Some Clarification

For the bloggers out there who have stumbled upon my old blog:

I am now located at http://www.jordandent.com. Surf over there for an rss feed you can follow, if you'd like.

Unfortunately, my flickr account is on yahoo and I no longer put out podcasts, so there isn't much glamour or sound to the new site. I do have a prayer list though, feel free to email pray@jordandent.com with your requests - I will add and pray for them.

Warm regards,
Jordan

creationcast is up!

Just a quick update...bite of creation now has a podcast site.

http://biteofcreation.mypodcast.com/

All podcasts will be uploaded there in mp3 format.

Lots more coming from bite of creation, for sure. I've also got quite a few nice pictures that deserve to be uploaded here.

Over and out,
Jordan

Fall Retreat

I'm about a week behind on my photos--In fact, I just got back from a bible quizzing rally, and I figured before I put those photos up I'd put up some of the fall retreat.

The retreat was held at the Shepherd's Spring conference center in Sharpsburg, MD. The grounds of the center are BEAUTIFUL, loaded with some awesome foliage and beautiful trails. Even better--It hooks right up to the remnants of the C+O Canal. The theme of the retreat was "Spiritual Warfare", and by that we're not necessarily talking about fierce battles between angels and Satan's spawn, but rather about the battle that's going on around us every day. We were talking about the battle that goes on in our schools, in our minds, and in our churches. Much to my surprise it was very applicable in my every day life.

No, it wasn't fantasy, it was a good heavy dose of reality. Now enjoy the pictures while I get some sleep.

Book Review - 90 Minutes in Heaven

90 Minutes in Heaven (by Don Piper, with the help of Cecil Murphy) gets my thumbs up as another GREAT book.

My Dad originally bought it to read on his own...then I suggested we read it together. When he told me he was still on the first chapter, I picked it up and ended up reading it by myself. It's a book that you won't want to put down. Don Piper does an extraordinary job in captivating you right from the start. No, it's not fiction either.

As you can probably discern from the title of the book and my instantaneous love for it, it details Don Piper's journey from car accident to heaven, and back to earth again. Suprisingly, however...and different from similar books (such as 23 Minutes in Hell), only two of the eighteen chapters specifically talk about his time spent in heaven. In fact, although Piper claims to have seen the pearly gate, he does not talk about walking through it or seeing/meeting Jesus. This seemed to be an immediate bummer to me; as I progressed through the book, however, it became evident that the importance of what heaven was specifically like was dwarfed by the importance of the events occuring before and after Piper's accident. The author doesn't use his time in heaven as bait for the reader, but rather, as a starting point for what seemed to be an endless stream of miracles from God. I had preconceptions that his injuries would be small and insignificant--but with an etraneous amount of pain for the author, God orchestrated one of the most startling recoveries that I have read about or seen in the newspaper. Simply the fact that Don Piper is still alive is in itself is a miracle.

The front left corner of his sedan was crushed by a semi truck, smashing the dashboard against Don's left leg and decimating his arm, both of which had to rebuilt out of pre-existing bone in his body. But today, he can walk. The steering wheel crushed his chest cavity--yet he recieved little or no damage at all to his vital organs. He was mentally sound after the accident...there were no head injuries or brain trauma. This was due to the intense prayer of a wayfaring Baptist minister who had been stopped in traffic near the accident. Doctors were shocked when Don came back to life 90 minutes after being pronounced dead; they thought he would have bled to death, if he had still been alive.

Mr. Piper's time in heaven is so extraordinary it was difficult for him to put it to words. It is just as difficult for me to describe. He did not see a light at the end of a tunnel, he simply appeared there...the music he heard was unworldly. In the days following his accident he prayed God would take him back...but God said no. That's how incredible it was.

Don is serving a greater purpose. The immaculate pain that he felt after leaving heaven is now being used to soothe the pain of other patients. His time in heaven and his account of the accident comforts those who are dying and who otherwise would have left this world as non-believers. It may sound biased, but I trust his account without a doubt. He is an honest man who has experienced the extremes of joy and pain.

I highly reccomend this book to anybody who is skeptical about miracles and of the reality that is heaven. At the very least , this book has greatly increased my beliefs about the power of prayer, and the existence of miracles for me.

It can be purchased for less than $10 from Amazon.com

Official book web site

Your comments and questions are always appreciated. Thanks for reading.

100_7125, originally uploaded by dentedup.

100_7139-2, originally uploaded by dentedup.

Temples and Temptations.

I've struggled with pornography and come clean of it, and sooner or later in his life every guy has to deal with the same...especially with the easy, anonymous access that the internet provides. As you may know from my last post, I recently put together a new computer. And guys know what it's like--sitting at your computer late at night, wondering where to go except bed. Your mind drifts back to a television show from earlier that day, or a magazine article, or even a song on the radio....then the temptation comes. It gets you off guard. You either take the bait or leave it. But WHY do you leave it? Was it to please God, or was it all to protect your new computer? Sadly enough my answer several days ago was the second one, but I ended up with more than just a motivation.

See, most people behind porn websites are also the same people who help society by creating new and innovative computer viruses every day. I knew this, and by george, I wasn't going to ruin my computer by putting crap on it--even crap I couldn't see. Days later, I realized that that's where our mindset should be when it comes to our bodies as well. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 spells it out pretty well.

18: Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20: you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

You hear it all the time that our bodies are "temples" for the Lord, but honestly, I think it's much easier to say that phrase than it is to understand it. It says to honor God with our bodies, but then we go off and smoke pot, or drink, or look at porn, or masturbate....just looking at that list of things, do we have ANY respect left for God? The God of all creation? The God who bought you with his only son? We become so much more focused on other things--like the viruses that could get on our computers....When we should be focused on the viruses of the world that could get on ourselves instead.

I'm telling you, it's a lot easier to clean a virus off a computer than it is off your body. You can't just install Norton Antivirus--oh no, Christianity is not a quick fix or a band-aid for the evil atrocities that the world is pushing on our lives daily...be it magazines, or television shows, or even what "the norm" is at school. Rather, Christianity gives us all a chance to fight it. But by fighting it....you don't have to give the Holy Spirit a home that's covered in graffiti.

So tonight, brush your teeth, read a book, and check facebook or look at my blog--but don't ruin it for yourself.