The meekness of wisdom is Solomon saying, "I have no wisdom.  God has all wisdom."
Personalize that by inserting your name for I:  "_______ has no wisdom.  God has all wisdom."

Contrast the meekness of wisdom with the jealousy of wisdom, and jealousy and selfish ambition was something Solomon saw in his family growing up.  If you want something take it.  If someone is in your way, get rid of them.

James 3:14-16  "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice."

James speaks of a wisdom that is from above, hinting that it is from God, and also a wisdom that is from the earth, from us, from demons, or in contrast, from below.  The wisdom from below is in competition mode: "Who can I beat? (Maybe a fifth grader.)  The wisdom from above knows that the One Who is above has blown out the competition, and that the game is over!  The only wise God has all wisdom.  The wisdom from above is described in very humble and meek terms in James 3:17 "pure. . . peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy" and the list goes on.  No need to be in competition when the only Supplier of wisdom is giving it out free to those who ask.

Solomon, the fifth grader, would tell us that the first step to getting wisdom is realizing you don't have any.  The second step to getting wisdom is asking the One who has it.  When I recognized that I was not worthy to sit in any seat, God placed me in the seat, the throne, over His own people.

When we realize that we shouldn't even be allowed to sit in any seat, God puts us in the best seat in the house.  When I was a fifth grader, I was getting an F in citizenship.  My dad came to school, and wow was I in trouble.  I was kicked off the basketball team, and I had to wake up early in the morning to run with my dad before school.  But for one week I was an angel at school and raised my grade to a D-.  My dad decoded to do something for me that I did not expect.  He worked at a University and had dealings with a law office in Indianapolis.  He talked with them and they gave him tickets to a game in Market Square Arena to watch the Indiana Pacers play the Chicago Bulls.  This was 1987.  The main poster on my wall was #23 sticking his tongue out.  My dad walked me toward my seat and I couldn't believe it.  We were just a few rows back from Michael Jordan himself.  I saw his sweat.  I had a great view for his breakaway dunks.  I knew that I did not deserve that seat.  I knew that I had done nothing to sit there, but that my dad just loved to bless me, and to sit together in amazing places.

Our Father in Heaven, Scripture says in Ephesians 2:6, "seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."  Our Father has seated us in heaven.  We did not climb there.  We did not fly there.  He just loves to lift us up to be with Him.
We do not deserve to sit with Him, to know Him, to have our eyes opened, to learn of His Wisdom, to have His wisdom poured on us so that we know what path to take, know what word to say, know what pitfalls to avoid.
How do we get this wisdom?  Step 1.  We realize we need it.  Step 2.  We realize that only God has it.  (Danny has no wisdom.  God has all wisdom).  Step 3.  We ask for it.  Pray.  Step 4.  Recognize that God's wisdom can be found in the pages of the Bible.  Read the Bible.  Read it again and again.  Make it become a part of my bloodstream, not to be the smartest Bible person, but because I recognize that I need it to survive.  That it is truly my food.

Am I smarter than a fifth grader?  Not the fifth grader of Luke 2:46-47 who while his parents were looking for him, he was sitting among the teachers, teachers who probably thought they were wise, and they were amazed and both his questions and his answers.  What a turning of the tables!  It's the fifth grade Jesus Christ who teaches the teachers, shows wisdom to the wise.  No, I am not smarter than fifth grader Jesus.  In fact, I have searched all over the place to find someone greater, and I have found that no one can match that fifth grader.  If you truly want wisdom, ask the fifth grader Jesus.  If you would never ask a fifth grader anything, truly you will never receive the free gifts of wisdom, love, understanding, grace, forgiveness that He alone can give.

Finishing The Race

"I have finished the race." 2 Timothy 4:7

When I read Ezekiel 18 and hear God say, "When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it" (Ezekiel 18:26), it makes me think of how important it is to finish the race set out before us.  In races from 5Ks to marathons people quit in the middle.  I do not want to quit in the middle.  I want to continue to run for Jesus Christ.  I want to FINISH.

For those of us who understand how hard a marathon can be we also understand how hard living for Jesus can be, and that different decades, like different mile markers, bring different challenges.  The challenges of my teenage years are different than the challenges of parenting teenagers and I will face new and unknown challenges that those older than me have faced.

In our culture youth is over-emphasized to the point of being told I look old is a putdown (in other cultures this is not a putdown).  In a marathon, the last part, although the hardest, is often the most important and the most memorable.

Here is the idea:  Look at your life as a marathon so that you can plot your age and know what mile marker you are at.  If you take 26.2 times 4 you get 104.8.  Most people do not live that long, and yet some live longer.  For those who do not live that long, they either hit the wall or they were taken up in a chariot of fire.  For those who live longer, the race director thought it best to make the marathon a little longer than 26.2.

At 38, I am at mile 9.5.  Wow!  I am just getting started and a lot of running is left.  I must continue to stay focused and learn new things along the way.  I may feel good now, but a day may come when I do not feel this way.  10 miles down the road (40 years) I may be tired.  Will I finish the race?

18 years old                                      4.5 miles
21 years old                                      5.222 miles
30 years old                                      7.5 miles
40 years old                                      10 miles
50 years old                                       12.5miles
52 years 4 months 24 days                13.1 miles
60 years old                                       15 miles
70 years old                                       17.5 miles
80 years old                                       20 miles
90 years old                                       22.5 miles
100 years old                                     25 miles
104 years 9 months 18 days              26.2 miles  (If you are still alive keep going!!!!!)

