Friday, December 21, 2007

What do you think?

At what point does support of a company become support of the company's values? Buying their products? Buying their stock? Selling them advertising? Becoming an employee? Never?

I would ask that you refrain from saying something like, "a company can not have values, only people have values". Companies are made up of people and pretty much every major corporation in the U.S. has a code of ethics written in their by-laws. They have value statements, they have official stands on moral positions, they advertise that they are not in business only to make a profit but to benefit society, and so on.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Future dentist?

This may be one of those things that only a parent can appreciate. Tonight after supper my 7 year old was wiggling his very loose tooth. But as usual, he was too scared to pull it out--he hates pain. So, my 4 year old started begging to pull it out.

What possesses a 4 year old to pull out his brother's tooth? I have no idea but the kid was intent on doing it. So after a lot of bartering and cajoling and screaming Jonathan finally let Jeremiah reach in his mouth with a kleenex. Jonathan jerked back and Jeremiah calmly said, "I dot it." And sure enough he had the tooth. There was much rejoicing all around.

Guess you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

In the beginning...

I'm at home sick, so I have a little time to write something. Unfortunately, though, I'm not sure I can keep this one short enough to hold your interest. So the three of you who read this might just have to skim.


On November 14th I asked you if you thought Adam and Eve had immune systems before the fall. Let me explain a little about why I was pondering that. There are some pretty foundational truths in the book of Genesis. They help shape our theology and therefore how we live and respond to God. A proper understanding of Genesis can also help us solve some problems that one searching for God might have with Christianity.

I find it really sad that, as important as Genesis is, not only do Christians argue its message with non-Christians, we also argue about it with each other. You know that in the culture wars we have this huge debate of Darwinism vs. Creationism. However, do you realize that within the walls of the church we also debate Old Earth vs. Young Earth Creationism, Darwinism vs. Creationism vs. Intelligent Design, Theistic Evolution vs. Creationism is six literal days, and other conflicts over this primary book of God's word?

So, for the sake of unity and usefulness I think it is good to work towards an accurate understanding of this vital book. There are a couple of options that vie for our interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2. First, there is the literal six days of Creation. This basically says that Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 is a literal account of God's creative work in our universe and the rest of Genesis 2 is a more detailed description of God's relationship with Adam (and Eve).

One problem is that since God declares all of creation good it offers no real explanation as to the origin of the evil serpent that enters the picture in Chapter 3.

One alternative to the literal six days of creation interpretation is the Gap Theory. Gap theory basically says that God created the universe in Genesis 1:1 but there is a time gap of unknown magnitude between 1:1 and 1:2. During this time Satan rebels in heaven and is cast down to the earth resulting in the chaotic state of the planet that we find in verse 2. Then God comes along and decides to prove to Satan that there are beings who will love and serve him voluntarily so he (God) continues his creative process by fixing up the earth, forming the garden, and humankind, and so forth.

Back to the idea of creation being good. Opponents of the gap theory point out that the world could not have been spoiled by Satan prior to chapter 3 because in Genesis 1:31, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good." Those who want the Genesis record to be a literal six days of creation often state that there was no death in the universe and certainly not on earth prior to the fall.

I have not picked a side yet. I want it to be a literal six days of creation because I feel that overall, the best way to interpret the Bible is literally (taking into account the type of literature, historical context, biblical context, etc. of each given passage). So far, I'm not convinced that six days is correct though. If it were and there were no death on the earth think about the populations that would grow unchecked. The world would fill up with bacteria and mold and insects faster than Adam and Eve could tend to them. These populations would become huge and quickly consume all necessary resources, like oxygen. Also, Adam and Eve were eating, so plants were dying. And did Adam and Eve utilize every nutrient from their food or were they creating waste materials. Without bacteria and fungi that feed on dead things what would happen to the wastes and the wastes of all the elephants, and hippopatami, and girrafes, etc.? And again, if there were no death, no sickness, no evil, then Adam and Eve would not need immune systems.

So, now you see how my pea brain got to the question of immune systems in the first humans. I'm sure you wish I had something better to do. There is another theory about Genesis that intrigues me a lot. It is similar to the gap theory but it places the events of Genesis 1-3 as God's preparation of the Holy Land for his people rather than as a garden for only the first man and woman. Maybe one day we can talk about that some more...

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Good reading

Yesterday over at the Evangelical Outpost, Joe posted kind of a "best of" list of his 33 Things lists. If you have some time check it out. There are a lot of fascinating links there. I especially enjoyed the test of the five second rule.

Happy reading.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Quickie

Thanksgiving was good. Its so nice to be able to be with family, for whom I am extremely thankful. The food was superb. The Cowboys won. It wasn't hot. Good stuff. I am very blessed and have a loooooong list of things for which I am truly thankful.

