OK, so I asked what you wanted to know about me… it’s my fault, I shouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to answer your questions! 
Seriously though, thanks for asking, I really appreciate it and it has been fun, if a little difficult, thinking through the answers.
So, without further delay, let’s get started:
Sensico asked me three questions to kick off the question asking:
1) What do you feel is the worst sinful thing you’ve every done? - This is actually an easy one to answer, although it took me a little while to realize it. The bible says that Jesus told us the greatest commandment is to ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37). The greatest sin I’ve ever committed is not always following that greatest commandment. Why? Because, simply, our responsibility is to share God’s love with the world. If we only pretend and don’t actually love God with all of our heart, soul and mind then people will easily through our masks and we will look like frauds. How can I tell you that God loves you and you should love him if I’m not doing it myself? If the reason I am here is to be a witness for God, then my greatest sin has to be not practicing what I preach!
2) Can you cook and what’s your favorite dish? I don’t think I can cook but I DO cook for two or more families most days - and they keep coming back for more My favorite dish is probably lasagna although I make a pretty good beef stew and chicken casserole and I make a mean naan bread!
3) What’s your favorite sci-fi movie? Well now, that’s harder. I loved Transformers but I’m not completely convinced it was fiction. I enjoy most sci-fi. The original Star Wars is still way up there in my favorites and I like Armageddon, probably more because Bruce Willis gets blown up than anything else. My favorite is probably a toss-up between Back to the Future and The Matrix though.
Next, Jon Hsieh asked:
What is it that makes you come alive? Am I allowed to answer “God breathed life into my body?” No? Ok… well, that one is a lot harder then. To be honest, I’m not sure. New ideas energize me. I can’t tell you how many projects I’ve started and not completed because I’ve had a great idea and become full of energy for it but the energy wears off after a few weeks because it’s no longer ‘new’. I love to preach the good news. I get very invigorated about exhorting Christians to not just talk the talk but walk the walk. That’s probably what makes me come alive the most I guess. I’d love to be able to exhort hundreds of Christians a day!
Helen asked essentially two questions:
1) Do you ever miss England? What do you miss most? No, I don’t. I occasionally miss certain foods but really that’s it. I haven’t been the slightest bit homesick so I’m a little worried that on my trip back to England I will suddenly realize what I’ve been missing and the homesickness will start when I return. I’m actually writing this a couple of days before my England trip (although I’ll be there by the time you’re reading it) and right now, it wouldn’t bother me if I never go to England again.
2) What places would you recommend a slow paced tourist to visit in England? Someone who couldn’t possibly visit everything special there, someone who needs to slowly enjoy the place? Oh my goodness, tough question. It depends a) what you like and b) what time of year you go. Any time other than winter I would suggest an area called The Cotswolds. It is so scenic and beautiful. Visiting villages like Stow-on-Wold or Bourton-on-the-Water is wonderful - and you can just wander at your leisure. Warwick Castle is the best castle to visit. York is an incredible city. You can easily take a slow walk on the city wall and just drink in the beauty and history. In London, everything is good whether you want to go fast or slow. I like to go to Covent Garden, browse the open-air market and watch the street performers do their thing!
That’s probably enough questions for today. In a couple of days, I’ll get on to questions from Erlinda, Billy Coffey and the great Katdish.
Thanks for stopping by and getting to know me a little better. Y’all should do this on your blogs!
Tags: about me, answers, Question Time, Questions
Before last week, I had never written a guest post for anyone, now this is my third in a week!
I am so blessed to have met online so many great people who are willing to look past my flaws and let me write posts for them.
Kevin Martineau, an awesome pastor in British Columbia, is turning his blog over to guest bloggers for two weeks and is having them share the book or books that have influenced them most, not including the Bible.
Me being me, I couldn’t pare it down to just one, so I did six! Yeah, I know, it’s cheating but, hey, I’m OK with it!
Check out my post here, and while you’re there, have a look around at the other guest posts.
Have a great day.
Back to a real post on this blog tomorrow.