Family Sports

When I was a kid, my family would play family football or family basketball.  What that meant was often my dad and I against my brother and my mom.  I never played football for a school or peewee team, but I played with my family.

I coach soccer even though I know nothing about it.  I coach 6-10 year olds and help them work together.  It is fun.  But it is more fun when I text my brother and his family and my family, and possibly others, play soccer as a family.

Here are some reasons to do this.

1.  Instead of dividing up the Christian family into this person to ballet and this kid to karate and this kid to volleyball and this kid to soccer, the whole family plays together.  Sports can be a time of family unity instead of family division.

2.  It is cheaper than paying for the a. gas to go to all the games.  b.  entrance fees to all the games.  c.  registration fees for all of the sports.

3.  You get to play, which is something that will help you in being a healthy person.  Your body is a temple.

4.  Your child sees sports more as a fun activity and less like the be all end all.

5.  The "award" your child gets for playing is called "fun."  What more reward do they need?

6.  The family that plays together stays together.

7.  The research says that family sports and exercise are very good.  See below:

 http://www.commonhealth.virginia.gov/documents/hf/AllTogetherNow.pdf

http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1061376/the-benefits-of-exercising-as-a-family

http://familyfitness.about.com/od/motivation/a/bonding.htm

What Color is Your Parachute? A Quality Job Hunting Approach

For each Christian family one thing that is needed is a job.  The traditional approach to get a job is to make a resume, to go through an agency, or look in the ads (whether that be in the newspaper or places like indeed.com or monster,com).

Richard Bolles presents a different approach which has been updated as many times as years I have lived.  Richard Bolles story began as he was fired from his job as a minister in the Episcopalian church.  He shares that story here.

My story with What Color is Your Parachute? is that when I graduated from college a Christian businessman whom I respected told me to read it.  I read it and it helped me 1.  figure out what job I really wanted.  2. get that job.

you can find out more information about his philosophy and his book from this website:

http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/for-job-hunters

http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/for-job-hunters

I have also been using this approach in helping men who have addictions get a job.  This approach is not a "sit back and wait" approach, but rather must be applied by the job hunter doing serious work.  But if you 1.  Do not know what you want to do.  2.  Do not know how to get a job doing that, then this book is for you.

I almost guarantee that you do not have to buy this book, as it would be at a public library, but if you want to buy it, you could buy it here, this is the 2016 edition, if you are reading this later and Richard Bolles is still alive, then get the newest edition.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2016/dp/160774662X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1440772431&sr=1-1&keywords=what+color+is+your+parachute

If you are soon to be a college graduate and need help in finding a job like I did, one idea is to read this book.

Top Ten Snakes of the Bible

When we lived in Kenya our two year old son would always play near a large rock and dig with his shovel.  Little did we know that underneath that large rock was a pit viper, a snake that can sense body heat.  Our friend Rioba killed that pit viper and we learned that snakes are smart, deadly, and best dead.

The Bible is full of snakes, similar to Kenya, many of them poisonous as well.  I compiled a top ten list of snakes in the Bible.  If you disagree that is fine, because I may disagree with myself as well.

10.  Nahash the Ammonite.  (1 Samuel 11)  Nahash mean snake and wow was he a snake.
9.  The Disciple of Jesus.      (Matthew 10)  They were to be wise as serpents.
8.  The Pharisees                   (Matthew 23)  "You brood of vipers" said Jesus.
7.  The Lying Tongue           (Psalm 58)        We all are liars, with a snake in our mouth
6.  Paul's Viper                      (Acts 28)           Paul gets bit and lives.
5.  The wilderness snakes      (Numbers 21)   The poisonous snakes sent by God to kill His people
4.  Moses' snake                    (Exodus 4 and 7)  Moses rod turns to snake then back to rod.
3.  The Leviathan                  (Isaiah 27)     The serpentine sea monster God defeated.
2.  THE Snake                       (Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 and 20)   Our enemy who decieves us, lies to us, but who is finally defeated by Jesus Christ.

1.  The Bronze Serpent      (Numbers 21, 2 Kings 18, John 3)  When the #5 Snakes were killing God's people He also rejected their prayer to take them away.  Instead he instructed Moses to lift a bronze snake, symbol of their enemy and destruction, on a pole and whoever looked upon it will live.  Later it had to be smashed because people worshiped it.  But then much later Jesus spoke of that snake, and used the picture of the snake on a pole as a picture of Himself on a cross.  The symbol of death (capital punishment through crucifixion) being the way to life.  Jesus taking on the evil and wickedness of the world in order to heal all who look to Him.  That is why the number one snake in the Bible is not Satan, the Devil, but is Christ, the one who became the snake on a pole so that we would be healed from the poisonous bite of every other snake, even THE Snake.

Christian Music #10 A New Song

Psalms often says, "Sing a new song to the Lord," inspiring Chris Tomlin, Kirk Franklin, Fanny Crosby, and many others to write new music and for many of us to sing new music.

What song will I sing today?  Do I have a song in my heart to the Lord?  Will He put a song in my heart?  Often, although not always, this happens.

One idea is to just start singing to God, making up the words and music as you go.

So here I go, singing a new song now. . .

Jesus Christ, you are my only hope, you are all I ever want, you are my life, you are the Word shut up in my bones, Oh, how you love me so much more than I could ever love you back, you love me and have always loved me and will always love me.  Today I sing this song to you, you are the King of this day, I do not need to fear anything, guns or mental illness or war or elections or sickness or death, you are stronger than everything.

To you, the reader, that song probably is not on your top ten list, but it was a good exercise in practice for me, knowing that One Day, all our songs will be new as we will see Him face to face and sing to Him anew.