I am totally bummed out that UT lost to a & m again this year.

This week is jam packed already. Lots to do at work, JT is sick, lots to do at home, so TTFN!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Got Turkey?

So this past Thursday we had a traditional Thanksgiving lunch at Jonathan's school. Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Kris' family at Fort Parker State Park. Sunday night was the annual Thanksgiving banquet at church. That's three turkey dinners in four days and another one coming up this week.

Cool! A lot of y'all don't like turkey and once a year is enough for you, but I love pretty much everything about a traditional holiday meal. The only thing I skip is the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. I even like turkey sandwiches with the leftovers.

So thank God for turkey and dressing and everything else that we consider a holiday meal and all the excuses we have to eat it this time of year.

Now, here's a totally unrelated thought of the day for you: If time were a currency, how much of yours would you be spending on that which is eternal?

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

What do you think?

Were Adam and Eve created with immune systems? If not, why not? If so, why so?

What do you think?

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Sadly ironic

Yesterday I mentioned that there are some sad ironies in our land that stem from, or at least go along with, what I perceive to be unreasonable thinking. I guess the one that is most obvious to me is the disdain that our nation has developed for the church (by 'the church' I mean all Christians).


For centuries the church has been doing good things like building and operating schools, universities, hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, soup kitchens, rehabilitation centers, food pantries, etc. Christians have long served this country as statesmen and in the military. I will readily admit that the church does not always do good, as with the inquisition, and blowing up abortion clinics, and heckling at the funerals of honorable soldiers who gave their lives for our country, etc. These things are wrong and stupid. However, reason has become so clouded by fear and prejudice that we see only the bad, not the good. We can't see the forest for the trees and now, in a sadly ironic twist, the church has become the enemy of many.


Isn't it also sadly ironic that our intellectual pride has allowed us to cast off the traditional values of our nation. We have reasoned that the Bible is just great literature rather than God's word to be obeyed. And as mentioned yesterday we have reasoned away the concept of sin so that now the worst thing someone can do is to speak out against sin (unless you are speaking out against someone speaking out against sin). The country is going to Hell and people are mad at Christians for it. We've returned to the days of Judges when each one did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6). We deserve the judgement of God as much as any nation has.

The most sadly ironic thing may be that even though we deserve the judgement of God, Jesus Christ, the God-man, has taken this judgement upon himself for us, yet we have written him off as a mere teacher or prophet. We have reasoned away the Savior.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

How does one reason with the unreasonable?

When my oldest son was about 3 I started trying to reason with him about his behavior. You know, trying to help him see the logical reasons why he should obey his parents and why he should not do things like hang on the garage door while it is opening, or run across the street without looking, or diving in the shallow end, etc. I soon realized that logic was completely lost on him. Apparently three year olds just can't grasp even the simplest syllogism.

Well, I'm still working on him. I figure he will eventually start to grasp reasonable arguments. Meanwhile though, for his own good, Kris and I have to try to manage his behavior with positive and negative consequences.

It works okay on kids but what about unreasonable big people. Like, how can we convince someone who thinks they will go to heaven by flying a plane into a building full of people that this makes no sense? How can we convince someone whose mental framework has no concept of sin that they need salvation from sin? How can we convince someone who thinks that planet earth is an organism that the people who live here are actually more important than the planet?

Friends, if you are interested in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the people in your world, this is what you are up against in the 21st century.

The unreasonableness (is that a word?) prevalent in society has also lead to a lot of sad ironies in this country. More on that tomorrow...maybe

Friday, November 2, 2007

In Celebration

This is the eve of a very important national holiday here in Texas. Tomorrow is the opening day of the general whitetail deer hunting season! If you are not a hunter you just can't grasp the excitement and anticipation building in the hearts and minds of those going to the deer woods this weekend.

Here's to all of you who are headed out for a sporting, ethical, legal hunt. May the good Lord bless you with a safe trip. May the beauty and wonder of nature declare to you His glory! May the new season dawn brisk and wondrous. May the game always be upwind. May the snakes and ticks avoid you. May the fellowship in camp be sweet. May you see the antlered one. May your drag be short. May your trip be a success whether you kill anything or not.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Zacchaeus

Wow, last week was hectic. As a result I did not have a lot of time to prepare for the Wednesday night youth meeting. I have been reading through Luke and was up to chapter 19 which begins with the story of Zacchaeus. This story is taught so much in childrens' classes, and songs, and books that I figured most of the youth had heard of it. I thought maybe there would be some sort of nostalgic attraction that would interest them.