God bless,
Peter
Tags: guest posting
Today I feel VERY honored.
Anyone who has experienced the phenomenon that is Katdish and her blog, Hey Look, A Chicken will know that her blog is an eclectic mix of deep spiritual thoughts and not so deep, very unspiritual thoughts.
For some reason, Katdish has seen fit to ask me to write a post for her blog. A request to which I quickly agreed, before she could change her mind!
I don’t believe that I could pull off a non-spiritual post of an appropriate quality for Katdish’s blog, so I attempted to go for a spiritual one. Read my offering here: Enjoying the Barbecue.
PS Most of you know I’m going on vacation today. Don’t worry, there’ll still be a couple of families living in my house so don’t bother trying to break in.
While I’m gone, here’s my blog schedule:
- Wednesday 1st: Guest post on HLAC
- Thursday 2nd: Guest post on Shooting the Breeze
- Friday 3rd: Answers to the first set of questions from Ask Me Anything (still time to ask questions, if you want)
- Saturday 4th: I’ll try to write an update of how things are going in England
- Sunday 5th: Sunday Thoughts on Celebrities and Me
- Monday 6th - and on: no plan yet!
Tags: guest posting, hlac, katdish
I am so blessed to be getting to know so many great people around the country, and the world, who love God just like I do and are so incredibly unique in their gifts and personalities.
My quest to rediscover the Church is leading me to some amazing people - and what’s more amazing to me is that so many of them are willing to write guest posts for this blog.
A couple of weeks ago, Marla Taviano was our guest blogger here at Rediscovering The Church. Today her husband, Gabe Taviano, has graciously agreed to take the reigns for a day and be our guest blogger.
Gabe is a world-class website designer, Mac lover, podcaster and 21st Century Christ follower. He twitters under the name of Godsmac, which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be read ‘God’s Mac’ but it amuses me to read it ‘God Smack’.
Today is Tech Tuesday on this blog and Gabe is the perfect person to write about techie things, so I’ll hand over to him. Read, enjoy, then go visit him at his blog (if you want).
Welcome to the mission field. It might not be a rain forest. You didn’t even have to fly to get here. With iPhone in hand and a being connected to the entire world, you might not believe this mission is for you. God’s allowed a message to live through the generations. One that applies to the digital age just as much as it did to the days Christ walked the planet.
It’s a message that rings true throughout different parts of the Bible. A good example can be found in 1 Peter 2:9. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”.
Do you believe this is defining you? You might not have graduated from seminary. I’m guessing you’re not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, maybe not even a scholar with your own language! But as the verse above puts it, you have been chosen. Realizing you’re chosen doesn’t mean you’ve reached the end of the challenge. You have to finish reading the verse to get past the “what” that happened and get to the “why”. The Spirit doesn’t just stop when you’ve walk through the doors of the church and fill your usual seating spot on Sundays. Christ was at war for your soul on the cross, and that victory extends into every area of your life and through every day until you reach your last.
This doesn’t just take place in China or Cambodia. As good as it sounds to serve third-world countries (and it sure is a good thing), I urge you to recognize the culture you live in every day. A culture of the wealthy and poor, the Mac or PC, the republican or democrat, the Christ-follower and the Christ-basher, the young and the old. God’s given you a love for technology not just to waste time online, but for a mission. I believe everything we do is meant to glorify Christ and proclaim that news to the world. That mission is not corrupt until we choose not to embrace it.
There are so many ways to do this, but I believe the best way is to follow the example of Christ and fulfill the mission in community and to serve others. That’s why I have taken the mission to heart and am asking you to join me as a Digital Disciple. Not just another online identity, believe me! Be the one to continue this mission, like we are in Ohio, into your area of the world. Take one evening each month, maybe 2 1/2 hours of your time, and start meeting with others who either enjoy technology or could benefit from learning from your experience. Discuss things you are passionate about. Social networking, blogging, design, photography, videography, programming, etc. Then finish the evening by looking over God’s Word together and sharing how it has changed (or should change) the way you’re using all of these tools.
