christian talk radio

i know that two blogs in one day is unprecedented and completely ludicrous, but my experience tonight merits a post.

sometimes i get caught up listening to christian talk radio. don't judge me. there's just something about it that catches my attention. sometimes, i will listen to it for hours on a long trip. it's kind of like the npr for the southern baptist mind. ha. anyways, often i am appalled at the things i hear. it is truly amazing to me what these folks choose to talk about for ridiculous amounts of time.

so, tonight i was driving home from zaxby's (which is delicious and i wish we had them in illinois), and ran across a little christian talk radio program. the topic at this particular point in the program was brought up by a caller from ohio. the caller said that he was talking to someone the other day about jesus (which he explained by saying, "i talk about jesus in public any chance i get"), and they brought up wine. at this point, i start laughing in the car. by myself. it just really struck me as funny. anyways, he went on to ask the host of the program a question about where he could find verses in the bible that supported his theory (which is shared by many conservative evangelicals) that the wine that jesus and the disciples drank *and the water Jesus turned to wine was, in fact, unfermented wine (grape juice). 

now, let me preface my next statements by saying this:

i am not blasting either point of view here. 

however, upon hearing this question and the subsequent response, i could not help but wonder why we care so much about whether the juice was fermented or not. what does it really matter? how have we made the alcohol issue so big, that when this man begins talking to someone who is far from God, that the conversation immediately turns to the issue of Jesus drinking wine. *i am talking about the consumption of alcohol, not drunkenness-the bible is very clearly against drunkenness. 

perhaps i am just simple minded, but are we so easily distracted that we will be utterly consumed by peripheral concepts that do not pertain directly to the nature and character of God that we totally miss the major crux of the gospel? 

here is my proposition (for me and anyone else reading this): let's love God as much as we possibly can. let's love Him like He's never been loved before. let's seek His truth in every situation. and let's work out our salvation in fear and trembling... maybe when we begin to do this, we will become so focused on Jesus that everything else (all the peripherals) will simply fall into place. 

it's just  a thought, but i feel like it could be really cool if we all tried it!