In a few short days I will be leaving my post ata local fast food establishment. No longer will I be bi-vocational. I'll just be part time in the church.

The last week is proving to be difficult for a number of reasosn:

1. I am getting more guilt trips from management, and even some staff this week than in the previous 2 combined.
2. I notice the time I spend there, and by extension, I miss the time I could be spending foing other things, more this week than ever before.
3. I have the ominous feeling that there is a shoe todrop, like Satan is going to try something.
4. More little niggling annoyances have popped up this week already than care for. The basement had water come in, I am feeling sick, that sort of thing.
   

But I am finding encouragement from a number of things as well:

1. I have the feeling of waiting to exhale. I am so ready to be done.
2. I am thinking of this in terms of being faithful to my family, not being unfaithful to my employer.
3. I am getting excited about the several projects I can finally get to after this week.
4. I have the strong sense that this is indeed what God wants.
   

If you're counting that makes the positives and negatives equal. But the truth is that the negatives just feed the positives. They make me more sure, not less, that this is what I should be doing.

God actually does use such obstacles to strengthen your commitment to His will.

Let It Snow?

I have spent the better part of my day thus far shovelling snow. Thankfully, the snow is of the light and fluffy variety (not unlike the way I prefer my eggs).

If, like me, you don't like shovelling snow, then you may understand that I consider shovelling to be an exercise in contemplation.

What, you might ask, does one contemplate while shovellilng? Besides one's sore back that is?

Well, I contemplated the way in which we consider snow to be so integral a part of Christmas, while much of the world knows nothing of it. Our Christmas is so Norman Rockwell it is almost sickening. It is such a luxurious image, something that is out of synch with the reality of so many lives.

We plan on having a Christmas that is, by the standards of many, spartan. Yet I know that by the standards of the world at large it will be almost extravagant.

Some might consider this contemplation little more than an expression of "white guilt." In reality though it is nothing more than thinking beyond my front door. Simply considering the disparity is not a sign of guilt. If I were to end up despising myself or my culture then I would say there is guilt invovled. I prefer to think of it as simply being reflective and taking note of ways that I might be true to the Old Testament teaching to care for the poor, the widow and the orphan.

We do need to appreciate the privilege of being able to have a Rockwellian Christmas. We need not feel ashamed of it. But we do need to be sensitve to the fact that our experience is not normal in this world, nor is it necessarily even (a) right. We need to subit our visionsof Christmas to Scripture and to teh Lordship of Christ.

Just like we do everythign else in our lives. Right?

Kid in a Candy Shop

Yes I am gleeful at this moment, having received a good chunk of the aPillar New Testament Commentary Series in themail. I also got J.N.D. Kelly's Early Christian Doctrines.

Yes I got them from Amazon.com.

I have now the following volumes in said series:

1. John' Gospel
2. John's Letters
3. Ephesians
4. James

That ought to keep me busy for a bit.

Life! Don't Talk To Me About Life!

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Here's Hoping This is a Joke Too

I have come acorss a blog for The Progressive Christian

I would like to see this blog be announced to be a joke in fairly short order. It is, quite simply, offensive.

The reasons are several:

1) The designation of the Bible as a superstition would seem to deny one the right to call onesself a Christian. Saying one is a Christian, a follower of Jesus, whilecalling the only source of Jesus' teaching superstition is irrational. If one does not take the Bible to be reliable, a mere supersition, how do you know what a Christian is?

2) The use of terms like "fundamentalist," without regard for their historic or proper use, is hard to swallow.

3) God is not a She.

I could go on, but you get the point.

In reality I more than half expect it to be a prank blog. Coming as this does on the heels of another recent hoax, and being in a similar vein, I would not be surprised to find someone doing a copy cat effort. Sadly this one is even more over the top, which is to say it isn't even as good a hoax as the other blog, should this blog turn out to be a hoax.

Some people I think have too much time on their hands.

It's Peanuts

You are Rerun!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
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While You Were Out

My wife has been away in Japan for the last week attending her brother's wedding. I have been home with the boys.

It's an adventure.

My oldest son received candy during junior church last Sunday prior to the service. During the service he asked if he could have some. I told him he needed to wait until after the service.

This was not a welcome reply, or so it seemed. His repsonse was to begin yelling and shouting. I picked him to take him out of the sanctuary at which point he started to hit me, yelling he hated me.

Oh boy!

Well we talked it out, and we went back in to the snactuary. I cn honestly say one of the reaosns I am proud to be a part of Ev ergreen is the way such events are handled. Some churches, many in my experience, would have reacted ina way that would have made want to resign on the spot and never walk in the building again. Evergreen though doesn't make me want to resign. They jsut look at you in a resigned way that says they've been there, and they understand.

God is good, and when is poeple reflect His character, so is the church.