Not an easy mission, but one that will stretch you in so many ways. I pray that God will take the seeds we are planting and reap a harvest. When He prepared the fields for us to labor, I don’t think He skipped the digital age. The priesthood of all believers isn’t given to just those that preach from the pulpit on the weekends. Up for the call? More details are available at http://www.DigitalDisciples.net, and you may contact me directly at http://www.GabeTaviano.com.
Tags: Digital Disciples, gabe taviano, godsmac, Guest blogger, Tech Tuesday
Someone (yeah, you know who you are, Helen) suggested to me recently that I should do a ‘Best of Rediscovering the Church’ post for all of you who have only been here a short while.
It’s a great idea, but how am I supposed to know what’s good and what’s not?
I decided that the simplest way is to go back through my blog stats and see what has had the most hits. The stats show that the top three look like this:
- How much do you hate people?
- So what should we do with the bible - guest post by Marla Taviano
- Is it time for you to have an affair?
Now, obviously we’ve got two there with provocative titles that have brought in a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon and Reddit and one from Marla that provoked a lot of somewhat heated conversation. That probably means that this list is not the list of the BEST, just the most provocative.
Can you think of any others that liked that you’d recommend people read?
If you’ve been around a while, you’ll know I review books on this blog too. Here are the three books that I have reviewed so far that really stand out to me as being the best:
- Kiss Goodbye - by Deb Watson
- Higher Hope - by Robert Whitlow
- Expecting - by Marla Taviano
You should check them out! I currently have 8 more books in my review pile and hope to get through at least two while I’m in England this week.
Before you go, there’s one final, very important, top three list:
The top three referring blogs sending visitors this way:
Thanks guys. I’m feelin’ the love!
I really appreciate you reading my blog and I’m very much enjoying getting to know you all. I hope that in the coming days and weeks I can really hear from God and write some posts that will touch you, encourage you and spur you on to bigger and greater things!
May God bless you and guide you this week,
Peter
Tags: top three
The whole Michael Jackson thing has really thrown me this week.
It’s not so much that I mourn his death but that I am realizing how little I do to actually try to share God with people.
I’m not talking about Christianity, I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about introducing people to someone I have a relationship with - Almighty God.
I’m not going to say any more right now because I may say something offensive or even wrong, but just think about it… really, if you truly believe that people need to be saved, do you do enough to convince them of that?
———
This is going to be an interesting week on the blog. We have Gabe Taviano guest posting on Tuesday, I’m guest posting on HLAC on Wednesday, I’m guest posting on Shooting the Breeze on Thursday and then I’m answering questions on Friday (If you’d like to get to know me a little better, click here to ask any questions you have for me). Don’t yet know what my post will be about tomorrow but I guess we’ll find out together!
OK, so this has worked well for Billy Coffey and Katdish and right now my mind is a mess with pondering what God is trying to teach me after the events of yesterday so…
I’m going to open this ol’ blog up to question time and give you a chance to ask me anything you want (or don’t particularly want) to know about me - and I promise I’ll answer as truthfully as Bill Clinton would!
While you’re at it, if there’s something you’d like me to write about in the future, just ask and I’ll try to come up with a killer post based on your suggestion!
Send in your questions via comments on this post or by email and I’ll schedule in the answers for next week, when I’ll be traveling to England.
Peter
Tags: ask me anything, Question Time
I only know about two of them: Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
I knew Farah Fawcett by name only. I didn’t watch the original Charlies Angels and I don’t believe I ever saw her in any other TV shows or movies.
Michael Jackson, on the other hand, wrote the soundtrack to my youth (at least until I discovered rock and heavy metal). They called him The King Of Pop. When I was a kid, as far as I was concerned, Michael Jackson ruled the world. His dancing skills, song writing and all round ability as a performer set him apart in my mind. He was probably the person I came closest to idolizing in my childhood.