I think I was wrong about that. However, God is so vast. In the couple of hours I had to study for the lesson I learned a lot about this passage that I was unaware of. Even while I was teaching and afterwards God was showing me things. It was cool.

One thing that we know but really tends not to sink in, I think, is the joy and sacrifice with which Zacchaeus responded to Christ. Zacchaeus found acceptance and forgiveness in Christ and immediately and cheerfully decided to give away half of what he had to the poor. What a service, what a sacrifice!

Contrast this with our responses today. Many Christians see going to church on Sunday morning as a sacrifice (and in fact this becomes the biggest sacrifice they make in response to God). Don't get me wrong, worship does involve giving ourselves to God and the Bible recognizes praise as a sacrifice. But, rather than come gladly to worship and enjoy being with other believers and recharge our spirits, we come as if it is some huge, difficult thing that God should give us lots of brownie points for. What should be a highlight of our week is a chore and when its over we feel we have done our duty and the rest of our time and money belong to us.

Is it any wonder that Zacchaeus had so much joy and Christians today often do not?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Go Speed Racer...

Isn't it funny how people rush to get from one red light to another?

I'm sure there are a lot of analogies we could make between this phenomenon and the Christian life, but at the moment I don't have time so I'll let you do that on your own. Feel free to put your ideas in the comments section and we can have a nice little discussion.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Stuff I realized a long time ago...

In a galaxy far, far away... or not.

-I realized that chocolate is really, really good.
-My favorite kind of food to eat right after a multi-day backpacking trip is pizza.
-Baking bread is a wonderful smell.
-As a whole Americans own way too much clothing; but tend not to wear enough of it at one time.
-Jesus is everything.
-I don't really like being too hot, but I'd rather be too hot than too cold.
-Grammar is a pain in the neck.
-Its usually easier to know what the right thing to do is, than to actually do it.
-My wife is the best.
-Nature looks all clean and serene, but its really dirty and full of conflict. Although, its still a nice place to visit.
-Whatever size battery I need in a given instance will be the size that we have none of in our battery drawer.
-Country music isn't.
-I had an extremely happy childhood. (Thanks Mom and Dad and K.)
-As badly as I want to give my kids a happy childhood, its more important that I work harder to train them to grow up godly rather than happy. Hopefully the Lord will grant both.

That's enough for now, Maybe I'll have more of this another day.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Recent realizations

You know, the word 'blog' sounds like something Charlie Brown's teacher would say.

It seems that 96.9 per cent of all the youth pastors in the United States and Canad have blogs. Some of them have information that is highly useful to other youth ministers and volunteer youth workers. Some of them have content that would interest a wide variety of folks. Ironically, it seems that few of them say things that teenagers would really be interested in reading.

Speaking of onomatopoeia, "blog" and "blogging" also sound like something bad that happens in the bathroom after you've eaten chicken salad that was just a couple days too old.

Wow, my office is a mess.

I promised random thoughts. I never said they would be interesting, or good, or even nice.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

To Do Lists

Do you use "to do lists"? I went to a conference this summer and one of the speakers was talking about the nuts & bolts of carrying out an education ministry. Several times he said to use to do lists. He talked about how well they worked for him and how everybody should use them. Apparently he is not a procrastinator.

I've tried to do lists. I've got a to do list on my desk. Well, actually it is about three lists. Each started about a week apart and none of them completed. The first one is about four weeks old. I've got a to do list on my refrigerator. It has about 20 items on it. About one third or so of them are marked off. I put that list there approximately three years ago.

To do lists do not work for procrastinators.

And now, my personell commitee wants my to do list for the next year. They are calling it a list of "professional objectives." Sure, I've got time to spend making a list of stuff that is going to be obsolete in a couple months. That will be productive for everyone...not.

You know, I'd like to finish this post but I've got four phone calls to return, a curriculum to research, a Bible study to work on, check the weather report, make some reservations, an e-mail to send...

Y'all can start a pool on if I'll ever get it all done or not ;-)

Monday, October 15, 2007

Philosophy and Four Year Olds

So JT, my four year old, decided he is an agnostic. Of course, he did not put it in those terms. However, I picked him up from preschool Friday and somehow in the course of our conversation that afternoon he said, "I don't really know if I believe in God."

As you might expect, this is a really heartbreaking statement for parents who do believe in God and have staked their lives on the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So right away I get epistemological on the poor kid. "You know JT, Daddy would not lie to you and Daddy is telling you that God is real."

"You wouldn't lie to me?"

"No."

"Well, I just don't know if I believe in God."

Later Kris came in and I shared JT's new views with her. She immediately goes teleological on him. "JT, who do you think created the mountains?"

"God."

"So you believe in God?"

