LIFE
IS A BEAUTIFUL GIFT – PAY IT FORWARD - BE AN ORGAN DONOR
A friend of mine, (see http://anotherdayanotherbreath.wordpress.com/),
has recently had a lung transplant. We
are so grateful for the young man who decided to be an organ donor and made
this possible. On his way out of this
world, he saved someone's life. Please
consider becoming an organ donor. You
can be a hero, too. It is just a little
heart symbol on your driver’s license. 
By the time they take
your organs you won’t need them anymore.
Why not be generous?
Please attend a coffee house on September 11th
to help with some of the associated costs of her transplant operation. (See
details)
Previous Journal Entries: JUL 2011 | JUN 2011 | MAY 2011
SEP 2009 to APR 2011 | AUG 2009 | JAN to JUL 2009
OCT to DEC 2008 | JUL to SEP 2008 | APR to JUN 2008
| JAN to MAR 2008
August 31, 2011
A Blessing for Thor
I had a really good prayer moment this morning during my
breakfast. I was looking out the window
at our beautiful view, talking with the Lord about our walk together today, and
suddenly had this feeling that God had created what I was seeing just for
me. The creek, the trees, the lawn, the
sunrise -- He put them all there as an act of love just for me, so that I would
have something pleasant to enjoy.
Then I looked at the glass of juice in my hand and realized He put
it in my hand for my enjoyment and my health.
I've been walking around in an attitude of gratitude all morning, taking
notice of a hundred different little blessings.
I feel excellent!
God, please help me to retain this gratefulness, not just as a
passing feeling, but as a way of life, perhaps even as a personality trait.
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August 30, 2011
Note on Good Health
I got the stitches out this morning. Even though the doctor was sure the tumor
they removed from me Friday before last was benign, out an abundance of
caution, he sent it off for analysis. It
was benign. Blood pressure measured
104/80.
Great Physician, thank you for touching me with your healing hand.
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August 28, 2011
Grand Theft Jesus
A friend at church asked me to take a look at the book Grand Theft Jesus by Robert S.
McElvaine. It claims to be about “the
hijacking of religion in America”. This
is a topic of interest to me, but I was disappointed when it almost immediately
became obvious that the author is a perpetrator of the crime, not a reporter of
it. I read page 1, chapter 5, and
scanned the rest of it, reading a page out of almost every chapter and paying
particular attention to the table of contents and index. The book is an irrational rant against a
group McElvaine calls Christianity Lite, which consists of any Christian with
political views different than McElvaine.
The main thing that is missing from the book is a statement of
belief. All he does is attack other
people from an undefined platform of belief that he would have us believe is
held by all reasonable people. It would
be a waste of time to spend any more time on this very useless and often
irrational book.
On the first page he wants to change the Ten Commandment against
stealing to one against kidnapping. He
says some theologians support this idea, but there is no footnote to support
that. There is no reasonable way to make
this assertion. There is nothing in the
Hebrew to support it. He also asserts
that “These Christian ‘impostors’ often demand that the Ten Commandments be
posted in public places.” Again no
footnote. I know of lots of cases of
people wanting to keep it where it is already being displayed with the ACLU
attacking them.
The book seems to be one illogical straw man argument after
another. He finds examples of stupid
people saying stupid things and laughs at them.
He rips quotes out of context and refutes the meaning he projects on the
quote rather than what the original author meant.
For instance in chapter 5 he quotes some things Jefferson said
about Catholics and says it is about Christianity as a whole. He goes through chapter 5 finding quotes from
various founding fathers that might suggest they were for separation of church
and state but does not address a single quote that many Christians use to
suggest the opposite. The founding
fathers said a great many things against one denomination of Christianity
taking over the government. These can be
easily misconstrued as McElvaine does in his book. The founders always assumed we would remain a
Christian nation. They wanted to guard
against Christians persecuting Christians.
McElvaine makes a big deal out of their silence on homosexuality and
abortion. They didn’t talk about jet
airplanes and electricity either.
Why? Because they weren’t part of
the world they were dealing with. I did
like what he had to say about the Emperor Constantine in 312 AD. “Because of Constantine Christianity went
from persecuted to persecuting.” (Thank
you Constantine, and ugh Constantine, how could you?) But what has that got to do with anything
today? McElvaine says any Christian he
doesn’t like today is a follower of Constantine, but he never quite makes the
connection logically. Perhaps the most
repugnant thing McElvaine did was put Tertullian’s ideas about repressing women
into the mouth of Peter and Paul.
