2008 vs. 2007 Tomorrow is a whole New Year. Wow. I have no resolutions for the New Year. I've never had one survive January, so what is the point? The biggest change this year has been in our jail ministry. At the end of 2006, I was going once a month to the jail as part of the ministry of another church. Now, we go once a week, and have a growing ministry of Bible correspondence lessons for inmates. The hospital ministry was about 3 or 4 months old and now it is 15 or 16 months old. They have gotten used to us over there. Our Sunday evening services were Greek classes followed by worship service. Now we use the time to work on correspondence lessons and plan the next week's worship services at the jail and the hospital.
2008 vs. 1968 The last forty years have seen some amazing changes. I used to read science fiction books set in the far future, using dates which are now in the past. The really funny ones now, are the ones that have guys flying around in space ships between the stars using slide rules to figure stuff out. They promised us flying cars and honeymoons on the moon by now. Where are they? I feel like I have been cheated.
In December 1968 I was working for the Nashville Tennesseean in their Library Department as a file clerk. I was flunking out of my freshman year at Vanderbilt, but had not yet told my parents. I was single, an atheist, prone to getting drunk, and without a clear vision for my life. That has all changed. Other stuff is different, too. Little stuff, that does not matter, and yet I notice it. Everyone used to smoke at their desk at the Tennessean. I was one of them. Now they have a little portion of the parking lot roped off where the smokers have to go to smoke, and I feel sorry for them, especially when it is raining or cold. Dialing a phone was a tedious mechanical process. Telephones were heavy and hooked to the wall. Now they are as light as a feather, wireless, and everywhere.
If I had to type on file folders at work, I used one finger and it took forever. Now I can type almost as fast as I can think. I used one of those typing tests over at FCA a couple of years ago to measure myself. If I am careful to make no mistakes I can type about 60 wpm. If I do not care about mistakes it is close to 100 wpm, and although full of typo's, is readable. I made very poor grades in Latin and German in high school. Now I teach Greek. I was a teenager, and now I have teenaged grand children. In the late 70's I worked on computers that were huge in physical size, the size of a room, and yet small in terms of capacity when measured by today's standards. Now I probably own computers buried in various devices that I do not even know about. Color TV was still new in 1968 and there were still some shows not broadcast in color. It had only been a few years since they quit producing black and white movies.
The most disturbing thing is when people I know talk about events in the past that included some participation by me, and yet I have no recollection of the event at all. I think that may be one of the reasons I started recording my daily life on this blog, but I really don't recall. Well, for what its worth, Happy New Year!
---------------------------------------------
Caught on the Horns of a Dilemma Do you get many of those e-mails that talk about this or that good cause, and then end with something like, "If you care about hungry children, the plight of persecuted Christians, and upholding the Constitution of the United States of America, send this to everyone you know. On the other hand, if you are a shiftless, selfish, poor excuse for a human being, then just delete this e-mail." I have a whole folder full of these things. I can not delete them, because if I do, I have shown myself to be a shiftless, selfish, poor excuse for a human being, and have demonstrated I care nothing for the helpless, God's kingdom, or liberty, justice and the American way. On the other hand if I forward them to everyone I know, as I have been instructed to do, I have contributed to an attack on the internet (intentional or unintentional) that could potentially bring it to its knees. If I do send it to say, 25 people, and they do the same, and they do the same, and so on, by the time this has happened only ten times, there will be almost 100 trillion copies of that e-mail. That would bring the internet to a screeching halt. So, I just keep saving them in a folder full of similar e-mails, and fret about what to do with them.
----------------------------------------
Shopping Trip I went out this morning. Silly me. I had three errands. I had a package to mail to my son, my wife wanted me to buy 3 grocery items for Christmas Eve dinner, and I wanted to see if I could pick up some more copies of the book Every Man's Battle to send to the inmates from the $5 Christian book store.
The grocery store errand went OK (meaning I only had to call my wife for help once) until I came out to get in my car. As I put my groceries in my trunk, I was approached by a haggard looking woman, who probably appeared decades older than she was. My first impression - crack addict. She told me she worked at the MacDonald's on Due West, but when she stopped by the grocery on her way home, she discovered her wallet was missing, and she did not have enough money to buy gasoline to get home to Gallatin. She thought she may have left her wallet at MacDonald's. The lines were well rehearsed, and there was an excellent imitation of a pre-crying quiver in her voice. I did not want to teach her how to lie better, so I did not tell her all the reasons I could see that she was not being entirely truthful.
I'll tell you instead, assuming of course that you are still reading this. Why did she tell me where she worked? Most people would not have bothered to mention where they worked. A person who was really in this kind of trouble would be focused on the trouble, not where they worked, or why they stopped there, or even where they were coming from. They may have mentioned where they were going. If she was telling me the truth she would have started out with the lack of gasoline and lack of money. She had on a MacDonald's cap. People that really work there hate the caps. They certainly do not wear them everywhere they go. She opened her purse, and showed me it was completely empty. Did she only carry a wallet in her purse? It was a cloth purse. Wouldn't she have felt that it was empty when she picked it up? If it was empty, why was she still carrying it around?
I asked her if she had any idea how many times I had been approached in parking lots with that exact same story. I was watching to see what kind of response she gave me. I thought it might still be possible I had misjudged her. Nope - crack addict. She got angry, and said she did not want to argue. She said in a very contemptuous voice, that she was sorry she had bothered me. Then she moved to her next mark, switching back to the pre-crying quiver. Sad.
When I got home from the grocery we discovered that in addition to the three items for which I had been sent, whipped cream and cinnamon rolls had somehow found their way into my grocery bag. my wife thinks I did it, but I feel sure it was the crack head in the parking lot. She was mad at me, and wanted to get me in trouble, so she slipped them in my bag. She doesn't know what an understanding and loving wife I have. I'm not in trouble.
The post office errand went Ok. (Which means there were no fist fights or killings) I got there before they opened, so the line was still pretty short. (By the time I left, there must have been thirty people in line.) The man in front of me was wearing one ear ring, and spoke and acted feminine. I don't like to jump to conclusions, but I did anyway. The lady behind me could not understand, why the post office did not open earlier during the Christmas season, and apparently expected me and the other people standing in line to explain it to her. This led to a discussion about politics between her and the man in front of me. (I know he was a man because he had facial hair. That is still a valid way of making the distinction, isn't it?)
As they began to bash Bush, I started wishing I had something to wrap my head to keep it from exploding. I felt sure my Santa hat was not going to keep it intact. Not that I have any great love for Bush, but the evidence and arguments they used to criticize him were ludicrous, partial quotes, from propaganda only an idiot would believe. I just quietly listened. I did laugh every now and then, but I'm sure they believed I was laughing at their witty remarks, rather than realizing I was laughing at their half-witty remarks. I know it is rude to laugh at people, but I had the head explosion thing to prevent. It got a little better, when they started in on Hillary Clinton, and I realized they were equal opportunity bashers. It was still ignorant blather, but contempt for national politicians in general, was at least a view point I could fully support.
The search for the book went OK. (Which means I got a good parking place) The five dollar Christian book store is in the mall. I got there about twenty after nine and there were still plenty of parking places within reasonable walking distance to the door. The store had a sign on the door that said they were going out of business December 31st. They did not have any of the particular books I was looking for. The prices are very good, and since they were going out of business, I decided to look around to see if there was anything else that might make a good addition to the Love Bible Church Lending Library, before we lost them as a source. The books we send to the jail have to be brand new. For some bureaucratic reason that defies logic, the jail will only accept brand new books mailed from a publisher or book store. (Family Christian Academy Bookstore is kind enough to mail our books and Bibles for us. As an employee of FCA, my wife acts as their agent, so we are able to accomplish this from home. We have a supply of their return address labels.)
At any rate I could not find anything I was confident would be good for my purpose. By the time I got done with my fruitless hunt, the mall had become much more crowded. There was a long line of mostly middle aged men standing in line at the mall gift card counter. They looked lost and woebegone. Someone was waiting to get my parking spot as I left. I may not have gotten what I went for, but at least I had a good parking spot. Also, I was done before the madness became too extreme, thank God.
By the way, there is no MacDonald's on Due West.
----------------------------------------
Every Man's Battle I am reading a book by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker called Every Man's Battle. Every Christian man should read this book. I'm reading it because one of the inmates asked for a copy of it, and I did not want our church to sponsor it, without knowing what it was about. I picked it up expecting to read the first and last chapter and scan the rest. I am reading every word, and will probably read it again as soon as I get done. It is about why it is important to our entire Christian walk, that we keep our eyes off all women, except our wife. I came under conviction about this issue decades ago, and I have been training myself to be careful in this area for many years, doubly so since I became a pastor, and yet I am still finding this book very, very helpful. I would have liked to have had it to read, when I first became a Christian 34 years ago, but it was not written until 2000. This book will be required reading for any man I counsel from now on. If you are a Christian man, married or not, do not own a copy, and are willing to read it, let me know, and I will send you a copy.
----------------------------------------
This month in history In 2001, the year I turned 50 years old, I spent a lot of time compiling my autobiography. These are my notes about my childhood recollections of Christmas:
Thor's Christmas recollections 1954 - 1958 (Ages 3 to 7)
The only songs I ever remember hearing my father sing were Christmas songs on Christmas eve. He liked classical music and had a good ear, but apparently didn't like his own singing. His love of classical music transferred to me. I really enjoyed listening to it as a child and still do today.
One Christmas we all had the flu. I can remember laying in bed being sick, knowing it was Christmas, and thinking that was very unfair. Was it another Christmas I got my first tricycle? I was very happy because my friend, Jimmy Mabry, had gotten one the day before. He had known for two weeks he was going to get one, but I never knew ahead of time what I would get.
Usually we got our Christmas tree by going back to the country where we had rented a house on a working dairy farm, and cutting one down, but one year someone walked down to Gallatin Rd. (Probably my older brothers) and bought one. It seemed odd to have to buy one. I recall my parents complaining about how dry it was and how everyone was starting to decorate their trees way before Christmas. My parents always put it up on Christmas Eve and took it down on New Year's day. I do not know why.
