Jesus

Is The World Getting Worse?

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

bill_gates_annual_letter_0I once heard a pastor say the world today is worse off than it was 50 years ago.

In fact I’ve read many men wiser than me say there’s more sin in the world today than ever before.

I’m not sure if I agree with them. 

Bill Gates doesn’t agree with them either. This week Gates released his annual letter on the state of our world. It’s a pretty enlightening read. Check it out at GatesLetter.com.

Gates uses the letter to debunk some myths about poverty. He writes that average incomes are rising in almost every country, and that our perspectives on poverty and foreign aid are outdated. Many of these improvements are a direct result of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been,” Gates writes.

I’m not sure if I agree with him either.  Continue reading →

A Christmas Recipe For All Seasons

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

photo-9Ah, Christmas cookies. The final taste of sweetness before Christmas goes to bed for another year.

Whether leaving a plate for Santa or stealing the last crumb for yourself, it’s hard to beat a freshly baked Christmas cookie.

A cookie is sweet perfection for just a moment. It’s a glorious moment, but it’s merely a moment.

Before you know it, the flavor is gone. The joy you experienced is temporary. It’s hollow. It’s just a morsel of something greater.

Christmas has a way of being like this. The holiday season is a sweet moment. Everything in the world seems right and perfect. But often it’s just a moment. Some years it seems there’s nothing lasting about Christmas that leaves a mark on us. Continue reading →

What To Remember When It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

What is Christmas supposed to feel like?

Living in Georgia the past 20-some-odd years, I’m beginning to wonder.

Growing up I’ve always thought Christmas was supposed to be feel like winter, interchangeable with snowflakes and hot chocolate and wool sweaters.

So how come it’s December 9 and still 75 degrees outside? Continue reading →

The One Phrase The Church Needs To Retire This Christmas

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

394824_10152361249895427_1009312309_nIf a bell rings and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

If a Salvation Army bell ringer stands outside a department store all day and not a single cent drops into the bucket, was it really worth the ringer’s time and effort?

If a church holds a rally and not a single soul gets saved, was it worth the church’s time and effort?

Many of us have been to a church-sponsored camp, revival or other event where we heard a speaker attempt to rouse a reluctant crowd, saying, “If only one person chooses to follow Christ tonight, then all of our work here will have been worth it.”

But what if no one came forward that night? What if no one chose to give their life to Jesus at that rally? Was the work still worth it? Continue reading →

Can Christmas Lose Its Flavor?

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photo-6Christmas tastes like Egg Nog.

For some, Christmas has a Peppermint taste. Gingerbread is the flavor of Christmas for others. Still many think Christmas has the flavor of a Chocolate Covered Cherry. (I will refuse to recognize the mentally unstable people who think Christmas tastes like Fruitcake.)

For me, though, Egg Nog is what my holiday palate craves. I wasn’t on the Egg Nog bandwagon until a few years ago. The name, color, and reputation of Nog was off-putting to me. But I decided to be adventurous and give it a shot.

I’ve been an Egg Nog advocate ever since, taking in all the different flavors including the famous Egg Nog Latte from Starbucks. (For the record, I’m not all that big on alcoholic Egg Nog. Just pour me a class of the rich, thick liquid without any add-ins and I’ll happily put it down.)

As the Christmas season wears on and my Egg Nog intake adds up, I begin wondering why the sweet treat isn’t available year-round. Why must my taste buds be deprived 11 months out of the year?

The question then becomes this: Would Egg Nog still be so special if it was available all year? Continue reading →

The Nativity Scene Smackdown

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

slide.001The Doriot Family Nativity Scene was a war zone.

Every year my parents put out a handmade wooden Nativity scene. There’s a swinging fence, hay on the ground in the barn, a reverent recreation of the first Christmas.

And every year I couldn’t help but desecrate it.

The first thing I did when the Nativity Scene came out of the attic was hijack it to use with my wrestling figures. The barn became the backdrop for an epic wrestling match. I called it the annual Christmas Clash.

The Christmas Clash was the centerpiece of my make-believe wrestling federation – the biggest card of the year, my own personal Wrestlemania. For some reason I loved having this beautiful barn as the setpiece for my miniature grapplers to have their most important matches.