Someone scribbled a note in the margin of the book in Chapter
5. It asks if Al Gore is a
Christian. I don’t know. If he claims to be, he probably is. The point McElvaine misses is that you can
not determine someone’s standing with Christ by their political views. There are Christians, atheists, and
everything in between scattered across the entire political spectrum.
Other reviews of the book:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/83321326
http://www.amazon.com/review/RGS8G1D3UFUMX
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1GFY3P8R2EHX8
One of the people McElvaine quotes
complains he was grossly misquoted: http://erlc.com/article/caution-robert-mcelvaines-grand-theft-jesus-has-a-problem-with-facts
God, please help me to love those who attack Your people without
understanding who Your people really are.
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August 22, 2011
Conflict Management
Luke 17:3 "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke
him; and if he repents, forgive him."
Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2
For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure,
it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your
brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can
you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold,
the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own
eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s
eye."
Matthew 18:15-18 "If your brother sins, go and show him his
fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he
does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in
heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
All this is very good obviously, since it comes from the Word of
God, but I'm not always sure how to apply it.
Certainly it seems clear we need to communicate about conflict. But what do you do when someone rebukes you
for something you did not do, refuses to listen to a word you say including
apologies, and then cuts off communication entirely? I already tried losing my temper, so don't
suggest that.
God, please help me to love people who hate me without reason.
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August 21, 2011
Discussing Doctrine
I often talk to people about Christianity or religion in
general. It is interesting to me how
often people degenerate into bragging about their own good deeds instead of
talking about God or doctrine. I guess
their god-in-a-box is too small to actually do anything. They have to do it all themselves. Just goes back to what I have said for a long
time. There are only two religions: God
worship and Self worship.
But so much for demeaning them, what about us? Have we listened to ourselves lately? How much time do we spend talking about
ourselves? We should be fair in our
analysis. Bragging on our children and
grand children is about us, not them.
Complaining about the government and our boss is about us, not them.
Lord, please help me to lift up You and glorify You, not me.
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August 20, 2011
Surgery Report - Caution – Not for the squeamish to read
This is more than most people want to know. I recommend you skip this post. I have received some queries for more details
regarding my latest encounter with the medical establishment. I have posted about it a couple of times, but
the reason people don’t understand is that it sounds more serious than it is or
less serious than it is without going into details, which I have so far
avoided. I had a sebacious cyst on my
back. It was oval shaped about 3 inches
on the short axis and 4 inches on the long axis. It is tumor of abnormal fat cells and looked
like a swollen place about a half inch deep at the thickest point. It was uncomfortable when I leaned back in
chairs.
I lay on a table face down for about two hours. Mostly I was not uncomfortable. They gave me a bunch of shots of local
anesthetic and waited about fifteen minutes.
I could still feel, so they gave me a bunch more. I had been there about 30 minutes when it was
finally numb and the doctor and two nurses went to work on me. They cut around it and pulled back the skin
and snipped it out with a pair of scissors.
That part took about an hour.
Then the doctor stitched me up and the nurses put a bandage on it. That part took about a half hour. The first local anesthetic shots were
uncomfortable and the last ten minutes my shoulders started hurting from being
in the same position for so long. Neither
was remarkably painful.
During the entire time the four of us chatted and had a good
time. When the doctor would say
something like, “Hand me that thingy, there,” I would make fun of him by
complimenting the nurse on understanding such difficult technical terms. When the phone rang I offered to answer
it. When he was stitching me up he
remarked that I have tough hide. I told
him that was because I was a descendant of Attila the Hun. In retrospect I find myself wondering if he
was using a figure of speech. When he
was instructing the nurses how to bandage me up the doctor told them to rub
“goop” on it. I laughed and said
something like there is another difficult technical term. How do y’all remember all that stuff? He said that between themselves in private
they called it “snot” but they liked to maintain a better bed side manner in
front of the patients. We also talked
about a book one of the nurses was reading, the hot weather, exercising,
difficulty waking up in the morning, and I don’t remember what all. I missed the opportunity to assure them that
I did not mind them talking behind my back.
Get it? They were working on my
back. Never mind.
Trisha overheard one of the nurses telling the receptionist about
the operation. She said “the thing was a
monster” and that it was difficult to get it all. The receptionist whispered something,
probably, “His wife is sitting out there,” and the conversation went on in
whispers.
The doctor expressed two concerns for after the operation. One, infection of course. We have to change the bandage, once a day and
keep it clean, etc. The other is that
there is a big empty place under my skin where the cyst was and my body wants
to fill it with blood and lymph fluid like a giant blister. I had to lie on my back to keep pressure on
it until now. Since no muscles, bones,
or tendons were involved it is not very painful. I have a tough hide. I have that on good authority. It is just part of my heritage. I get the stitches out in 10 days. Pray I heal without any complications.