At least one year we used the little Volkswagen to get the Christmas tree from the farm. The tree was bigger than the car. Mama liked the Christmas tree to touch the ceiling and 1505 had ten foot ceilings. Later my father said that someone at his work had seen us hauling it, and reported that they saw a Christmas tree going down the road.
One Christmas season a day or two before Christmas I walked down to the "Little Store" and bought myself a writing tablet. (The "Little Store" was a little grocery on the same block with us. It was like a convenience store today except there was no place to park. It had the staples plus a few things.) They had two kinds of writing tablets, "Big Five" and "Big Ten" If memory serves the Big Five was five cents and the Big Ten was ten cents. The Big Five was thicker than the Big Ten but the pages were much smaller. Anyway, my parents made me wrap it up and give it to one of my brothers because I wasn't supposed to buy things for myself right before Christmas. It seemed like an incredibly silly rule at the time. Apparently my brother felt the same way, because later he gave it back to me, unused. As a parent the rule seems more reasonable, however, our enforcement of it was not nearly as strict. Of course, my children may tell a different tale.
One Christmas I was given the responsibility and privilege of handing out presents. I kept getting Phil mixed up with Paul on the tags and it seemed like everyone was getting mad at me about it. I was just learning to read and was not looking at them closely enough. Besides I probably didn't realize my father's name was Phil. I think I got fired and they let my sister do it.
Thor's Christmas recollections 1959 - 1968 (Ages 8 to 17)
Christmas shopping gradually changed as I became more resourceful. When I was very young I did all my Christmas shopping at David's 5 & 10. It was sort of like a Dollar General store today. They had all kinds of different things that they had bought at discount and most of it cost either a nickel or a dime. Our allowance was something in the range of 5 cents for every year we were old every two weeks. (10 years old = 50 cents every two weeks) Christmas would take my allowance for two or three pay days. I remember one year one of my brothers and I got each other a copy of the same book about pirates. Later, of course, when I started earning my own money I had a more generous Christmas budget and a wider range of stores to visit. I would usually take a bus downtown and do all my shopping the first day we were out of school for the holidays.
The first year my next oldest brother got married I forgot to include his wife in my budget planning. By the time I realized my mistake I was almost out of money. I found a pin on broach with several different pieces of colored glass on the junk jewelry table for next to nothing. I'm talking maybe nineteen cents, if that much. When she opened it everyone made a fuss like it was really expensive. I kept my mouth shut … until now.
Christmas was always the same. On Christmas Eve a tree was raised and decorated. Christmas carols were sung. If there were children or grandchildren in the house at Christmas they hung a stocking. I quit doing this at some point in my childhood. The next morning if there were stockings they would be stuffed with fruit and candy and there would be presents left by Santa Claus. (Does anyone stuff stockings with fruit anymore?) Mama would cook a big breakfast after which we would open presents under the tree. The rest of the day was spent enjoying whatever we had received.
One of the problems we faced when we were young on Christmas morning was how to wake up Mama and Daddy since we were not allowed downstairs until they called us. I recall one Christmas someone rigged a wooden spool on a long string which they lowered down the stairwell and used it to knock on Mama and Daddy's door. Later it was easier. We just played something loud on a stereo, and if Silent Night did not do the trick, a popular tune from the Tijuana Brass would.
----------------------------------------
Holiday Wisdom This is important information if you are considering buying a pet as a Christmas gift. One of my co-workers told me this story of her early married life, long ago. Her husband bought her a pet rabbit for Christmas. It was a cute, cuddly, furry, white rabbit. She was thrilled. They tied it up in the back yard, like you do a pet dog. The neighborhood dogs made short work of it. She was heartbroken. A few days later he got her another little rabbit. When he brought it home she was taking a nap on the couch. He left it in the room with her, thinking that when she woke up, she would be pleasantly surprised. The rabbit jumped on her chest. She woke up startled and flung it across the room. Apparently her grip, the impact with the wall, and/or the impact with the floor below, broke its neck. After that they just had dogs. Their dogs seem to have been more resilient.
This rabbit story prodded someone else to relate a story about monkeys that also conveys some important holiday wisdom. She went to visit someone who had two pet monkeys. She described them as being about waist high. Each monkey had a bedroom of its own. The monkeys wandered about the house and did as they pleased. When she saw one of the monkeys on the kitchen counter stealing food out of the pots while the dinner was being cooked, she excused herself and went home, never to return again. So, if you are having guests in for the holidays, and you want them to actually stay, do not let them see your pets helping with the food preparation. Some people seem to find this disconcerting. On the other hand, if your guests have worn out their welcome, there is a different kind of wisdom to be drawn from this story.
First John 2:16 We translated this verse today in Greek class. Nothing particularly insightful to be gained from the Greek. There are no textual difficulties and most translations basically agree on the rendering. However, we did get into an interesting discussion comparing it with a couple of other passages:
|
I John 2:16 For all that is in the world, |
Genesis 3:6 |
Matthew 4:3-11 |
|
the lust of the flesh |
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, |
3-4 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" |
|
and the lust of the eyes |
and that it was a delight to the eyes, |
8-10 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'" |
|
and the boastful pride of life, |
and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, |
5-7 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU'; and 'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'" |
|
is not from the Father, but is from the world." |
she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. |
11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. |
----------------------------------------
The Perils of Math Ignorance This conversation occurred in the break room. He had gone in to buy a drink. She was filling the snack machine, which sells snacks at prices of 50 to 75 cents.
He: Oh, goodie! Free samples?
She: I'm sorry, I can't do that.
He: How about 2 for the price of 1, plus a dollar. (Echoing an old Family Booterie shoe store advertisement.)
She: No. I would still lose money.
He: Are you sure? That would be $1.75 for two 75 cent snacks. You would make an extra quarter.
She: No, thanks, I have to make a profit.
And no, it wasn't me; it was one of my co-workers, who, believe it or not, has a more sarcastic mouth than I have.
----------------------------------------
Christmas Tree Placement Each year there is a new problem about where to put the Christmas tree. This happens because each year we accumulate more stuff, and do not throw away enough. After some thought and discussion we figured out that, if we give away a couple of major items, and move a couple of large pieces of furniture, we should be able to put up the Christmas tree after all. So, we have that problem solved until next year. Or rather, we will have it solved, once we execute our plan, which is subject to change, right up until we are actually putting the lights on the tree.
Also, it seems we have lost a box of Christmas decorations. That seemed to me to be an excellent time to get rid of the large artificial tree, and buy a smaller one, but I was wrong. My wife is out buying more decorations at this very moment. I realize I may be coming across as a bit of a scrooge right now, but when it comes right down to it, I am really a Christmas boy, and I know I will have fun with it all.
Time I was checking blogs today, and I noticed that my niece had an entry about her preacher doing a series on "time". I was inspired to look up the word in Koine Greek. It turns out that they had many different words that are all translated "time" in English. It may be that they needed these words because their verbs were not very good at conveying time. Unlike English verb tenses, which are mostly about time, Koine Greek verbs are more about aspect.
There are ten different Greek words translated "time" in Matthew alone:
epi - epi | Matthew 1:11 "Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon." Here a preposition usually translated "upon" is rendered "at the time of" by the translators. "Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, upon the deportation to Babylon." would have sounded awkward. This is a rare usage of epi. It is only translated as "time" once more in the New Testament. (Mark 2:26)
kronoV - chronos | Matthew 2:7 "Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared." This is where we get our words chronic, chronology, and chronometer. It is the Greek word that comes closest in meaning to our ordinary understanding of the word "time." Although you can not tell it from Matthew, (it only appears again in Matt 2:16 and Matt 25:19), chronos is usually the Greek word underlying the English word "time" in the New Testament.
arti - arty | Matthew 3:15 "But Jesus answering said to him, 'Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he permitted Him." This word is usually translated "now." Why the translators of the New American Standard Version (NASV) chose to translate it as "at this time" instead of "now" as the KJV has it, I do not know. It seems to me "now" would work just fine.
tote - totay | Matthew 4:17 "From that time Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" This word is usually translated "then." Seems like to me "then" would work here just as well, but both NASV and KJV translate it "time." NASV translates totay as "time" in Matthew 16:21, 24:10, 27:16, 27:38 and several other places in the rest of the New Testament.
kairoV - kiros | Matthew 8:29 "And they cried out, saying, 'What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?'" Kiros is translated time about as often as chronos mentioned above. It means more than just "time." It means something like the just the right time, the correct season, the nick of time, or the appropriate moment. It is translated "time" by the NASV in Matthew 11:25, 12:1, 13:30, 14:1, 21:34, 24:45, 26:18 and many places in the rest of the New Testament. It is usually translated "the time" or "that time," but it is often translated as season, opportunity, due time, proper time, or right time and even occasionally as age, epoch, or times.
wra - hora | Matthew 18:1 "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'" Hora is usually translated "hour," and is the source of our word "hour." Out of the hundred times or so it appears in the New Testament NASV only translates it "time" six times, one of which is Matthew 26:55.
fulakh - phulakey | Matthew 24:43 "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into." Phulakey means "guard" or "watch." It is translated "time of the night" here in the sense it was sometimes used to mean the period of time during the night assigned to each sentry or night watchman. (It is translated "watch of the night" in Matthew 14:25.) This was the only place I could find it translated "time."
kronizw - chronizo | Matthew 24:48 "But if that evil slave says in his heart, 'My master is not coming for a long time,' " Chronizo is obviously related to chronos above. Here it is translated "not …. for a long time" by the NASV. KJV has it as "delayeth." The Greek word means to linger, delay, tarry, or take your time. It only appears 5 times in the New Testament one of which is Matthew 25:5 where the NASV translates it "was delaying."
deuteroV - deuteros | Matthew 26:42 "He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.' " Deuteros means "second," as in first, second, third, etc. If you hold your head to the side you can hear the English word "duo" when you say deuteros aloud. They added "time" to it here because "He went away again a second and prayed, saying…" would sound funny in English.
tritoV - tritos | Matthew 26:44 "And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more." You guessed it. Tritos means third, as in first, second, third, etc. Tritos is related to the Greek word treis from which we get trio and the prefix tri - tricycle, etc.
I enjoy doing studies like this. I guess that makes me a little odd, but in a good way, I hope.
