Cup A Joe

Snow photos and video

With thanks to the enormously talented director, producer and camera man, Taylor Smith:

 

 

 

Is my hair on fire?

 Hope none of you died since my last post. Of course if you are reading this you are not dead... unless you are extremely talented. Boy Howdee.

 In a disturbing coincidence, considering the last post, I have recently learned that the mortality rate in my town is 100%. THAT..is bad news. But if you'll remember, I said I had good news.

  The following little deal, I stole from a much older post of mine but if you don't mind, I don't mind:

  We humans prepare for everything. We prepare for tests in school that might not happen. We prepare for careers by going to college but that career might not happen. We prepare for athletic contests we might not play in (like, ya know, if you flunk off the football team in the tenth grade). OOOoohhh man! That still stings a bit. We prepare for weddings that might not happen. We prepare for a retirement that might not happen. We even prepare other people for our own death with wills and such. But there is only one thing that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt will happen. Our own death. And so many of us don't prepare for it.

   Gonna throw another Greek word at you, euangelion. That is where our word evangel comes from and it means good news. And evangelist is one who brings good news. When you think evangelist you may think of Billy Graham or some very angry man on a street corner yelling and screaming at you, doing more harm for the cause of Christ than he could possibly know. I once watched a pair of these folks yelling and screaming and starting fights for an hour in downtown Atlanta. Heartbreaking. I got real close and took a picture of one of them:

He almost bit me but lucky for me I was eating a bowl of my Alphabits cereal.... So I ate him:

 BUUUURRP!! Exsqueeze me. He tasted kinda' sour and bitter.

 Well today I am an evangelist; A bringer of Good News to you. And what is that good news? Pure and simple:

Romans 5:8 (NIV)- But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

  Do you understand what that means? As I have written in earlier posts, God demands judgement of sin...judgement of sinners. It's just the way it is, no matter how yucky or angry you may feel about it or no matter how unfair it may seem. But Christ, though undeserving, took our punishment on that hill and God has accepted his payment of the debt we owed. However, this gift must be accepted by you through repentance and faith(belief):

Acts 2:37-38A (NIV)- When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins..."

  You know, if you think about it, you all know he was there that day. The Crucifiction happening is a fact that can be proved outside of the Bible, if you need that. If you think about it some more, what the heck was He doing there...God was certainly very serious about something that day. What was it?

  So Peter said you must repent and be baptized (in that order) which means if you were baptized as an infant or too young enough to understand, it doesn't count. Sorry poopy pants. Just so you'll know, I was baptized twice. Once when I was 12 and didn't have a clue and once when I was 28 and understood. There is nothing magical in the water that "saves" you, the "magic" is in the Christ who died for you and then you truly understanding and truly believing it. And then getting Baptized is the symbolic act identifying you with Christ and showing that you agree with Him about you and ..about Him. You've changed your mind. You've repented. You've turned away from the old way of thinking and doing. I may explain more on that later. I don't want to split any (more) denominations over an interpretation of Baptism and/or repentance. I'll just shut up for a minute and let Paul speak:

Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)- That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved

  That's all really but there is a cost. I'll discuss that in the next post. We'll talk about someone the Bible calls "The Rich Young Ruler". One last brief word about belief.

Oh I believe. I BELIEVE!!

Hush up, you.

  This belief changes you. The following little word picture is also something I stole from an earlier post but explains true belief(faith) in a very good way, me thinks. I got it from my favorite pastor, Chuck Smith. Well actually, my second favorite pastor. My favorite pastor lives in Orangeburg and is the pastor at Northgate Baptist Church:

Pastor Chuck gave a good analogy of faith without works that has stuck with me for 12 years. He said that if he began to talk about there being a bomb underneath the stage from which he was speaking and was doing it casually, everyone would think that he was lying. “Hey folks, there is a big old bomb up under the stage that is big enough to blow us all to smithereens and it is going off in 60 seconds. Can you imagine someone doing that? That’s just not very nice, blowing people up. Oohhhh, the humanity.” Most people listening to that would think that Chuck obviously does NOT really believe that a bomb was getting ready to go off. However, if Chuck began running up and down the aisles like his hair was on fire screaming for everyone to “GET OUT!! GET OUT!! THERE’S A BOMB GETTING READY TO BLOW!!” Those listening would at least believe that Chuck thought there was a bomb. In both cases we could tell what he believed by his actions/works. This came from his teaching from the Book of James. Faith without works is dead.

 

Sometimes I feel like that.....Like my hair is on fire.