Lord, you are the Great Physician.
Thank you.
Six Degrees of Separation
Redux
On the 13th below I posted, “They say that if you could
draw a chart that showed everyone in the world with a link between each pair of
people who knew each other, no two people would be more than six links
away. They call it a maximum of “six
degrees of separation”. I suppose they
think they know this by some kind of statistical math or something. I don’t know.
Might be true.” Then I mentioned
one example of two people among my friends that it surprised me they knew each
other.
Since then Facebook has shown me new evidence of it almost every
day. Over in the upper right where it
has that little place that sometimes shows you people you have never heard of
and how many mutual friends you have, I keep finding people who know each
other, people I never dreamed knew each other.
The other day I found out two people I work with knew one of our Bible
study student’s, one of them went to high school with her and the other went to
college with her. They sit three
cubicles apart and had no idea the other knew her. Yesterday I found the weirdest one yet. She has eleven mutual friends with me – my
son, my car pool buddy, her sister and mother and a childhood friend of hers, a
young lady that was one of the youth that went to Mexico with us, a few other
friends from that former church, and a teenager that goes to my current church,
but not anyone else in the teenager’s family.
I don’t know how to think about this.
Lord, you made us to love one another. Help me better at that.
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August 19, 2011
Random thoughts while
waiting to be stabbed
This morning I will go to the doctor to have an ugly thing removed
from my back. It is a procedure done in
the doctor's office and is not a particularly risky thing. The thing has been there for several
years. The doctor told me long ago that
it was not dangerous and as long as it did not get bigger or bother me there
was no need to do anything about it. (I
have officially become and old person.
I'm talking about my health issues in public.) Lately I have been noticing it. I can feel it when I lean back or lie down,
like someone glued a deflated tennis ball to my back. It hasn't gotten bigger. What I think happened is I have slowed my
life down enough to notice it.
The last few months have been a strange time in my life. My relationships with my wife and my God have
become stronger. Most of my other
relationships have been like the thing on my back. I don't mean ugly or in need of a
removal. I mean I didn't understand them
before and now they are changing, evolving right before my eyes, like clouds as
they drift across the sky. People I
thought I could rely on have abandoned me and I don't even understand why. Others have emerged as dear and close friends
that I did not realize I had and certainly don't deserve.
Father, please help me appreciate the love I receive from your
other children.
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August 14, 2011
Cult?
I was talking the other day with a friend about our interactions
with a member of a cult. It did not seem
we had made any headway. I said
something to the effect that it was up to the Holy Spirit to convince them, we
could not do anything. Being very familiar
with this particular cult my friend said, they say the same thing about
us. But there is a big difference
between us and them. They say it as an
excuse to disengage from us and ignore us.
We say it as a way to deal with our disappointment and continue our
interactions with them. So for them the
idea that the other person’s heart must be prepared by the Spirit is a wall,
but for us it is means of overcoming discouragement. In fact, this difference is one of the key
indicators that they are a cult.
Lord, please bless my attempts to reach out to people trapped in
cults.
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August 13, 2011
Wonderful Wedding
Our friends Kirk & Jessica got married today. The ceremony was beautiful. They did something I had never seen
before. The pastor gave them the Lord’s
Supper. They wanted that to be one of
the first things they ever did together.
Trish and I both cried at that point.
Everybody was beautiful or handsome, and everything went perfect.
God, bless Kirk & Jessica with a long and happy life together.
Six Degrees of Separation
They say that if you could draw a chart that showed everyone in
the world with a link between each pair of people who knew each other, no two
people would be more than six links away.
They call it a maximum of “six degrees of separation”. I suppose they think they know this by some
kind of statistical math or something. I
don’t know. Might be true.
Today I began to think it is true.
I noticed one of my friends from a long time ago posted on the Facebook
wall of one of my more current friends.
Turns out they have known each other for years. I decided to look around on the friend’s list
of some of my other Facebook friends and see if there was any other
coincidences like that. It was a boring
process, so after the first person, I decided to do just one more. Turns out the bride from the post above is
friends with my pastor’s son.
Considering my pastor’s son lives in another state, I find that pretty
remarkable.
Father, help me remember we are all blood relatives, children of
Noah.
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August 11, 2011
God is Sovereign
I know it is hard when you are trying to do something for God, and
it seems like almost nobody will help you.