----------------------------------------
Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007
Little Girl Hugs Both my daughters and their families came to our home for Thanksgiving dinner. We ate off, and on, pretty much all day. We played games and watched the movie Amazing Grace. I got hugs from my daughters and grand-children. I was reminded of a conversation I had with one of the men at the jail on Tuesday night.
Table topics was about things for which we are thankful. He said he was thankful for his children. He brought out pictures of two children and handed them to me. One of them was an infant and the other was a little girl about 2 or 3. I admired them. I smiled at the one of the infant, and diplomatically did not mention, I think all babies look like ugly old men. As I looked at the little girl, I told him I had two girls, now grown, but that I remembered mine at that age, and their little hugs, that could barely go around my neck. He smiled in acknowledgement, as I handed back the pictures. I turned to the next man and began to talk with him. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, that the man with the two children had quiet tears rolling down his cheeks. I wondered if my comment contributed to his distress. I do not know how good his prospects are of getting out, and being with his children soon, or ever. Please help me pray for him, for his little family, and that he gets out soon enough to enjoy some of those little girl hugs.
----------------------------------------
Unbelief One of our Bible Correspondence Course students asked why everyone doesn't believe in God and the Bible. I answered that in my experience unbelievers usually have one of four different reasons for their unbelief: (1) Something bad happened to them or a loved one and they blame God for it. A good God can not exist, since this terrible thing happened, they say. (2) They are enjoying the passing pleasures of sin too much to consider giving it up. If they allow themselves to entertain the idea of God's existence, it might lead to them losing their pleasure, so they just refuse to consider it. (3) They are so guilty about their behavior that they do not think they can be forgiven. It becomes easier to deny God's existence, than face being accountable. (4) They simply are not aware of, or do not understand, sound Biblical doctrine. For instance they have been taught about God as if He were Santa Clause or an indifferent old man in some distant place. Such ideas can not be defended rationally, so they do not believe them.
There may be other reasons for unbelief. Certainly I have met people who claim that they are simply not convinced by the evidence. However, the existence of God is intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. Much of His nature is clear as well. (Romans 1:18-22) When these folks are willing to engage in rational discussion with me, I find that their claim of rationality is a veneer. When their irrational core is exposed, I either discover into which of the four categories they fit, or they close up and retreat, before I can tell which it is. However, I remain open to the idea there may be another category. I just have not seen it, yet.
Number 1 is the most difficult to overcome, at least, I have not been successful at it, so far. (See my attempt to answer it at www.tntcarden.com/atheist/evil.htm) Number 2 takes care of itself when the pleasure of sin passes. They then usually drift into Number 3. Number 3 is the easiest to overcome with a simple, clear presentation of the gospel. Number 4 can be easily dealt with as well, by simply opening up the Bible to them. However, many times Number 4 turns out to be what they show to you, when really they are in one of the other three categories.
Thanksgiving Day tomorrow I hope my gratitude exceeds my gluttony.
----------------------------------------
Conclusion of Thankful List:
(86) My recollection of my wedding day.
(87) My recollection of the births of my children.
(88) My recollection of my children's salvations.
(89) My recollection of watching a little boy running with a giant butterfly
net across a broad green field
(90) My recollection of little girl hugs that would barely go all the way
around my neck.
(91) My recollection of the sight of my family waiting for me to get off an
airplane.
(92) My recollection of the faces of my children on Christmas morning.
(93) My recollection of a beautiful rainbow in a Mexican sky
(94) My recollection of seeing the tops of the tallest buildings in Nashville
sticking above the fog, below a clear blue sky, like buildings built on a cloud
(95) My recollection of a ride in a speeding bus next to a speeding train
across the flats of Texas
(97) My recollection of stone fences snaking across the Irish countryside
(98) My recollection of enjoying the art in the London museum that the British
had collected from all over the world
(98) My recollection of visiting Old Ironsides and the city of her birth.
(99) My recollection of a cold ride in an Ottawa taxicab next to a frozen river
(100) My many good memories
The challenge next year will be coming up with 100 more with out repeating myself from this year. I think I'll cheat, like a certain person I know, and make notes all year. Hopefully, it will keep me in a grateful frame of mind.
----------------------------------------
Costa Rican Dinner Some friends of ours from Costa Rica invited us for Sunday dinner. She prepared Costa Rican food and it was wonderful. This is the nice lady who is translating the Bible courses into Spanish for us that my wife works with. The man is thinking about coming and helping us in the worship services on Tuesday evening. They have a very mannerly and charming little boy.
Back to the Future We watched it again last night. I can not believe I watched all three of them. I was shocked by how much cussing there was in it. I had not remembered that about the movies. The humor does not all seem to be standing the test of time either. It was not nearly as funny as I remembered it. I am not ready to throw it out yet. It is still a fairly engaging story and funny in spots. We are only eight years from the "future" they visited in the movie. I can not believe it has been 22 years since they made these movies or that back then I was anxious for the sequels to come out.
Thankful list additions for today:
(56) FCA letting us have our church meetings in their cafeteria
(57) The beautiful chapel at the hospital where we meet on Sundays
(58) The nice piano in the chapel at the hospital
(59) Chocolate Chip cookies
(60) Thunderstorms (viewed from inside, of course)
(61) Our cabin and land
(62) Campfires
(63) Limited access divided highways
(64) Disposable garbage can bags
(65) Scotch tape, paper clips, glue, post-it notes, desk calendars, and copy
machines. I'm serious. I like to play office.
(66) Chess, and knowing a little bit about playing this elegant game
(67) That even when my hair fell out I still look good
(68) Our new scanner
(69) The privilege of preaching
(70) Exhaustive concordances
(71) Internet search engines
(72) Electronic Bibles
(73) The people who figured out how to divide the Bible into chapters and
verses so we could find stuff
(74) My eyesight and hearing
(75) The preaching of Ravi Zachrias and Andy Stanley
(76) The writings of all the people who influenced me for good - C.S. Lewis,
Charles Colson, Chris Thurman, David Wilkerson , Frank Minirth,
Paul Meir, Frank E Peretti, John & Elizabeth
Sherrill, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, Norman Geisler , Richard J. Foster, Steve Farrar, to name a few of
the most influential
(77) Clocks that do not have to be wound up
(78) Ziploc baggies (You will not understand this one unless you have had to
eat sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.)
(79) Pens that do not require that I change the ink cartridge
(80) Snow
(81) Old photographs
(82) Good movies
(83) Two men that are willing car pool with me
(84) Time to reflect while they do the driving
(85) Bookshelves full of books in my living room
I was going to do only 15 today, but my wife just told me that my niece has already done her hundred, so I kept thinking until I had thirty more. Now, I'll read hers. Maybe it will give me some ideas for the last few I left to do.
----------------------------------------
Northern Lightless - the answer Because of popular demand, I decided to post the answer to last week's quiz question. (In this case "popular demand" means one person brought it up, that is, in passing, they casually mentioned it. Well, they sort of implied it.) There were seven errors in the description of the conversation between me and the two postal blatherskites:
(1) England is part of Europe, not Asia.
(2) Even if it was part of Asia, it would make no difference in trying to determine its size, since the size of a country has nothing to do with the size of the continent of which it is part.
(3) If there is Global Warming it will happen worldwide, not just in one place. That is the meaning of the word, "global."
(4) A lack of pollution in Antarctica does not cause a thinner atmosphere.
(5) There is widely accepted theory that certain kinds of pollution have caused the ozone layer to be depleted there, which makes it easier to get sunburned there, because more ultraviolet radiation gets through.
(6) The sun spews particles into space. When they get here, they interact with the Earth's magnetic field, and emit light near the poles. This phenomenon is called Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere and Southern Lights or Aurora Australis in the southern hemisphere. When the sun has magnetic storms the amount of matter it releases increases and the lights can be seen further from the poles.
(7) The Aurora Australis has nothing to do with sunburns.
How many of you identified them all?
Are you illegal? Our government has now created so many laws that we are probably all illegal. There are so many laws, that no one person has ever read them all. In fact, such a task would be impossible. Our laws comprise millions of words, and even if you did read them all, they change them faster than anyone could possibly read.
How much unlicensed software is on that computer you are using? How many illegally copied movies or music recordings are in your home? How many codes violations would be found if an inspector were to look through your house? How many traffic laws do you violate every time you drive? When people in your household sell things on e-bay, do they collect and pay sales tax? Do you keep a record of all the money you receive and report it on your income tax? Have you measured the tread on your tires to make sure they are legal? Do you even know how much tread is required by law? Perhaps you and your household do manage to obey all these laws. Do you report it to the authorities when you see others disobeying any of these laws? That is required by law as well.
There are many, many laws that you could easily break, and never know it. In Topeka, Kansas, if you stop by a Kentucky Fried Chicken and buy lunch, and then drive on Kansas Avenue with it in your car, you are breaking the law. They have a law against transporting dead chicken meat on that particular road. In Arkansas it is against the law to honk your horn near certain kinds of restaurants after 9 PM. In Oregon you can get a ticket for leaving your car door open, even when it is parked. In Eureka, Nevada, kissing with a mustache is illegal. An Illinois state law requires that a man's female companion shall call him "master" while out on a date. The law does not apply to married couples. In Los Angeles, California, it is not legal to bathe two children at the same time in the same tub. There are literally hundreds of these kinds of stupid laws.
More Thankfulness My list of things for which I am thankful continues
to grow:
(41) The lady that is translating the Bible lessons into Spanish
(42) The people who are working on making best answers for the prisoner's Bible
lessons
(43) The inmate who started being our de facto song leader in our services
(44) Mark Lang joining with us in our jail ministry
(45) Generous brothers in Christ that have allowed our ministries to have
needed resources through their contributions
(46) The ability to imagine
(47) Our recent vacation to Paris Landing
(48) Our upcoming vacation to Florida
(49) Chicken pot pie
(50) Tires that rarely go flat. Unless you drove back before the 1970's you
have no idea what a blessing the newer tire technology is.
(51) Banks providing a safe place to keep my money
(52) e-mail
(53) That I finally learned how to type
(54) Blogging
(55) Pillows, blankets, sheets and mattresses
Forty-five more to go. Over half done. How are you doing with your list?