 

 

 

 

Hamartia for Hamartians

  Sin

  The word for sin in the Greek language is Hamartia. And that is important because the New Testament of your Bibles was mostly written in Greek. The translation literally means, "To miss the mark" or "To miss the target". The way we came to call it sin was because when English versions of the Bible began to be written in the 1500's and most famously with the writing of the King James Version in 1611, the word to describe "missing the mark" was Synn. Synn was an old archery (bow and arrow) term. Someone standing near the target would yell, "SYNN!" if an arrow missed the target. Eventually as the Old English faded out, the word became "Sin".

   WHO CARES!?

  Shut-up, voice inside my head. You should probably listen to this one because YOU are a bad one, my friend.

  Anyhoodles, when the Bible speaks of sin, what is the target? What is the mark that has been missed?

  Absolute and total perfection, in your actions and even in your thoughts. So you can see why Christ followers say we are all sinners. They say it because the Bible says it, baby:

Romans 3:23 (NIV)- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

  Another way you could say you are "missing the mark" is by saying that the mark is "The Ten Commandments". You can read them here if you like. I'll just tell you straight up, I have broken all ten. Now don't get in a Tizzy, Thin Lizzy. I see that Adultery is on there and I have not cheated on my wife in the most obvious way. So chill out puddin' pops. That story is for another post.

  Now there is something we humans tend to misunderstand. We don't really understand our sin. I often hear people talk of something (or some things) bad they did that they can't seem to forget or that has bothered them for along time. They feel guilty about it and would generally agree with you that, yes, that was a horrible sin I committed. But on the other hand, if they could just be forgiven for those several things, they would feel like they were in pretty good spiritual standing, heaven wise. But you know, that one or few bad things is not what Jesus is really trying to forgive you of. Read these scripture verses and then we will continue:

James 2:8-11 (NIV)- If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, "Do not commit adultery,"also said, "Do not murder."If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

    That was written by James, the half brother of Jesus. With an apology to my Catholic friends, he was conceived in his mother Mary's womb the old fashioned way. But what he is saying is this; You may as well imagine the 10 commandment were written on glass tablets. You can't break one off without shattering the whole thing. You are a "Lawbreaker" and I am a lawbreaker, a sinner. So that one big sin you are so worried about is no more significant or damning as the "little" sins that you commit so often that they no longer register on your I-just-did-something-wrong-o-meter.

  So I am sorry to tell you, Cup A Joe-ites but we are all sinners, lawbreakers. Now if we all lived in Joeytown and I was the mayor maybe I wouldn't be so tough in my judgements on all you sinners but this cosmos we all live in is Jesustown and HE is the mayor (the King). And in His perfect wisdom He has promised that the result of our being sinners is death, hell, eternal punishment; whatever you want to call it. That's just the way it is and that is bad news. But I have good news:

Romans 6:23(NIV)- For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   It's not so much the SINS that you have committed as it is that you ARE a sinner. THAT is what Christ is after. Did you see that in the verse right above? It says sin not sins.

  So there is a solution to your problem. There is a remedy that will make you white as snow, despite your sin. You will not be counted guilty, despite your sin. In fact you will be counted as perfect in heaven, despite your sin...... But I'm not going to tell you until the next post.

 

  SO DON'T YOU GO DYIN' ON ME!!

Mark Driscoll

 

If you have a question about this, please send me an e-mail. I won't steer you wrong.

Dancing with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight

 The following is a re-post from March 27th of last year:

Dancing with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight

 

 My dad once fired a fella for being 1 minute late to work. He was a very talented welder and pretty valuable to the company yet he was fired for being only 1 minute late. 1 minute late....14 days in a row (or there abouts).

  We have a guy at work right now who is a very talented Mill operator but he is always a minute late. He is the most talented guy we have but can't get to work on time. We start at 7:00. He was coming in every day at 7:01. He is very conscientious about the work he does but he is not conscientious about getting to work to do the work he is so conscientious about doing... My head hurts. Because we are small and because he is so valuable to the company, his boss told him he could start coming in at 7:30 if it would help him get to work on time but that this was the last straw; he had to clock in by 7:30..... He is now clocking in around 7:31 every morning.

  Through many years of research, experimentation and testing of hypothesis (some failed) I have constructed a theory that I try to live by and now I will share it with the world: I can drive 82 MPH when the speed limit is 70 MPH on the interstate and the cops won't bust me..... I'm sure of it.