I’m sad today for a number of reasons:
- Three children lost their father, very suddenly. I don’t care what people say about his parenting skills, he was their father and they will miss him every day for the rest of their lives
- I wanted to see Michael Jackson in concert (selfish, I know)
- I took and took and took from Michael Jackson and what did I give him?
- I gave him money in the form of royalties on the CD’s I bought
- I gave him fame, as did most of us
- I gave him nothing of lasting value though
I am sad today because I don’t know where Michael Jackson has gone for now and all eternity.
I took from him. Even just the other day I was showing my kids MJ videos online, giving them an education in great music and performance. I didn’t, however, do anything to give him the one thing that is of true value and importance.
I probably wouldn’t have had any chance to share the good news with him, but did I try? Did I even pray for a chance?
No.
… and for that I feel deep sorrow today.
Tags: death, gospel, michael jackson
I met Deb Watson online. I don’t know how (details like that don’t stick in my mind) but I’m sure glad I did.
Deb is the author of Kiss Goodbye: The Story of God’s Presence in the Dark Night
I have been trying to write a review for her book but I just couldn’t do it justice. You see, there were times when this heart-wrenching story had me crying my eyes out, hardly able to see the page but unable to put the book down and there were other times that it had me rejoicing at God’s goodness and grace and love even when we are at our lowest.
I’m a guy. More than that, I’m a guy who doesn’t communicate emotion very well and I just haven’t been able to find the words to communicate what this book is about and how awesome it is… so I cheated.
I asked Deb to write a summary herself, which she graciously agreed to do, so sit back, relax and enjoy:
Although Kiss Goodbye: The Story of God’s Presence in the Dark Night reads like a novel, it is a true story, that invites the reader into the intimate recesses of a home and family as they grappled with the sudden, accidental death of their nineteen-year-old daughter and beloved sister.
The sifting of one of God’s own can come at a huge price, with horrifying pain and in the swiftness of a moment. Kiss Goodbye is written by Deb Watson from a mother’s heart, and the message of this book touches that hidden place in all of us that knows how fragile life is.
The story portrays how God went before them and carried them through the dark night. Grief became a pilgrimage, a refining fire that stripped away Deb’s preconceived ideas and brought her to a place where she could begin to see God for Who He was—not who she had perceived Him to be.
Kiss Goodbye will not only touch your heart, but it will also become your teacher. A review by Marnie Swedberg, web hostess of www.marnie.com summarized it well,
“. . . all the way through this book you will experience paradigm-shifting, “ah ha” moments that will forever change (in a positive way) how you interact with the grieving.
If you have ever buried a loved one yourself, this book will fill your heart with hope and healing; and if you have ever desired to support someone who is grieving, then this is a must-read for you as it models the right things to do, while gently exposing things that can cause more harm than good.”
Kiss Goodbye will make you laugh, cry, and ponder what truly matters in your own life.
Although I am listed as the author, I believe that I was given the privilege of penning the story, but God was truly the author and finisher and to Him be all the Honor and Glory.
If you know someone who is struggling with the pain of losing a loved one, or you just want a book that will give you hope and remind you that God is with you even in the hard times, I thoroughly recommend Kiss Goodbye.
You can purchase it here: Kiss Goodbye: The Story of God’s Presence in the Dark Night
You can find Deb on the web here:
- Website: www.debwatson.net
- Facebook: Deb’s profile
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/kissgoodbye
Tags: Book review, deb watson, kiss goodbye
Today is a monumental day for me.
I’ve gone to IRELAND!
Well, OK, I haven’t actually gone there, but one of my posts has.
Gary Boal a blogger in Ireland, whose blog is called Homileo asked me to be a guest blogger for him and today my guest post has gone live.
This is the first time my work has ever been published anywhere other than on my own blog (unless you count fottsp, which is a rather crazy, collabarative effort - thanks Katdish for inviting me to blog there when I want to).
If you’d like to know what I had to say on Gary’s blog, why not head on over to ireland with me and check it out!
Click here to read the post!
Have a great day guys!
Tags: guest posting
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