----------------------------------------
Thankful list growing I set out yesterday to think of 25 things to
put on my list of things for which I am sincerely thankful. After I posted it,
other things started coming to my mind. I decided to challenge myself to think
of 100 things for which I am truly grateful before Thanksgiving Day. Here are
some more items for my list:
(26) My niece who lives near me, and her family
(27) My extended family
(28) Our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Policemen and Firemen
(29) Missionaries on the front lines of the Great Commission. Especially the
ones our church supports: Jonathan & Tina White, missionaries to Costa
Rica; Jonathan & Erin Matthews, missionaries to Brazil; Dennis & Sandra
Barnette, missionaries to Mexico; David & Susan Butts,
missionaries to Romania; and Earl F. Yates III, missionary to Mexico.
(30) My education
(31) The many paddlings I
got from my Latin teacher in high school, teaching me not to procrastinate, as
much.
(32) My ice scraper. I got to use it this morning. It is so much better than
not having one.
(33) Glasses so I can read
(34) A day of rest tomorrow - we do no ministry work on Saturdays
(35) Lexicons, parsing guides, analytical lexicons, and web sites that do the
same thing, like BlueLetterBible.org
(36) Cell phones - one of the few things predicted by the science fiction I
read in my youth that actually came to pass
(37) The ability to laugh and funny stuff about which to laugh
(38) Warm coats, hats, and gloves on cold blustery days
(39) An umbrella when it rains.
(40) A third floor apartment with a porch and a view of a playground, creek,
and trees
If I do fifteen more each day, I'll be done in plenty of time for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Challenge I was talking about my Thanksgiving list to one of the guys I car pool with this morning. He thought it was a great idea and has started working on his list. That inspired me to send a Thanksgiving challenge to some of my co-workers.
Thor: Make a list of 100 things that you are truly thankful for by Thanksgiving Day.
Some responses:
Cathy: Thanks Thor, you make the list for reminding us!
Debbie: Thanks, what a good idea.
Mike: You just wanted be sure I had room for you on my list. #93 Thor
Thor to Mike: Wow! That is much higher than most people. Usually I am 99, 100, or not on the list at all.
A challenge to you, my loyal blog fan: Make a list of 100 things that you are truly thankful for by Thanksgiving Day.
Blatherskite My friend, Bill, taught me a new word today. We were talking about what a great research tool the internet can sometimes be. He said, in his usual dry way, that it was also a place for blatherskites to express themselves. I had never heard the word before, but right away I knew what it meant. What a wonderful word. I looked it up, (on the internet, of course), and sure enough, I was right about what it means.
----------------------------------------
Digital Tyranny When I first became a computer programmer I was amazed at the scope it gave me. The only limit I had was my own imagination. Over the years I have watched that change. Now my limit is Microsoft's imagination. The strength of their monopoly has increased to the point that they are now forcing an operating system, Vista, on the marketplace that by all accounts I have heard, nobody likes because it is a resource hog. I hope this is the beginning of the end for them.
Thankful Next week is Thanksgiving! Have you made your list yet?
There is not much time left. Some of the things I'm thankful for:
(1) My Salvation
(2) My lovely and talented Wife
(3) The three best children in the world
(4) The three best children-in-law in the world
(5) The most wonderful grandchildren in the world
(6) The blessed hope of His return
(7) My son earned his EIB
(8) My oldest daughter came home to be a stay at home mom
(9) My youngest daughter's MS showed dramatic improvement
(10) An abundant ministry that keeps me in the Bible and helping people
(11) Many good friends
(12) Good health
(13) All my needs met - food, clothing, shelter
(14) A job that allows me time to work in our ministry and furnishes much
entertainment as I enjoy the foibles and follies of my leadership
(15) Functioning equipment: 2 cars, 2 computers, electricity, stove,
refrigerator, DVD player, 3 TV's, 2 VHS players, radios, tape players, CD
players, inside plumbing, printer, heater, air conditioner, lights, light
switches, door locks, hinges, etc.
(16) Good books
(17) Liberty, Safety, Peace, Happiness, Joy, Love
(18) I finally learned Greek well enough to translate from the New Testament
(19) The privilege of listening to my wife's piano playing
(20) The privilege of listening to my wife's psaltery playing
(21) My wife's talent for cooking
(22) Cool water, warm cookies, ice cream, and hot chocolate
(23) Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, pancake syrup, fried potato cakes, toast,
biscuits, strawberry jam, butter
(24) Thanksgiving dinners
(25) Living in a creation full of beauty: sunsets, sound of rain, flowers,
singing birds, trees dressed in fall colors, symphony orchestras, Christmas
trees, Christmas music, starry nights, brass bands, full moons, bells,
rainbows, the faces of my loved ones, the voices of my loved ones.
----------------------------------------
Hedge of Thorns my wife recently read about a kind of prayer called a Hedge of Thorns prayer. The idea is that if you have loved ones who are making a lot of very bad decisions, you ask God to take away any joy they might get from their sins. Through this, a "hedge of thorns" is put around them to protect them from getting into too much trouble. What they do not enjoy, they will do less. So, if your sins have fewer "passing pleasures," blame my wife.
----------------------------------------
Northern Lights or lack thereof: When I went to the post office to pick up our mail, there was a notice saying we had a package that would not fit in our PO Box. While I waited in line to get it, the three postal clerks that were working were having a conversation. Clerk one said that someone had called the postmaster to let him know that one of the clerks had done a really good job for this customer, and handled some issue in a very professional manner. The second clerk wondered which of them the customer was talking about. The third clerk said the customer probably called the wrong post office.
When my turn finally came I found that we had received a CD of Bible from a company in England. I knew what it was, because it is the only package I was expecting from England. The clerk who waited on me decided she wanted to know where in England it came from, so she studied the return address. She was not able to make it out. I remarked that since England was not that big, perhaps it did not matter hoping she would give up the effort. There were half a dozen people waiting in line behind me. No, she was sure England was big. After all, wasn't it a whole country? It was part of Asia too, which is the biggest continent there is. I affirmed that Asia was indeed the largest continent.
Apparently this triggered the clerk next to her to say that he had seen a show on TV the night before about some people who took a cruise to Antarctica. I have no problem with folks chatting on the job. However, these particular people were incapable of chatting and working at the same time, and the line behind me was becoming longer. The cruise was on an old Russian ice breaker that had been overhauled adding some nice cruise ship accommodations on top. The people paid $25,000 dollars each for the cruise. He emphasized the price several times during his monologue. He thought it a rather high price, even though they did get lavish meals with wine, and a helicopter ride to be able to walk around where no human had ever walked. (I wanted to ask how they could possibly know that, but out of respect and pity for those in line behind me, I did not want to open a new topic.) I soon discovered that this was out of my control. My clerk asked if Antarctica was where the global warming was. He was not sure, but the passengers could not sunbathe on the ship deck for more than thirty minutes, because there was less pollution down there making the atmosphere thin. The sun would really bake you if you stayed out too long under a thin atmosphere with less pollution.
My clerk disagreed. It was not the pollution. It was the aurora something or the other, wasn't it? She looked at the ceiling. People do that when they are trying to retrieve something from memory. But it was not to be found. I finally said that there were some lights in the sky called Aurora Borealis up here in the northern hemisphere, but they called them something else down there. That triggered her memory. That's right. It has two names. But it is Northern Lights up here and Aurora Borealis down there. As she finally surrendered my package to me, she had a smug little smile, like she was happy to have helped me overcome a little of my vast ignorance.
So, how many geographic and scientific errors of fact or terminology can you find in the above three paragraphs?
----------------------------------------
Daylight Savings Time Why is it that in the Spring the hour you lose haunts you for two or three weeks but in the Fall the hour you gain vanishes immediately?
----------------------------------------
This month in history: At various times and places I have made journal entries before having this blog. Last month I decided to add a feature I call "this month in history" with journal entries I have made at some time in the past. Here are two for this month:
|
November, 2006 Sometimes my co-workers call on me to be the "preacher at work." Sometimes it is a joke like the other day Jing or Kim, I could not hear which for sure, (they are both three cubes away) got frustrated with her computer and said something like "it has a demon." Robert and Rick almost simultaneously jokingly started calling on me to exorcise the demon. I told them I had left my holy water at home. Sometimes it is almost serious, like the time they got in some kind of discussion about consultants. I tuned it out for a while, and then heard my name and a question mark. I told them I had not been paying attention, because it was a boring conversation. Rick asked if the Bible had anything to say about consultants. I told them that it says there is much wisdom in a multitude of counselors, but that the hired hand is not as careful with the sheep as the owner. They seemed to like that answer. ---------------------------------------- The Dream In the fall of 1973, two of the most significant events of my life occurred. In early November I had a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ. I had become so depressed I was planning suicide. Instead I said a prayer along these lines; "God I don't want this life anymore. You can have it." The Lord honored that simple prayer. I went from taking joy at laughing at Christians to taking joy from being a Christian. People who knew me best, compared it to the Saul to Paul conversion. In mid December, perhaps on the first anniversary of our marriage, our oldest child, Andrew Thor Carden, was conceived. Between these two events I had a vivid dream. I have, before and since, written down accounts of my most vivid dreams. This is the only dream I ever had, where I attempted to draw a picture of it. I kept the picture for years, but I haven't been able to find it to show to you now. I will have to describe the dream instead. In the darkness was an arched doorway. On the other side of the doorway was light. A bunch of people dressed in different colors were looking through the doorway at me. They were crowded together looking over one another's shoulders as if posed for a group photograph. I didn't know them but they knew me. They seemed happy, and I got the impression they loved me. I felt like there was some spiritual significance to the dream. I talked about it with my wife, my wife, and actually made several attempts to draw it. I'm not much of an artist but I did complete one, that I kept. I have wondered many times, what the dream might mean. The other night, perhaps 25 years to the hour, I saw it again. This time it wasn't a dream. In the wee hours of the morning, well past my usual time for bed, I got some cranberry juice to drink before retiring. I went into the living room to drink it relaxing in the dark as I have many times before. As I sat down on the couch I was startled by what I saw. I had forgotten to turn out the lights in the den. Through the arched doorway I could see photographs on the wall of my children and grandchildren. They were dressed in different colors. They were crowded together looking over one another's shoulders posed for group photographs. I know them now and they know me. They seem happy, and I get the impression they love me. It wasn't a dream. It was a vision of my future. |
----------------------------------------
Reformation Day I did not realize it but Halloween is also called Reformation Day because October 31st is when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg church door. There is even a country in central Europe that takes it as a civic holiday. After answering the correspondence course lessons and getting some bibles ready to send, my wife and I watched a movie about Martin Luther last night to sort of honor the event, albeit, two days late. I fell asleep part way through the movie, so I did not get to see the end. So did Luther remain a part of the Catholic Church or not? :)
The Taste of Glasses I have a bad habit of chewing on the temples of my glasses. My old glasses have many teeth marks. I soon will have this habit no longer. My new glasses taste horrible.