  Taylor, my oldest, likes movies. When we go to rent movies we shop around to make sure we aren't watching something we shouldn't. Our conversations go like this:

Taylor: Dad, can we watch this? It's called "I'LL CUT YOUR HEAD OFF AND PUKE DOWN YOUR THROAT 'CAUSE I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER..... PART 9."

Dad: What's it rated?

Taylor: PG-13.

Dad: What's it say on the back? Why is it PG-13?

Taylor: Language, some violence and brief sexual situations.

Dad: Put it back.

Taylor: DAD! Come on.

Dad: Well, OK. I'll let you make the decision. But I just want you to know I have invited Jesus over to watch movies with us tonight.

Taylor: (no words just the look)

Dad: What? Will he not be there?

Taylor: (oops I'm sorry. He left to return the movie)

  Why do we want to get as close as we can to sin. Why when it comes to a question of whether we ought to do a thing or not, our flesh (what we want) always wins. We are so busy thinking about how close we can get to doing something pleasureable but wrong we don't realize that this dance with the devil is the complete anti-God state of mind. It is straining not to swallow a gnat but instead swallowing a camel. The gnat is the rule or law I am flirting with but determined not to break but the camel is the heart that wants to get as close to the sin as I can. Shouldn't we be more concerned about the camel:

 

Matthew 23:24-25 (NIV)-You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence

 

Things Christians Say for a Pearl of Great Value, Alex

 

Matthew 13:45-46 (NIV)- Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

 

 Here are a few words and phrases that you may have heard before. Christians say them alot but I am not sure everyone understands them when they hear them or say them:

Blood of the Lamb

The Lamb of God

Under the Blood

 Whose blood? Who is the Lamb? These words above mean a great deal to me because I found out what they mean. These words alone have at times filled me with indescribable emotion and joy. So much so that I almost scare myself at times, when I have really thought deeply about them. May I take a moment and tell you what they mean, my loves?

  Have you heard of the Passover? The Passover is the number one Jewish holiday and it goes waaay back. About 1,600 years before Christ, which would be around 3,600 years ago. Moses was the man God used when he was about to free the Jews from 430 years of bondage and slavery in Egypt. After telling Pharoah to let His people go (through Moses) and after Pharoah said no, God sent 10 plagues to help change his mind. The first 9 were horrible but they didn't work. Number ten was the most horrible of all. On that evening, God would send an angel throughout Egypt with instructions to kill the first born son of every single family. Harsh. So harsh that acts of God like this have caused some to stumble and have a wrong understanding of God. I won't explain it in this post but I can tell you one of the many, many reasons this happened:

You

  God told Moses to tell the Jews how to avoid this brutal judgement. Each family was to slaughter a perfect lamb and wipe the BLOOD OF THE LAMB over the door of their home. When the death angel came, if he saw the blood and the the home was UNDER THE BLOOD, he would PASS OVER. A lamb was sacrificed and killed so that God's people might live. This convinced Pharoah to free the Jews and God instructed them to celebrate this great moment every year from then on. I believe the reason that he asked them to do this, partly, was to point to the most important event in the history of our planet; The day 1600 or so years later when God Himself would provide His own Lamb, His own Son, THE LAMB OF GOD, to once again and finally save His people from death. That is another thing Christians say; "Have you been saved?" You will know for certain if you have been. Are you certain? There's a way to know.

  After I accepted God's gift, I still used to have a real problem with understanding and more importantly, trusting, that God really did Love me. I don't know why. I guess our experiences in life leave some more able to accept that love than others. I trust it alot better these days. One of the things that helped me understand better was a sermon I heard from a favorite pastor, Henry Blackaby. His daughter was very sick with cancer and Henry actually questioned God's love during that period. He says God taught him this (paraphrasing):

  Henry you should never question my Love for you. I forever settled that question at the Cross. You should never have to question my love for you. In your life, when you are going through bad times, you should always look over the problem and see the backdrop of the Cross and know that my love for you was forever settled there.

  So here we go. Brace yourself. I told you in an earlier post that I routinely will read of something or hear of something that moves me and I will go there (in my mind). Nothing has ever or will ever move me like the Cross. So on occasion I have visited. It is a rough trip. I literally am shaking right now as I think of it. This may be rough for some of you:

  As I stand at the foot of the Cross and tilt my head slightly up, I see a completely naked man. He has been beaten to the point where he is unrecognizable. The sights and sounds and smells are unbearable. Things not described in the Bible and certainly not shown in a movie. This man is in absolute and complete agony. By choice. And I understand that He is suffering for the sins of the world but all that doesn't matter right now. All that matters in this moment is that He is up there because of me. If I was the only man ever born, it would still be the only way. The only difference is that I would have had to do the horrible work the Roman soldiers did in placing Him on that horrible, lovely, ghastly, beautiful cross.