The baby Jesus sat in the background and an angel looked down overhead as Shawn Michaels and Diesel wrestled all around. This is what I turned the Christmas story into as a child.

What have we turned Christmas into?

The mission of POP GOD has been to seek God in the present tense of pop culture. You would think it’d be easier than ever to see God’s presence in pop culture during Christmas. But Christmas has become less a celebration of the arrival of a Savior and more of a pagan holiday celebrating generic platitudes like giving and happiness and togetherness.

God has allowed us to redefine our worldly celebration of the birth of His Son in many different ways. Still, if you look closely, you can see the spirit of Christ amongst the masses. Just as the baby Jesus was present in my Nativity Scene Smackdowns, the Lord is present in the pop culture of Christmas.

So this season on POP GOD, I don’t want to ask the question of “Where is God underneath the wrapping paper?”

Instead, I want to ask, “Where is God in the wrapping paper?”

Where is God in the minutiae of this holiday? Where is God in the cheesy Christmas songs and movies? Where is God in egg nog and Christmas Tree Cakes?

I used to think I was being blasphemous with the way I used my wrestling figures. Now I think I was just embodying what Christmas is all about – the presence of the Lord descending into our everyday lives.

As a child though, I relegated the savior to the background as my wrestling figures brawled before His birthplace. This year on POP GOD, we’ll be celebrating the presence of God in the midst of every aspect of Christmas in pop culture.

Stay tuned to POP GOD during the Advent season for a special Christmas countdown. We’ll have a new post every weekday leading up to Christmas including a few Guest Posts and a special Christmas music episode of the POP GOD POPcast.

(If you don’t want to miss anything, enter your email address in the box on the left side of the page to subscribe to POP GOD and have every new post delivered to your inbox.)

Christmas does not mean what it once did. God’s presence is in the background of how the world celebrates the season. But He is still there – if only we will look.

Did you ever misuse your family’s Christmas decorations as a child? What’s an unusual place you’ve seen Jesus at Christmas? Leave a comment below and join the Christmas conversation:

The Conspiracy Of Hope

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

denver.post.kennedy.assassination.croppedI fell down the rabbit hole. Like many others this week, I became fascinated by the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

The JFK killing appears to be a once in a lifetime time type event – one that only could have happened at a certain point in history where there was not enough media saturation to find out the truth but just enough media saturation to create the controversy and conspiracies which continue on some 50 years and counting down the road.

One podcast I listened to featured one of my favorite authors Chuck Klosterman giving his analysis on the conspiracy theories. Klosterman made an interesting point on conspiracies in general.

Klosterman hypothesized that conspiracies are often more comforting to believe than the more probable truth. He said believing that a few people somehow orchestrated a catastrophic event is more comforting than believing all things happen by chance. If we simply believe all the events of life are random and by chance, that can be even scarier than thinking a secret society or some evil mastermind acted outside of normalcy.

I think Klosterman is spot on. In fact, I’ll take his theory one step further. I think conspiracies can be more comforting than believing God is actually in control.  Continue reading →

Why The Church Should Not Evolve

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

blockbuster_1250Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35)

The video store is dead.

This is not really news. The video store has been on life support for years. And in some rural communities Mom and Pop movie rental shops are still hanging in there.

But after years of fighting a terminal, self-inlicted disease, Blockbuster finally decided to shutter its final 300 stores. Continue reading →

Smiles and Zombies

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GUEST POST: I’m excited to introduce our first guest contributor to POP GOD – Sean Taylor. Sean is the Pastor of Chandler Baptist Church of Missouri. Sean was also a mentor to me when I first began pursuing ministry when we worked together at First Baptist Augusta. Sean is one my favorite writers and blogs at Plunge47.org. Check him out and enjoy his first contribution to POP GOD:

Screen shot 2013-10-30 at 1.44.56 PMThe Photographer said the first take was a “serious” photo. Every youth group veteran knows that means don’t act crazy – smile like it is a family portrait. The next photo will be titled a “crazy” or “silly” photo. Then everyone will jump around and throw up bunny ears and pull out buck teeth… only the photographer followed the first photo by saying, “Okay, now please smile for this picture.

Instantly she realized her mistake. But it was too late and when the cross-country team poster came out, there she stood a smile amidst frowns… Continue reading →