----------------------------------------
First John 2:13 Today in Greek class we translated John 2:13. Our work spilled over into verses 12 and 14, because the three verses form a poem. In the NASB, First John 2:12-14 appears as:
|
|
I am writing to you, little children, |
|
|
|
|
because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake. |
|
|
I am writing to you, fathers, |
|
|
|
|
because you know Him who has been from the beginning |
|
|
I am writing to you, young men, |
|
|
|
|
because you have overcome the evil one |
|
|
I have written to you, children, |
|
|
|
|
because you know the Father. |
|
|
I have written to you, fathers, |
|
|
|
|
because you know Him who has been from the beginning |
|
|
I have written to you, young men, |
|
|
|
|
because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. |
In some versions you will see this passage set off as poetry. Clearly, it qualifies as Hebrew poetry because of the obvious parallelism. However, I'm not sure if it is also poetry in Greek, the language in which it was originally written. Seems like it would have to be Greek poetry as well, or they would not set it off, but I am not certain of their criteria. Ironically I know more about Greek than Hebrew, but I know more about Hebrew poetry, than I do Greek poetry. There are several issues with this passage - age of the audience, gender of the audience, range of sense of "fathers," and some textual problems involving the Greek tense of "to write."
At first glance John appears to be addressing three age groups, children, fathers, and young men. However, in the context of the letter as a whole, it seems clear that "children" and "little children," are simply terms of endearment John uses for his readers, as he does in 2:1, 2:18, 2:28, 3:7, 3:18, 4:4 and 5:21. It is generally believed that John was at least 90 years old at the time. (I'm only 56, and most of the world already looks like children to me. I can only imagine what it will be like when I'm over 90.) That means the three groups are more than likely, (1) all his readers, and two subgroups; (2) fathers, (3) and young men.
At first glance John appears to be addressing only men - fathers and young men. However, because of the way gender is used in the Greek, we can not be sure of that at all. He could have meant it exclusively. However, it is just as likely, that he could have meant to include mothers and young women. Typically the Greeks of this time relied on context to make this distinction. If the context is not explicit, as it appears in this case, these kinds of terms should be taken to be inclusive. So, John was probably addressing all his readers, not just the males.
The word translated fathers can also mean grandfathers or even ancestors in general. Most of the time it is taken to mean just fathers, unless there is a specific contextual clue suggesting, that it should be understood as a different sense. Well, its poetry which makes the wider sense more likely, because he may have been talking in some metaphorical sense. In both cases, John says he is writing to the fathers because they knew the Father from the beginning. From the beginning of what? The entire passage has an encouraging tone, but I'm not sure what bearing that might have on the range of sense of fathers. What is John saying here, and who is he saying it to? I will leave you to ponder these questions.
Finally, to make things even more interesting, the verb tense of the verb "to write," which appears six times, is in question in two instances. The first two times it appears it is clearly present tense. ("am writing" in the NASB) In the last two instances it is clearly in the aorist tense, which usually becomes past in English. ("have written" in the NASB) The middle two times "write" appears it does not always have the same tense in the old Greek texts. Some of them have these two as present tense. Some of them have these two as aorist tense. The NASB takes the first one of these two and translates it present and the second as aorist. This is my preference as well because I believe it makes more sense for the first three to agree and the last three agree. However, the various English versions vary widely on how they handle this particular textual difficulty.
The reason the NASB version makes more sense to me has to do with the aspect of the verbs, and the general context of the epistle as a whole. In English, verb tense is mostly about time; past, present, or future. In Greek these are a factor, but aspect is much more important. Did it happen at some particular point in time, is it happening continuously, or both? There is nothing in this epistle to suggest John is referring to some previous communication. Because of this, I believe he was not interested in making a time distinction between writing in the past or writing in the present. English translations usually do not attempt to convey the Greek aspect, because it makes the English wordy and awkward, however with aspect included the passage becomes something like this:
|
|
I am continuously writing to you, little children, |
|
|
|
|
because your sins, have been forgiven at some point in time, and are being forgiven continuously, for His name's sake. |
|
|
I am continuously writing to you, fathers, |
|
|
|
|
because you came to know Him at some point in time, and continue to know Him, who has been from the beginning |
|
|
I am continuously writing to you, young men, |
|
|
|
|
because you overcame the evil one at some point in time, and are continuing to overcome the evil one |
|
|
I have written to you at this particular point in time, children, |
|
|
|
|
because you came to know the Father at some point in time, and continue to know the Father |
|
|
I have written to you at this particular point in time, fathers, |
|
|
|
|
because you came to know Him at some point in time, and continue to know Him, who has been from the beginning |
|
|
I have written to you at this particular point in time, young men, |
|
|
|
|
because you are strong, and the word of God is abiding in you, and you overcame the evil one at some point in time, and are continuing to overcome the evil one |
Someone could make a case for making the third "write" aorist tense or the fourth "write" present tense, but this seems to be the most elegant construction to me. Since it is poetry and John writes beautifully, shouldn't the prettiest choice also be the correct one?
No point of doctrine hangs on this decision, as far as I know. How do you understand this passage?
The part which the Greek reveals, that I truly love the most, is in verse 12, when it says, " ... your sins ... are being forgiven continuously, for His name's sake." How cool is that?
----------------------------------------
How much for the puppy? The guy that got kicked out of the trailer park last week, and visited in the church service Sunday night, earned $190 last week selling puppies. He looked in the paper for people giving away puppies. After he got the puppy, he would go and stand outside supermarkets or Walmart and sell them. 19 puppies later he has $190.
----------------------------------------
Vacation is Over We returned today, relaxed and ready to go back to work. It is a good thing. We had a bunch of correspondence course lessons to answer and six new sign ups to send Bibles and their first lesson.
Fasting from the Internet I did not see anything particularly hard about it. All I had to do was drive a hundred miles away from my computer and I was not even tempted to use it. I wrote my blog entries in a notebook and just entered them when I got back.
Vacation Reading We planned to spend our vacation mostly reading. Mostly it went as planned. My notes on the books I read follow:
A Theology of Christian Counseling by Jay Adams: He says the church erred in allowing secular psychology to take over counseling and that individual pastors err when they incorporate secular techniques in their counseling. I agree with some of what he says. However, every problem people have is not a sin problem; not their own sin, anyway. When we counsel married couples we do often see sin problems that can only be overcome by the blood of Jesus Christ. As Adams suggests, true repentance is a required first step in such cases. Nevertheless, just as often the issue is poor communication skills or poor problem solving skills. When they do not conflict with Scripture, secular counseling techniques are sometimes very effective in helping people with such problems.
Real Christianity by William Wilberforce: Wow. Not finished with it yet but it is great. This was written while he was fighting slavery in the British Parliament. I am reading this one aloud to my wife. I love the way his well crafted sentences sound coming out of my mouth. People don't write like that anymore. It starts like this: "It is proper at this time, to point out the very inadequate conception that professing Christians entertain of the importance, nature, and superior excellence of Christianity. If we listen to their conversation, virtue is praised, and vice is censured. Piety is perhaps applauded, and profanity is condemned. So far, all is well. But let anyone who is not deceived by these barren generalities, examine these Christians' profession a little closer. He will find, they do not pay homage to Christianity in particular. At best they pay homage to religion in general -- perhaps to mere morality. With Christianity, professing Christians are little acquainted."
Communicating for Change by Andy Stanley: This is an excellent book about preaching. I would highly recommend it to any preacher just starting out. I found nothing particularly new in it, but it was well organized and presented. It reminded me that I have lately been neglecting the aspect of sermon preparation called audience analysis. I plan to give this better attention in the future.
Can Man Live Without God by Ravi Zacharias: This is a high level apologetics book. Remind me not to try to read Zacharias without easy access to a good unabridged dictionary. I really enjoyed the parts I understood.
Life Sentence by Chuck Colson: This is the Watergate crook that started a prison ministry when he got out of prison. I am enjoying it very much, but it is hardly a "how to" book for me. When you run into an obstacle, first you call your friend the senator. If that does not work, just go see the head of the federal prison system for a friendly chat. Then take some of the megabucks you earned on the speaking circuit, and fly some selected prisoners to Washington to teach them how to minister in prison. These are not the kinds of things that are available to me. However, he is an excellent writer and insightful, introspective Christian.
----------------------------------------
Crocodile Dundee at Paris Landing, Tennessee Do you remember that scene from Crocodile Dundee where Sue has brought him up the room in the swank New York hotel. Dundee turns on the TV and it is an I Love Lucy rerun. He turns it off immediately and says something like, yeah, I've seen that before. Sort of the same thing happened here. We got rid of cable TV about a year ago. When my wife was taking a shower a little while ago, I turned on the TV and started flipping channels. Went through 78 channels three times. Did not see anything new.
----------------------------------------
Underwear and the Eiffel Tower I forgot to pack my underwear and my wife forgot her pillow. We drove into Paris to buy new. While we were there we visited the replica of the Eiffel tower that they have there. They claim it is 60 feet tall but it does not look it to me. When we get the pictures developed I'm going to measure it and see. On the way back we drove around and visited some of my wife's favorite places. Her family used to come camping here every summer when she was growing up. It is amazing to me that she can still find her way around after all these years. The trees and plants have grown thirty years worth, new buildings have been built, old ones have rotted away, but she still finds her way without a problem. Apparently she remembers her way by the lay of the land, the hills and valleys, instead of the usual land marks. I've seen her do it in the deep woods and in completely urbanized areas with equal ease, even when decades have passed since last she was there.