 

How much? How much does He love you?

 

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)-Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

King Joe of Anderson

Another oldie but goodie from the Cup A Joe vault:

 

 My beautiful 9 year old girl, Katie, has a date Friday night. Think that's a little too young for a date? Well don't worry. I am her date. You can believe that. She won't have a real date for a looooonnnggg time (maybe never?).

   She is very excited. She and her mom are buying her a new dress and we will be going to a nice restaurant. I am going to treat her very special. See, Cheryl and I are already very concerned about who our children are going to marry and it's not too early to be concerned about that. We pray regularly about these people, people we probably don't even know yet, that will eventually be our children's spouses. So this Friday is our first DDD Day (Daddy daughter date day). I will show her how a young man should treat her. I will educate her on some of her own manners and mannerisms. And I will teach her some Kung Fu.

   You see here's the deal, all you 9 and 10 year old boys out there. You don't know it but I am already watching you. I am watching your parents too. I think it is funny that you believe you can one day date my daughter without a green card. What's that you say; you are a citizen of the United States just like me. You are so confused my little 9 year old friend. Yes you do live in the United States but my daughter, as far as you are concerned, lives in another country. Listen up junior. America, where you live, is a Democracy. But my little girl lives in a Monarchy. And I am the King. Unlike in your country, our borders are very secure. In our country we don't have a death penalty....we have a slow-death penalty. And sometimes we put people to death just because you give the king a bad vibe. So watch those vibes. OOhh...what's that little fella? Are those tears? You're crying????..... Am I scaring you?.......GOOD !!!

    Here is a very partial list  of some things you should or should not do if you would like to come into my Kingdom and visit my princess:

1. I should not see your underwear or hear jewelry clanking against your teeth.
2. I should not see a van.
3. As far as you are concerned, my name is Sir. or Your Lordship would be ok.
4. If your first name is a letter of the alphabet like T-Dawg or G-Money...keep driving.
5. If you blow the horn to get my daughter to come to the car..pull out of driveway...and keep driving
6. If you are 17 year old me, reincarnated...you ain't foolin' me slick...keep driving.

   Seriously little fella's. Go to church. Learn about Jesus. Serve at your church. Ask your parents to read the Bible to you. Start preparing now to be the spiritual leader of your home. I might let you in. I am praying for you and I can't wait to meet you (sort of). But just to let you know, the reason I am daddy-dating my daughter now is so she'll be the one to sniff you out before you even get to me. You'll see.

   In a side note to all the 9 and 10 year old boys reading this blog; I didn't crack a smile, on the inside or the outside, while writing this.

   In another side note to 17 year old me(reincarnated); Please study harder.

I'm Sorry

   Here is another old post for ya'.

I'm Sorry

  Why is it so hard to say those words? It doesn't make sense, being that, as far as relationships, they are the most powerful words in our vocabulary. Why is it so hard to admit to someone close to us that we have been wrong about something? Especially when the words "I'm sorry" do each of the people involved so much good. Many feel like this:

   

 

Steve Martin- An apology? Bah! Disgusting! Cowardly! Beneath the dignity of any gentleman, however wrong he might be.

   He's joking but not by much. As a parent and a manager with people working for me, I want people to trust me and to look to me as an example, particularly with my children. Admitting mistakes and apologizing makes me feel vulnerable. I feel like I will lose respect and also the leverage it takes to lead, manage and discipline. The leverage that comes from just being in a position of leadership, whether it is being a parent or a boss. But I learned something some years ago; nobody's perfect, including me. I know this is a shocking revelation to some of you. Seriously, everybody know's I'm not perfect, including my kids. If I never apologize or admit my mistakes and I act like I am Mr. Perfect, integrity disappears and nobody will listen. Well....

   I really blew it with one of my kid's yesterday. Completely and utterly screwed up. Lately, Cheryl and I have been stressing to our kids the importance of doing things PRECISELY the way we tell them to. The job is not finished until everything is done EXACTLY the way we have asked and that it is very important to LISTEN to instructions. I will give those of you with children a moment to quit laughing 

 

  OK. Now a few more moments for my parents to quit laughing as they weren't able to stop in the previous time alotted.

 

 Everybody good? Okie dokie then.