"Well, I just don't know if I believe in God."

Who knows what the kid really believes. As Kris says it is not beyond him to say he does not believe just to get a reaction out of us. One thing is for sure though, philosophy does not work too well with four year olds. Honestly, I'm not sure it's ever worked with anyone.

But if you are a Christian with any spare time please pray for JT to have faith in Jesus and his parents to have patience.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Bed time stories and politicians

Today we learned that Chicken Little, er, uh, Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to educate the world about global warming. This is so sad.

I am all for taking reasonable care to minimize our carbon dioxide emissions and conserve fossil fuels. However, to proclaim that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are unequivocally the cause of global climactic change is incredibly irresponsible. If someone with Mr. Gore's influence and resources really wanted to do something good for the environment and the people that live in it he could take on an undisputed and present problem like worldwide water quality.

Good grief, we are a gullible species. We fell for a lie in the Garden of Eden and just keep falling.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Word Play

The other day I mentioned that Win Corduan had an entertaining blog. In the interest of fairness let me clarify that a bit. He is not only entertaining, but also extremely informative and thought provoking. His blog is top notch edutainment.

There's another word blend I really like. When you can set up an activity at church or camp or school or whatever with the right mix of people and equipment so that children or teenagers can entertain themselves for a while without constantly asking, "What do we do now?" or "Help me ..." or "What are we supposed to do?" and so forth, then you have autotainment. I love autotainment and my wife can vouch for me that I was using that word before it appeared in an episode of Veggie Tales.

BTW, it was 63 degrees farenheit here this morning. I did not even have to turn on the AC for my morning commute. Yes!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

something strange

Something strange happened this morning. But first, the past four days were really busy. We took the boys to see Nana and celebrate some birthdays in Mexia. Left at the end of the 3rd quarter of the Texas vs. OU game to rush back so the boys could go to another birthday party and I could take one of the teens to the Baylor game. What a sad football day Saturday was!

Sunday was full with services, taking the boys to the Heart of Texas Fair, evening youth meeting, and then back to the fair to man the Brazos Meadows booth. Yesterday was a busy workday and LifeChange group last night.

So back to the strange occurrence. I walked out this morning and it was overcast, there were leaves and acorns falling from trees, and-here's the weird part-the breeze was out of the NORTH! Yes, finally a cool front, validation of Fall, my favorite time of year.

There have been signs that it was coming. The days have gotten shorter, the acorns and pecans have been falling, I saw a monarch floating through the other day, football season started, archery deer season started... but that first little northern front sure helps the reality of fall to sink in. Plus, it sure helps the temperatures.

I am thankful that we actually had a rather mild summer, but September and the first week of October were quite hot. Is that because of global warming? I don't think so but I'll also have to save that for another post. Meanwhile, I am really thankful for this little change in the weather and for fall in general.

Here are some things that I am thankful for that I associate with fall and for whatever reason really seem to bless me this time of year: The angle of the sun; cooler weather; going to football games; dove season; deer season; camping; migrating butterflies, raptors, ducks, and geese; watching football on TV; John Denver music; pecans; turning leaves; cooler weather; the smell of things like pecan pies, pumpkin bread, and banana bread in the oven; listening to football on the radio. And, o ya, did I mention cooler weather?

What are you thankful for today? Tell Jesus about it!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

To blog or not to blog...

... that is the question? Okay, so it worked better for Shakespeare. But seriously folks ;-) everybody's doing it. Al Gore invents the internet and a few years later everybody with a computer has a forum to say whatever they want. So as long as everybody else is doing it, I have observed a few things about blogging that intrigue me.

First, blog is a misnomer. Very few people are using the web to actually log their activities. Although, Win Corduan is an entertaining exception. Most folks are using the blog forum as a cyber opinion page; sort of a web op/ed. I think we should call it a WOD. Then everyone can shoot their wod.

Secondly, traditional communication assumes a message (usually a worthwhile message), someone to send the message and someone to receive the message. Then there is some interplay to see if the message actually came across the way it was intended. This is often not the case with blogs. Seriously, how many of the blogs out here really have a worthwhile message (admittedly not this one)? Then you've got a sender who frequently does not really know if there are any receivers or if the receivers actually get the message correctly. In fact, I kind of think that there are more people blogging than there are people to read the blogs. So, is any communication actually taking place?

Third, maybe its not about communication. Maybe blogging is about our social nature. Maybe it is about our need to connect with other people. We send our blogs out into the vastness of cyber space hoping to connect with someone else and thereby enhance our humanity. Naaaaaah!

Blogging is obviously for introverts like me. This is our chance to say something without having to actually deal with another person. Everyone else can use their cell phones, but that's another topic...