I spent a good bit of the afternoon thinking of nothing and looking at the view. It was very nice. Later we took a walk around the hotel grounds and boat dock. We saw a blue heron, several hundred little black ducks, a dozen gulls, and a tufted titmouse. My wife is practicing on her bowed psaltery now. I am truly a very blessed man.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday Night at the Jail Last night's service at the jail was good. We had twenty-five men. One man closed his eyes and got a look of rapture on his face while my wife played the bowed psaltery. I preached on Exodus 20:1-6 and Romans 8:1-6. Five answered invitation. One of those was for salvation, praise God! Six people signed up for the correspondence courses so when we got home we prepared six bibles and six lessons to mail this morning.
Tuesday Night at the Movies When we dropped Mark Lang off at his house after the service he loaned us a DVD of the movie The Ultimate Gift. When we got done preparing mail last night we watched it. It has James Garner, Brian Dennehy, and that little girl from Signs in it. The main actor I did not recognize. We enjoyed it. It was a good story well acted. It had a couple of glaring logical lapses which made it hard for me to maintain my suspension of disbelief. I would recommend it to anyone, although little kids would not understand it all.
Our Vacation Begins We woke up when we felt like it, finished packing, and loaded the car. After a quick stop to mail the Bibles and lessons, we drove down to the cabin and had lunch on our porch looking at the view. We spooked a deer on Michael's land. Then we drove up to Paris Landing State Park and checked into the inn. On the way we stopped at a Christian book store in Paris. It had a bigger selection than any of the Christian book stores in Nashville. It was sort of like a Christian version of Books-a-million. We bought four books we did not need and a Christmas present for one of the reader's of this blog.
We checked into the inn in the middle of the afternoon. We have a nice room overlooking Kentucky Lake. The first thing we did was sit on our balcony and enjoy the view. The sky was gloomy. The trees were whipping in the wind. The waves on the lake were white capping. It was a little chilly for a long sit, so we are now back inside. I'm writing and my wife is reading.
----------------------------------------
October 23, 2007
Chaplain's Breakfast They had a breakfast for the "Spiritual Volunteers" of the hospital. The food was real breakfast food, not just buns and orange juice. So that was good. I am ashamed of, and amused at, all the terrible things that go through my head at such functions. I am to be commended, I think, for not saying any of them out loud.
The Mayor of Goodlettsville came to read us a commendation from the Mayor of Nashville for the good work we do at the hospital. I have no idea what goes through the minds of the people involved in such a transaction. The hospital chaplain requested it. Some flunky in the Mayor's office prepared it. The Mayor probably did sign it. I wonder if he knew what it was about. The hospital chaplain invited the Mayor of Goodlettsville to come read it. What were they thinking, and what were they expecting me to think and feel, because they did and said these things. I have no idea. I feel nothing and think only, "Huh?"
In addition, they had two guest speakers. The first speaker stood up and you could hardly tell it. She was 4 foot 10 inches tall. I'm not making this up. I wanted to say, "We could hear you better if you would stand up." She is the chaplain of the new hospice wing they opened at the hospital, where people go to die. After she talked about it she asked us if there were any questions. It occurred to me to ask, "Do any of your customers ever come back to complain?" or "Isn't that kind of business dying?" Aren't you proud of me for remaining quiet?
The second speaker started out strong with a real good heart wrenching, tear jerking, story. It will probably make an appearance in one of my future sermons. Then she got into how much Buddhists, Hindus, etc are godly people, too. She closed with a little story about how she heroically overcomes the obstacles of being a woman preacher. I got nothing against women preachers, if they preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, when they beat the tolerance drum and whine, they make me twitch. I wanted so much to tell her it was a pretty good speech for a girl. I did not. See what a good boy I am?
Getting my Glasses I picked my glasses up after the breakfast. $223 and they did not even give me a case. There was a young lady that came in to get her glasses while I was there, that I will never forget. She looked like a walking skeleton. She was all dolled up, like she had no idea she looked like a refugee from some kind of death march. I figure she is either making the best of chemotherapy, or has a bad case of anorexia. Either way I am praying for her. The eye doctor who did my examination walked by and told the clerk, who was waiting on me, "Watch out! He's a character." What do you suppose she meant by that?
Trip Preparation The rest of the afternoon was spent in trip preparation. For me this involved selecting which books I would take with me to read. My wife was bustling around doing stuff which occasionally required some of my muscle, but which did not require my brains, thank God.
Blessing of the Hands Last night my wife and I went to the blessing of the hands at the hospital. Another chaplain and I stood at a table in the chapel, and rubbed water and oil and the hands of the hospital staff that wanted it, and said a blessing over their hands. The idea is to bless the healing work that they do. My wife played on the bowed psaltery while we did this. It was very nice.
Fasting from the Internet I saw on another blog someone talking about fasting from the internet. It is an interesting idea. Do not expect a blog update from me or for me to respond to an e-mail until next week.
----------------------------------------
Reading Glasses I finally reached my toleration limit on scotch tape and glue on my glasses. Today I went to Value Vision and ordered a new pair. I figured on a rainy Monday morning I would not stumble on too many of my fellow humans, for whom I find it so difficult to follow the second great commandment. My analysis was completely wrong. It was an almost three hour ordeal. I'm not sure which was more annoying; the several people for whom purchasing glasses is the social event of the season or the mother chatting on the cell phone, while her three children ran wild. Well, I exaggerated a little. One of the children was in a stroller, and did not run wild. Instead he practiced his scream. Apparently he was searching for just the right frequency, which causes the most pain to adult ears. He was quite the little virtuoso.
However, the event was not without its entertainment. There was the teenaged girl with pink hair and wearing her jacket backwards. I have no idea what that was about, but it did furnish food for thought, as I tried to figure out how she buttoned and unbuttoned the jacket. Also, it seems like the collar would have been uncomfortable against her throat. Then there was the mother trying to explain to another teenaged girl that if she bought pink frames it would not match all her clothing. The girl said she understood and then selected purple ones instead. On reflection I realized this was not because the girl was stupid, as I at first supposed. Rather, it was a deliberate attempt to exasperate her mother. She was successful in her attempt, and I must admit the results were amusing.
----------------------------------------
Jury Trials & Plea Bargains One of the guys in jail asked me the other day if I thought he should take a plea bargain deal, or fight his case in court. I told him, that I'm no lawyer and I have no idea. I do know this. Jury trials have been working for hundreds of years. They are a pretty good way to discover the truth. They do not get it right all the time, but I know of no better system. Of course, if I ever find myself accused of a serious crime I would be searching my Bible and begging God for guidance. I also think that, if I was in trouble with the law, and I was guilty, I would negotiate the best plea bargain I could, and do my time. If was in trouble with the law, and I was innocent, I believe I would fight tooth and nail to get my case in front of a jury.
Never Give Up! Never Surrender! We watched Galaxy Quest again last night, and its Petra's fault. I noticed something new. A few minutes after crewman number six has a panic attack, because no one knows his last name, including Captain Taggert, Captain Taggert calls him by his surname, when he is giving orders on the surface of the mining planet.
----------------------------------------
Trailer Park Management 101 We went and picked up a guy who got out of jail today to give him a ride home. It is a long sad story, and one, about which I have enough corroboration, I am pretty sure it is all true. He is from Chicago. Shortly after his wife of 18 years died of cancer, he was in Nashville visiting an old friend. He went on a drunken bender, and got in some kind of brawl in a bar. He ended up in jail. That is where we met him a few months ago. He got out about three weeks ago and found a place to live in a trailer park.
The trailer park was over on Dickerson Road in a really "bad" part of town. Last week he got in an argument with a neighbor, who then attacked him with a butcher knife. The knife ended up sticking in the other guy. Our guy went back to jail, and the attacker went to the hospital. At the hearing, they finally figured out he was telling the truth, and let him go. He called us, and that's when we went down to give him a ride home.
The authorities had taken his outer clothing as "evidence" and did not return them to him. They gave him back his underwear and gave him a pair of bright red prisoner's pants. He was wearing them inside out so that the printing, that said he was a prisoner, did not show. Just for extra fun, they had lost his driver's license, not that he has a car. It would be nice to have some identification though. We took him back to his trailer.
The trailer park had already rented his trailer to someone else even though his rent was paid through Nov 1st. They had given all his belongings to the Salvation Army, or whichever neighbor wanted to haul them off. He saw some of his furniture in a neighbor's trailer. We took him over to the manager's trailer to find out what was going on. A place to live? Shrug. His unused rent returned? Shrug. His belongings returned? Shrug. Clothing? Shrug. His missing mail? Shrug. What are you going to do when I call the police? Shrug. He came back to the car.
After some prayer and conversation, he decided to do nothing about any of it. He had already been to jail twice. He doubted the police would be sympathetic to him. Besides, he believed it was God guiding him in another path. Another recently released prisoner, and a Christian friend he had made in jail on his first incarceration, had offered him a place to stay when he got out. This same Christian friend had counseled him against the trailer park in the "bad" part of town before he had moved there. We left him in the care of this other Christian man. We are praying they both continue to seek God's will in their lives.
----------------------------------------
I John 2:11 I teach Greek class on Thursdays to five of my fellow employees. Each class period we translate one verse. Today we translated I John 2:11. Almost all of the time what we discover is that the experts do an excellent job. Once in a great while we disagree with them. Sometimes we find, that although the translation you find in various English versions is just fine, that there is another way to understand it in the Greek that we believe gives us some extra insight into the verse. Today was one of these times.
The King James has it, "But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes." The New American Standard says, "But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." There is nothing wrong with either of these translations. Notice the final verb "blinded." It is in past tense and the other verbs in the sentence is in the present tense. In English, for a sentence like this it does not matter very much. It means about the same thing whether you change all the verbs to past tense or present tense. However, with Greek the most important thing about verb tense is not the time, but the aspect.
Without going into a long explanation about what that all means, and without a long explanation of range of sense, suffice it to say there is another way the verse can be understood. We translated it, "But the one who is hating his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he departs because the darkness has blinded his sight." The idea is that hating his brother is the result of a poor choice in the past rather than a cause of the darkness. They are not only doing wrong, they have no idea that they are doing wrong, and have no recollection of when they started doing wrong. If you look at it in context the point of departure into the darkness is rejecting Jesus Christ. Hating your brother is the natural consequence of that one poor decision in your past.