 

   Lately, as some of you know, we have been moving from a rental into our new home. We have had to do some repairs, tear up and replace carpet, paint and move alot of STUFF. As you can imagine, there have been alot of tasks for the kids that have required some PRECISE directions. Yesterday, I gave one of the kids one of these tasks to do and I told this child that I expected it to be done when I got back from LOWES. When I returned, it was not done the way I had asked. Well, I blew up and let my child know how disappointed I was and didn't allow any excuses for a poorly done job. I said that the only excuse was that they wanted to do something else and that they just didn't care enough to do the job right. I laid it on pretty thick and my child was not happy.

  

I then began to finish the task myself and found that it couldn't be done the way I had asked.

Oooohhhhh boy!!! I needed to take a moment.

   As soon as I realized I was completely in the wrong, I went directly to ___________ and here is what I said:

I was completely wrong. You were 100% right. I really screwed up and I should have listened. I gave you instructions that you could not follow. Will you forgive me?

   No excuses. No buts. Excuses neuter the power of apologies. Well guess what? My child MELTED into my arms. Tears of relief and PURE JOY flowed from them. WHAT A MOMENT !! A wound had been inflicted. They KNEW that I was wrong and were waiting and simmering and the wound was festering and getting ready to leave a permanent scar. But I had the power to heal if only I would say it:

 

 I'M SORRY !!

 

The Dude Abides (again).

  Cup A Joe has been on the web now since May of '07. In that time I have written around 130 posts. I have often wanted to go back to some of the older posts and touch them up a bit but never had an excuse, 'til now.

  Facebook has been a joy. It has been a ridiculous fun getting back in touch with so many old friends. Some of those old friends have become Cup A Joe readers and that is all the excuse I needed to re-post some of the posts I most enjoyed writing in the beginning. Don't worry old time readers, I will still post  1-3 times per week. So without further ado, I give you:

 The Dude Abides (again).

 That's an asteroid. This particular asteroid is about 1,300 feet long. That is roughly the size of the Empire State Building, only fatter. For those that haven't seen the Empire State building, imagine a rock floating around in space about 400 feet longer than the Titanic or the Yorktown. Maybe you've been on the Yorktown down in Charleston. That's one big honkin' rock, n'est ce pas(ain't it)? This particular rock has a name, it's Apophis.

   

  There are thousands upon thousands of Asteroids in our Solar system but this one is special because it will pass very close to our earth on Friday, April 13, 2029. If you are a Friday the 13th freak, Merry Christmas. It will be so close, that it will pass inside the orbit of most of our man made satellites. It will be so close, that the earth's gravity will bend or change the course of the asteroid and some have calculated that that change of course could put it on a collision course with our beautiful earth exactly 7 years later (2036). Scientist say that rocks of this size pass this close to the earth on average, once every one thousand years.

   If this particular Asteroid hit earth, it would release 880+ Megatons of energy. How can I describe that kind of power for you:

Hiroshima was about 15% of one megaton.

 

 The energy required to produce this crater has been calculated at between 3 and 10 megatons. This is the crater out near Winslow, Arizona. It is about 4,000 feet across and 500 feet deep. You may have seen it in the movie Starman from 1984 starring The Dude and Karen Allen. Great movie by the way. Anyone remember Dutch Apple Pie? Yummy!

 

   

 Anyhoo, back to our life-on-earth-as-we-know-it-destroying explosion...880 megatons; that kind of blast wouldn't necessarily end life on planet earth but somewhere on the planet there would be a hole roughly the size of Texas. If it landed in the Ocean..surf would be up dude. You folks in the lowcountry might would want to head this way and stay at our new beach house on Anderson Beach. Know what I mean?

   I won't go on and on with this one but it should be obvious that space and God's awesome universe is very interesting. It is actually an important part of worship. It helps keep me grounded and aware of who I am as compared to who He is. That is a healthy frame of mind to be in in worship-I am nothing -HE IS ALL. And this Asteroid thing I shared today is just a reminder that He is in control even when we don't have a clue how close death is (did you know this asteroid was there?).

Psalm 136: 5-9 

Give thanks to him who made the heavens so skillfully.
         His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who placed the earth among the waters.
         His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights—
         His faithful love endures forever.
the sun to rule the day,
         His faithful love endures forever.
and the moon and stars to rule the night.
         His faithful love endures forever.

 

       

Twan wants to know:

How ya REALLY doin'?

 

Why are we so obsessed with how we are doing right now? 