It is easy to get resentful of them, especially the ones who almost
help, by doing it once or twice and quitting, or talking about it a lot and
never doing anything at all. In my
ministry I have had to learn to think differently about all that. I watched a church not begin, because I
thought it depended on me, and a jail ministry spring to life, when I realized
it depended on Him. God sends whoever He
wants. God has to speak in their
hearts. I can be pretty strong willed
and persuasive, and I know how to guilt people into things, but it never works
out if I do either. I have had to learn
to lay back and let people do what God tells them to do. It is hard for someone like me to do that,
but God is working on me.
Exodus 36:2 "Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every
skillful person in whom the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform
it."
Lord, please help me to let you run things. You are better at it than I can possibly
imagine.
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August 10, 2011
Jesus is Lord
I’m enjoying Facebook. I
never thought I would. I got into an
interesting discussion today. There was
a long exchange on Facebook between two other people, one a Jehovah’s Witness,
and the other a Christian. The Christian
explained they were using the word Jehovah like it was some kind of magic
word. I chimed in:
Thor Carden: I had not
thought of that before. They are using Jehovah, which is Hebrew for, "I am
that I am", and not a name at all, as a magic word where they get to
decide when God does and does not do things. God is not a genii in a bottle for
JW's (or anyone else) to command.
The Jehovah’s Witness answered: Hello Thor Carden; I would like to
share with you some information. At Ps 83:18 The personal name of God almighty,
and this would also be Jesus Christ's father, The only one that Christ prayed
to when he was on the earth. In this scripture, It is telling what God
almighty's name is.
My answer: Thank you for your response. The Hebrew word translated
“name” in Ps 83:18 is shem. Shem does sometimes mean “personal
name”, but to claim it does in this case is begging the question. It also can
be translated “reputation”, “monument” or “memorial” or can be translated
“name” and understood to mean “reputation” as “name” often does in English. (as
in making a name for yourself) In this
context it is much more reasonable to understand it as “reputation” rather than
“personal name.” God has the reputation of being the self existent eternal one.
I believe any reasonable person reading the whole Psalm would see it that way,
especially if they understood that in ancient Middle Eastern culture knowing
someone's personal name meant you had power over them, and the Psalmist could
never mean we have power over God.
The Jehovah’s Witness has not answered yet.
Father, please make me humble enough that You can use me to help
this lost man.
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August 7, 2011
AWOL
I know my vast audience of blog fans are wondering why I have not
posted in a while. Well, two reasons –
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest and Facebook.
Whenever I feel creative lately I try to work up an entry in the
Bulwer-Lytton contest. I can’t publish
them on the internet because that disqualifies them. If you would like to see them let me know and
I’ll copy you when I make an entry via e-mail.
(See August 2 below)
The other thing is that last week I was finally assimilated by the
Borg, and joined Facebook. Now when I’m
feeling social I get on Facebook and noodle around instead of making a blog
entry like I used to.
The only other reason I have to post here is to sort of keep a
history of my life. I’m getting
forgetful in my old age (in the normal way, not in the Alzheimer’s way) and I
find I like having a journal of significant events, or it at least anchor
events, that can give me some clue of what happened this year, when I start
wondering next year.
So, while I’m sorry to disappoint the two of you, I’m afraid it
isn’t likely to get any better.
God, thank you for good friends who take an interest in me even
when I’m not interesting.
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August 2, 2011
The
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
I
saw a link to this (http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
) and found it hilarious. Look at the “Lyttony of Grand Prize Winners” link
near the top of the page. Since I read
about it I entered a couple of times in next year’s contest. I can’t publish my entries or they are
disqualified, but here is an entry I decided not to send:
It was Ann aerie knight, sew bean inn knead ova
knap, aye drank sum ail and liened own the pillar too wrest, butt be four aye
cud gnawed off, aye herd a nock own the gait, and a voice sane
"mailman," witch seamed awed two mi, sense their is knot eeny utter
kine duh, is dare?
Here
it is again spelled right, but the puns disappear:
It was an airy
night, so being in need of a nap, I drank some ale and leaned on the pillow to
rest, but before I could nod off, I heard a knock on the gate, and a voice
saying, "male man," which seemed odd to me, since there is not any
other kind, is there?
If
you don't see the puns it would be a punishment for me to explain them because
explained puns lose their punch.
----------------------------------------
August 1, 2011
Even More Scan Results
I
had a scan done on my chest on July 11th. (See entries below on July 8th, 12th,
15th and 22nd for more complete information.) and I was
not happy with the results on the phone, which were it is still there, it is
decreasing in size, the doctor says it is nothing to worry about. I made an appointment to see the doctor to
get a more detailed explanation and to consult him about another matter. He said it is just scar tissue from an
earlier infection or something and I really have nothing to worry about. No further follow-ups are necessary. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for my heart.
Lord,
You have shown Yourself to be the Great Physician, yet again. Thank you.
Amen.
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