----------------------------------------
North Springfield Baptist Church: Tonight, in the church where we were married, in the church where we were baptized, in the church where my wife grew up, my wife and I held a worship service. My father-in-law is a deacon there, and when their pulpit needed filling tonight, he called me. He called me early this morning, and asked us to come do the service. Most of the congregation was across town at a city wide Christian youth fellowship, where their pastor was preaching.
There were about 20 of us. I told them about our jail ministry and our hospital ministry. Then we did a little "example" service, demonstrating what we do at the jail. I led a song Mexican style, (i.e. Acapulco - without musical instruments). Then my wife played Going Home and How Great Thou Art on the bowed psaltery. She was flawless. I preached on Deut 30:10-20. They gave us a generous offering and many compliments. Besides having a service that honored God, my main hope was to not embarrass my father-in-law for having invited us. I believe we were successful in both of these aims. We had a wonderful time.
----------------------------------------
Age vs. Youth Basketball Match Earlier this year an old guy 'bout my age and a twenty something played basketball one-on-one on a bet. They both work here. The stakes were 10 restaurant meals. The old guy outscored the young guy by about two to one, even though the older was also the shorter. By the end of the game the old guy couldn't block or even stand all the way up, but the young guy could only throw up bricks. I did not get to see it, but was promised I would be invited to any re-match. They had a re-match on Thursday, same stakes again, and the old guy won again, except by a very narrow margin this time. The old guy went home right after the lunch time game, and called in sick the next day. When he came back to work today the game was all the buzz, and I found out that those who had promised to keep me informed had let me down. I figure they owe me a lunch or at least some doughnuts. We are still in negotiations.
----------------------------------------
October 11, 2007
Becoming Ancient: One of my grandchildren turned six today. This past Sunday another one turned fourteen. It reminds me of my own age. I find that I do not mind. I am finding growing old a comfortable thing. I'm not sure why exactly. I have less energy. I have more aches and pains. I can not remember the last time when everything felt well, and functioned normally, all at the same time. It takes me longer to recover from illness or injury. I do not like any of those things. However, it also takes a lot more to make me angry. I have learned how to retain my happiness in almost any situation. I do not have nearly so many buttons that other people can push as I once did. My conversations with God are longer and more satisfying. I enjoy His creation more. Where once I feared intimacy, now I embrace it. I am mindful that all of this is simply an attitude, which I could have adopted at any age I chose. However, this is the age I am. I am content.
----------------------------------------
October 10, 2007
Contradictions:
Part of the entertainment furnished to me free of charge by people is the way we frequently become oxymorons personified. Like the lady who passed me doing about ninety the other day. It went by pretty fast, but I'm fairly certain her bumper sticker read, "Choose Life." Then there was the guy, who didn't like the way I drive. I was able to view his rude gesture, and the Christian fish symbol in the same glance. I don't have a bumper sticker. It is not because I do not have strong opinions, but rather because I am not sure I could live up to them, if I wrote them on my car.
I remember clearly once, when I was a youth, the girl I was dating was talking to me earnestly. She was trying to encourage me to be more myself, and not put on poses. What she didn't realize (as most young women do not realize about young men) was that I really had no idea who I was, and the poses were merely attempts to make that discovery. What struck me at the time was that she was discussing this with me while wearing a plastic mask of make-up carefully applied. Her hair had been chemically altered to change its shape, texture and color. She wore shoes designed to change the shape of her legs and make her appear taller. I managed to not laugh, but she saw the amusement in my eyes. Perhaps I should have answered her ensuing questions honestly, but telling the truth did not fit the character I was playing that evening.
Like most young couples my wife and I lived in rented quarters for the first few years of our life together. The aunt for whom I am named died and left us the means to make a down payment on a house of our own. Our other choice seemed to be for my wife to have a nice diamond ring, which we had not been able to afford at the time of our engagement. We consulted a real estate agent, who showed us several houses. He was a pleasant middle aged man, who drove us about in a luxury automobile. He passionately extolled the virtues of home ownership. He talked about the tax advantages and the investment value. He said it was important that we buy a house before any other luxury or even some necessities. He stated that no sacrifice was too much for the privilege of owning our own home. Later that day I was walking about the apartment complex thinking over what he had said, when he walked out of his apartment and met my eyes. He turned red. My wife is still enjoying her ring.
I especially love it when stereotypes are violated. Several years ago I was stopped at a red light when I saw the best one of this kind, that I have ever seen. An older model purple Cadillac passed in the cross traffic in front of me. It had broad white side wall tires. Inside were six young black men dressed in the latest styles. It's front license tag was a Confederate battle flag. It paused behind heavy traffic long enough for me to examine it carefully. The cross of St. Andrew had all thirteen stars, and all the colors were correct. I even checked to make sure there were no marks beside the tag, like the ones fighter pilots paint on their planes to enumerate their victories. Although alone, I said aloud, "Now there's something you don't see every day." I stared after it looking for some hint of explanation. The only possibility that seems reasonable to me is that the young men had well developed senses of humor. I became aware that the light changed when the car behind me sounded its horn.
I had planned to close with a revelation of a contradiction in my own presentation to the world, however, the role I am currently playing does not wish to be vulnerable to ridicule. I will admit that people frequently tell me, I don't look like who I am. I don't believe them though. Every time I look in the mirror it is still just me.
----------------------------------------
October 8, 2007
Sermon Examples: I am always on the look out for sermon illustrations, or good, clean, inoffensive jokes to use for sermon openers. Let me know if you know any good jokes. I warned the two guys I car pool with, that they needed to be careful around me. Anything they said or did might be used as a sermon example. Now whenever one of them says or does something which might be construed as, say, a little less than perfect, the other says, "There's a sermon example for you, Thor."
Here is a couple of recent sermon examples (not based on my car pool buddies):
|
|
Peanut Butter in the Dark: Maybe I am unique in this regard, or perhaps it is a common human trait, but sometimes I make these little plans in my mind that do not quite work out. Like last night I had this little plan of (1) straighten up the coffee table, (2) pick up the remains of my snack to carry to the kitchen, (3) turn off the light, and (4) go to bed. Well, I was half asleep and got 2 and 3 out of order. I turned out the light before I picked up my snack remains. I ended up with peanut butter in several places that it is not usually found. (Well, not usually found in homes without small children, anyway.) So now I have an illustration for John 8:12 "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Nouns & Verbs: That reminds me of a sermon example I used week before last that turned out to be pretty effective. I am reading a book by Chuck Colson called God & Government. I am enjoying it. I found a sermon example in it, which I used a couple of weeks ago; that I thought you might like to hear about. I thought about actually looking it up in the book and giving you exactly what it said, but then I realized, that not only is plagiarism more legal than violating copy right law, it is also easier. Besides the more I think about it, the more I think, it might have been a different book. It is a true story. (as if I had any credibility left) A grade school teacher decided that she wanted to quit, so that she could be a "stay at home" mom. She did not want to give up her teaching entirely, so she took a job a couple of hours a day, three days a week, as a tutor for shut-ins. Her first day on the job, she was sent to a hospital room. As she began to find her way to the room, the signs on the doors and walls as she got closer to the room made her realize, she was going to the burn unit, and then the critical care burn unit. So she was somewhat prepared when the little boy she was sent to tutor was barely recognizable as human. She was not prepared for the smell. She gathered her courage, and taught the little boy a lesson about nouns and verbs. When she returned for her next lesson a couple of days later, the head nurse of the unit stopped her before she got to the room. "What did you do to that little boy?" the nurse demanded. The teacher was flabbergasted. She felt terrible but started apologizing, talking about how it was her first day, and she had no idea what she did wrong. The nurse quickly explained that the teacher had done nothing wrong. Before the teacher came, the little boy had been doing badly. The medical staff were concerned, because apparently he was not fighting for his life, and might not make it. After the teacher's first visit that had all changed. The boy had taken a new attitude. He was struggling to live, and the prognosis was much more positive. "All I did was taught him a lesson about nouns and verbs," explained the teacher. It was a mystery that had to wait until the boy was better to be solved. After the boy and the teacher became closer, she asked him about it. The boy explained, "When I first got here my parents were crying and the medical people were very serious. I thought I was going to die. But when you came and taught me, I figured they would not bother teaching me about nouns and verbs, if I they thought I was going to die." Having hope is very important. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death. Where are you placing your hope? Romans 8:24-26 "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Titus 2:12-14 "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." |
|
Interesting Meeting: Every now and then, because she is too busy to go herself, or just from a sadistic whim, my boss makes me go to a meeting where I have no idea what is going on. Today I went to a meeting like that. There were four other people in the meeting besides me. They all seemed to be interested, engaged, and informed. None of them introduced themselves. Except for one lady who was a nodding acquaintance, I have no idea who they were, or what kind of work they do. The words were English, but I could not make any sense of anything they said. They did not seem to be getting along with each other very well, and then somebody said, "Oh. You mean report 67!" (I'm not making this up.) After that things seemed to go very much smoother. Close to the end of the meeting the lady I sort of knew turned to me and said, "What do you think, Thor?" I was so pleased to hear an entire sentence that made sense, even if it was in the form of a question, that I smiled and nodded my head. A few minutes later, it was all over. I have no idea what was decided, but as long as I do not have to sign anything, I figure I'm OK.
Artists Needed: After I write the Bible Correspondence Lessons, my wife illustrates them. She does this by finding Christian clip art on the internet. That is fine, as long as I am just mailing it to a few inmates. However, if I am going to expand this ministry like I believe the Lord would have me to do, we are going to need to get some original illustrations done. Are there any artists out there willing to work for a reward in heaven?