                                                          “How ya doin’?”
                                                          “Fine, how’re you?”
                                                          “Good.”
                                                          “Good.”

  How many times have you heard that one, or been a part of it? Not only is an exchange of that nature usually untrue, it’s entirely immaterial. If you’re like me, you have received Christmas cards over the years of friends and family that depict our loved ones as big happy families that all wear jeans and white shirts as they cozy up together on the beach. My family has done it and I admit my hypocrisy, so sit on it and spin. But why do we want people to see us happy? Happy is good, right? It means we’ve got everything under control and things are going our way, doesn’t it? Sure, buddy.

   Let’s take a look at the inverse. If I were to ask you to sum up the state of our national economy in one word, what comes to mind? What word did you think of and why? In terms of affecting my personal comfort level, I would have to say this economy stinks. I am having to make sacrifices and there is no fun in that at all. But is it inherently bad? What if it got so bad that I were forced to declare bankruptcy? Is that bad? It would certainly be embarrassing from a social standpoint, but are we called to be concerned with that? The greater question is, are we called to view our current circumstances the way the world views them? I would argue we are not.

   My friend and favorite Sunday school teacher, Dr. Sam Lambrecht, planted a viewpoint in my mind several years ago that comes in quite handy regularly and I will apply it here in a general sense: “How does the lordship of Christ affect how I perceive my current circumstances?” In other words, regardless of my current condition, am I willingly operating in submission to God’s sovereignty? By my very nature, I lean on God the most when things are not going well for me. Conversely, in the storm-free times of my life, I tend to fade toward self-reliance. That ain’t dangerous , is it? Which parts of my life do you think I experience the most spiritual growth? Have you ever heard of anyone discovering the saving work of Christ on the cross after hitting the lottery? 

                                                                 

 

  Me neither.

 

  So in light of all that, do you still think good is good and bad is bad? I believe the answer is that it doesn’t matter. If we truly want to view our lives as God does, then keep in mind his transcendence of time and space. God set up this world for us such that our perception is that of a linear existence. Life is a timeline of seconds, minutes, hours and years. We take mental snapshots along the way that we ascertain and assign value according to how they affect us. God sees our timeline instantaneously. In his sovereignty, he knows the beginning, the end and everything between simultaneously. And in His perfect combination of the allowance of free will and His guiding hand, we will arrive at our ultimate destination in the exact condition he designs; forged by the events we’ve experienced along the way, both “good” and “bad”.

 

 

Romans 8:28- And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those that love Him, who have been called according to His purposes.

 

                              

THE SHACK, DADDY.

Congratulations to THE SHACK for being the first selection to be read by our Book Club. This is the cover:

Now THE SHACK is not to be confused with SHAQ DADDY, aka; The Big Aristotle:

  

 or the Love Shack for that matter:    

  THE SHACK had some very stiff competition but it wasn't even close. It defeated the likes of Mark Driscoll, one of the toughest most outspoken young Pastors today. Here is a quote from Driscoll that I believe he said from the stage of his church out in Seattle. It was during a series he was preaching where he was speaking against men not being able to keep their pants zipped and this particular quote was directed at pornography. You may remember me quoting him last year. INCOMING!!:

  "Men need to step up and lead their families and stop watching porn. We are called to charge the gates of hell and it is incredibly difficult to charge hell with our pants around our ankles, a bottle of lotion in one hand and a box of Kleenex in the other."

  Maybe that is inappropriate and I know some of you might be squirming right now because that missile didn't just hit close to home, it blew up your fireplace. But I like the kind of preaching that gets in your face a little bit and talks about the stuff that is actually destroying people and marriages, baby. Love ya Mark. Maybe next time.

 And then there is Erwin McManus and Francis Chan, 2 more of the new breed of Pastor who shoot straight and that I admire:

    

 

But the big shocker was that the reigning Champ of book clubs everywhere and my favorite author, C S Lewis, was defeated. Clives, we will absolutely get back to you at a later date. You are just too good, baby cakes:

 

Here's a Lewis quote to whet your appetite for a future read:

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves....
The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind....
As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you....
The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.

 

OUCH!! That's just not very nice, MISTER!

  So, THE SHACK, take us on a little journey and teach us something. I know you're not really a Biblically correct example of who God really is but your reputation is that we can still learn some valuable lessons from you. We shall see, poopy pants. There are about 20 of us that are going to read you and we will let you know how you do.

 Anyone else want to join us? Don't be shy or in a man's case, wimpy.

 

Anyone remember this photo: