Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Focus

What is the difference between a fire cracker and a rifle round? They both have powerful gun powder and they both make people jump through sheer noise. The firecracker has no control. Whereas when a round dwells in the barrel, the rifle focuses the power of the powder blasting the bullet hundreds of yards away. The rifle round can change the course of history, the fire cracker amuses children. Does...

The Sin of Sarcasm?

Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it? Here are seven reasons why I think sarcasm is unhealthy and wrong. I would love to hear what you think by leaving a comment . 1. Sarcasm is a lie and not the language of the Kingdom. When I make a sarcastic comment I lie, assuming my listener knows my words to be untrue. What a trick of the devil to put lies in the mouths...

7 Challenges to Middle Distance Relationships

Grace and I live about an hour away from each other. Grace works in Austin an hour from her home and mine forming a giant one hour triangle of doom. I call this triangle of driving "a middle distance relationship." We are to far to see each other daily and to close for week long visits. This causes unique challenges. Whenever I want to spend an hour with Grace I must commit two hours to...

My Idolatry of Evangelism

Its the first of the month. Another post from the archive. My Idolatry of Evangelism I have a confession to make. I have made an Idol out of Evangelism. Sin is a two-sided coin with unrighteousness on one side and self righteousness on the other. Idolatry is unrighteous and idolizing evangelism is self righteous. I have taken something good and substituted it for the best. I now see in my life...

The Failure of Jesus Christ (and why we need to fail to be like Him)

"Success is a poor teacher." My dad must have repeated this maxim a hundred times as I grew up. There are some lessons that only failure can teach. If you want to mature, you need to fail. Jesus failed. So should we. Jesus’ Failure After bringing Jesus out of the desert, God calls Him to preach in Nazareth where he is unable to do many miracles because of their lack of faith (Matt...

What is a godly man?

Here is another post from the archive. I talked with a good friend the other day about what a Godly man looks like. We have both been reading Wild at Heart and we decided to compile this list. A Godly Man is… Someone who knows he is a man Willing to take risks Spiritually Violent (Mat 11:12) Knows where his strength comes from Tenacious Confident in God Respected Full of wisdom Willing to...

What is Courtship?

So, what is courtship anyway? How is it different from dating? Grace and I get this question a lot. Here is our official answer. Courtship: If Jesus ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy. Courtship has a purpose and happens to be a lot fun. As opposed to being fun and happening to have a purpose. Courtship is about identifying martial compatibility. Courtship about honesty and intentionality...

Expelled: Best Movie of the Year… so far

This weekend we watched Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. All I can say is "wow." This is not only a great movie but probably one of the best made documentaries I have ever seen. The music is great the pacing is great. Ben Stien throws a curve ball in the third act that alone is worth the price of admission. If I didn’t have finals this week I would go see it again. One of the things...

Christian Courtship – The Need for Lower Standards

I am unaware of any generation at any time in the last 6000 years that has done as poor a job at marriage as the baby boomer generation. They have the most staggering divorce rate in the world. So why do we listen to their advice when it comes to our relationships? The typical baby boomer advice to young people is to set high standards for a future spouse. No standard is too high for our parents and...

Ecuador Day 3 – Sunday March 16

Today we visited a Ecuadorian Baptist church. We missed the regular service and only got to visit the Sunday School which didn’t make a lot of sense since it was in Spanish. Yes. This is Popcorn and dried banana slices. Its an appetizer and not that bad Iglesia Means Church People leaving the Baptist Church. One interesting thing about the church was that a dove had somehow found its way into...