----------------------------------------
October 7, 2007
This month in history: At various times and places I have made journal entries before having this blog. Today I decided to add a feature I will call "this month in history" with journal entries I have made at some time in the past. Here are two for this month:
|
|
October 5, 2005: I was waiting for my daughter to pick me up outside the Charlotte Ave entrance to my building today. Two people were waiting for the MTA handicapped van to pick them up. One of them was a bespectacled middle aged man with a walking cast on one leg and crutches. The other was a very obese woman in a powered wheel chair. The woman in the wheelchair appeared to be in her fifties. She had iron gray hair that limply hung down to her shoulders. Her body was too big for the chair and rolls of fat hung over the edges of seat, arms, and back of the chair. She was smoking a cigarette. When the van pulled up she threw it down to the sidewalk still lit. October 3, 2005 - A bad bus ride My great niece had her first bus ride today. It was not a promising beginning. My daughter had to work late so she brought my great niece who works for her down to 5th and Deaderick and dropped her off to ride the bus home with me. I work down town in the Citizens Bank Building for the State of Tennessee. She dropped my great niece off about 4:05. The bus, Gallatin Road #26 was due at 4:15. I had decided to take that one instead of the 4:32 because I had too often seen the 4:32 fill up and leave people on the sidewalk to wait for the 4:40 and I did not want that happening to my great niece on her first ride. The 4:15 did not come. Finally at 4:35 it rolled up only to have the MTA sidewalk supervisor decide that it was not going to go all the way to Madison so that it could "get back on schedule." Now the sidewalk was full of angry people milling about - those who had wanted to catch the 4:15 and those who wanted to catch the 4:32. Then another Gallatin Road #26 rolled up and the crowd began to move towards its door. Before it opened the door it changed its marquee to read Gallatin Rd/Rivergate 35x, an express that went past our stop. The crowd became more restless. Finally, at about 4:45 another Gallatin Road #26 rolled up and the crowd smashed its way to the door. I put one arm around my great niece to guide her, keep her with me, and try to protect her from the press. God's knows what she was thinking. We made it on the bus and he closed the door right behind us so that he could move to the corner because the busses in front of him had moved. My great niece and I sat down and watched the bus fill with angry people. The seats all filled and then the aisle filled with standing people. At least, they did not leave anyone standing on the sidewalk, at least that I could tell. There may have been some that backed off when they saw the press. As we rode home I regretted not having learned more sign language so I
could explain things to her and find out what she thought of it all.
|
|
----------------------------------------
I have decided to join the blogging bandwagon. The little personal notes I always mean to send never get sent. When I do write them they are pretty boring and certainly not worth the trouble of e-mailing, let alone a forty-one cent postage stamp. This will be boring, too, but at least you will not feel obligated to read it all, or to respond. This is just a plain old HTML site. If you want to respond send me an e-mail. If you do not know my e-mail address, you are here uninvited, so please leave. If you want others to see a copy of your response, send them a copy. My good intention is to update this every weekend. That will probably work out to about two or three times a year, so be sure to check back here every day.
Besides working for the state, most of my time is taken up by our ministry. It seems like most of that time is spent on the Bible correspondence courses we do for the inmates. (See description at biblestudybymail.com) Our correspondence courses are becoming more popular. We have people taking them in seven prisons or jails in Tennessee and one in Oklahoma. God is really blessing us through the people taking the courses. We hope He is using the courses to bless the students. It does keep us busy though.
Getting out of Jail: We have seen some guys coming out of jail lately that have not been making wise decisions. Most people we never hear from again. I'm not sure what happens to them. There are a few of them we do not see at church, and then we see them back in jail. I know in one case it was just a matter of him deciding to celebrate his new freedom by getting messed up on some recreational drug of some kind. There are a couple of others who are still out, but they have no plans that are working. They did not think about food, clothing, shelter, transportation, or a job. They call me up and wonder why their lack of planning is not my emergency. I can not leave work to help them. I have family, counseling, and worship commitments to keep in the evenings and weekends. I do not have money to give them. That is why I give out the Get Out Of Jail Planning Guides we developed. When they call I just give them some numbers from the list. Please help us pray for better results for all the people who will be free soon. One man has been doing very well. He is holding a job, going to a church in his home town, and has already been promoted in his job. We pray for more like him.
Hebrew: In January, I start taking my Hebrew course again. It was delayed from September. Please pray that it does not get delayed again. I plan on writing a series of lessons for Hebrew, like I did for Greek. In my Greek lessons I teach the student to translate I John. (See description of Greek book at www.tntcarden.com/greek/BookDescription.htm) In my Hebrew lessons I plan on teaching the student to translate Jonah. Please pray God will bless these plans.
Prayer Requests: Please pray for a missionary church we support in Mexico. A gang was harassing some families in their church so badly that the families moved to another city. The church lost 19 members. Please pray for the salvation of a couple of guys I have been witnessing to. My wife and I are counseling with some folks. Please lift them up in prayer. Please pray that a little girl named Georgia is allowed to come home to her family soon.
Blessings of Music: In the chapel at the hospital on Sunday morning, my wife, played In the Garden on the bowed psaltery. She played it very well. The light was dim. Sunshine was shining through the stained glass windows. When she got done I looked around and saw several people with tears on their faces. My wife has started working on practicing her music for Christmas. I enjoy so much listening to her. God really blessed me when he gave me a musician for a wife.
----------------------------------------
Pre-Blog Life 1951 to October 2007 (Written
July 5, 2011 )
Everything that follows is from notes I found scattered about or from memory. In July, 2011, I decided to start adding things backwards starting from October, 2007. While I’m waiting for my health issues to sort themselves into some new equilibrium, I am seeking God’s will for the rest of my life. As a part of that it seemed reasonable to spend some time documenting my first 60 years. I thought it might help me as I think and pray about the next 60.
Ten years ago I began to work on my autobiography. I called it the first 50 years, but ended up only writing about the first 25 years. Now I have 35 years undocumented. I’m going to work backwards this time and will add that autobiography when I get to it. However, I thought a note from the introduction of it would serve here.
A note on memory:
While
I was working on this autobiography I did some research on what is known
scientifically about memory particularly with regard to early childhood
memories. I discovered that there is
considerable controversy on the topic among psychologists and other scientific
experts. The view that I found most
convincing suggests that childhood memories from before 2 years of age are
impossible, and from before 4 are rare.
Memories can be "implanted" by unscrupulous or incompetent
psychologists using various forms of therapy.
False memories can be self induced to protect your psyche or just
because you like a story and identify with it strongly.
"All
memories are reconstructions of likely scenarios in which you fill in the gaps.
Thus, all memories are somewhat inaccurate, though they serve us well enough
under normal conditions. Under severe social influence, however, memories can
be distorted or even entirely rewritten. Memory is largely a matter of
rehearsal. The more often a scene is rehearsed, the more real it becomes to
you. Experiments have shown that people can be induced to remember events that
did not occur." Mark Patterson
http://nasw.org/users/markp/memories.html
In
one experiment teenagers were casually told by older siblings that they had
been lost at a shopping mall when they were very young and had been found and
returned by a man wearing a flannel shirt.
It was all a fabrication but a month later when these teenagers were
interviewed most of them not only claimed to have recollections of the event
but had added details like the color of the flannel shirt or that the man that
found them was bald or wore glasses.
What
you will find here are my memories. I
believe it all really happened but perhaps not.
Memories from 2007
What I remember from 2007 was the beginning of a transition of our ministry from trying to start a church to beginning the jail ministry. I had for some time been involved in jail ministry by going once a month to the jail with another church group. In late 2006 we decided that since we could not get people to come to our church we would take our church to them. By “we” I mean Trish and I as well as the only remaining member of our church, a lady named Judy. We had three ideas. (1) Take worship services to shut-ins. (2) Take worship services to a hospital or nursing home. (3) Take worship services to the jail. God opened two doors of effective ministry. One was the jail ministry by giving us an evening or our own every Tuesday night and by Tennessee Christian allowing us to offer worship services in their chapel and in a recreation room in their lock-up ward. Actually the hospital was first in late 2006.
I also remember beginning to write courses for the inmates. One of the courses I decided to write was an apologetics course. As part of the research for that I went to an atheist’s web site. The result of that can be seen here.
Notes from 2007:
This is our church’s annual report for 2007:
January 1, 2008
Dear Friends,
It has been a very good year for our microscopic little church. God has blessed us richly. Please continue your prayers for us.
In February, the Lord opened a door for service for us at the local county jail. Every Tuesday evening we go to have worship service with men waiting trial for serious felonies. An average of 17 men attend each week, but because of the frequent turnover as men go to trial and more are arrested we have had 152 different men in our services. We have seen many saved and rededicated by the power of the Holy Spirit. Please pray that many more will be saved.
We soon realized that worship alone was not sufficient ministry for these men. Discipleship training was needed beyond evangelism. We started writing and sending them Bible lessons by mail. I write the lessons and Trisha illustrates them. We send a Bible with the first lesson. When the men respond, in addition to grading their work, we write each one a personal note and prayer. We have sent about 250 Bibles with first lessons. About 75 men have responded by completing at least one lesson. We have mailed out about 500 lessons beyond the first lesson to these 75 men. About 40 are still active in taking lessons as of this month. To the men who complete at least 10 lessons we send a Bible Dictionary. We have mailed 15 Bible dictionaries. To the men who attend at least 10 worship services we send an inspirational or devotional Christian book. We have mailed 34 of these kind of books. Please pray that these men will continue to grow in Christian maturity.
However, all these students are not in the local jail. As some of the men go to trial, and are sent to other prisons, our Bible courses have reached into the state prison system. These students recruit other students. We have never met more than half of our students. We have one Bible student in an Oklahoma prison. Please join us in praying for an open door that the Bible lessons may reach the female prisoner population as well.
Our ministry at the behavioral health hospital has continued. In addition to units for rehabilitation from substance abuse and various mental difficulties, the hospital also has a hospice wing. We go every Sunday morning and have worship service with patients, staff, and visitors in the hospital chapel. After the chapel service we go to a ward where the patients are locked in and have another service in their break room. This year, we have given about 175 Bibles to patients in this ward. Please pray that God use our ministry there for his glory.
We support through prayer and financial giving five foreign missionary teams, and two local ministries. This year we sent a total of about $3,000 to help in their work for God's kingdom. Please pray that this money will bear much spiritual fruit.
In September, we were joined by a local minister, Mark Lang. He is helping us in the jail. Please pray for more Christian people to help us in God's work.
God Bless You,
Thor
I plan to add more later. I may or may not put a note on the home page depending on how much of it there is. I’m having trouble finding many notes from that year.