Luke 3:1 – Hey, some guy named Lysanias was tetrarch of a Texas town with a COC college. Never caught that before. 😀
Luke 3:3-6 – John comes saying prepare the way for the Lord. How does he call the people to get the way ready for Jesus to come? Repent and get their sins forgiven. Jesus is coming, return to him now (repent) and wash your sins away (baptised) to make way for his arrival.
Luke 3:7-9 – John lays it out here. Don’t come here just to do the religious thing, the popular and accepted thing. If you are coming to be baptized, bear fruit in keeping with the repentance you are proclaiming. Jesus later would do the same thing, challenging those following to consider the life they are chosen in him before they commit to it. Where is this call today? We hear many cries for salvation, but few warnings like this accompany it.
Luke 3:15-16 – What sort of presence did John command to draw a crown that was wondering if he was the Christ? And he drew a crowd by calling them vipers and proclaiming the one who is coming with a winnowing fork to clean house. Not a message of wealth and prosperity, yet they flocked to him. He challenged their hearts and spoke the truth they knew they needed and had been desperate for.
Luke 4:1-2 – I know this has bee mentioned by countless people before, but the spirit led Jesus straight to the devil to be tempted. Does the spirit do that to us too? If so, why? Jesus came out of this and entered his ministry. Could he have started without it, I would thing so but the spirit decided this would be the best plan. What did that time with Satan give him? I would think confidence for one, but that was only after he overcame the temptation. I guess, just as God promises that we will not face more than we can bear, the spirit knew that of course Jesus was up to this. I bet he also came away stronger and ready to take on God’s mission for him. I know that when I emerge from a time of challenge, I am ready to take on whatever God is ready to throw at me.
Luke 4:14 – He left lead by the spirit and returned in the power of the spirit.
Luke 4:24-28 – Reading this I can’t help but think that Jesus seems to set them up. They are initially impressed (v.22) and speak well of him, but he chastises them before they react negatively. I wonder what I’m missing in the telling, it seems there must be something.
I Think I Need a Break
I’m coming to a conclusion that I’ve been trying to avoid for a long time. Avoid it while, ironically, implementing it by failing to post anything of substance.
I need to take a break, of sorts, from blogging.
I’ve felt like posting some stuff, felt I should be posting some stuff, but just couldn’t get the enthusiasm for it. Instead, I piddle around the blogshere, reading this and that, getting some good stuff out of some, but mostly just wasting time. Meanwhile, the funk I’ve found myself in, a general hopeless malaise with no real explanation, remains. No matter what I do, I can’t really shake it.
It occurred to me that the last time I felt this sort of malaise was back in college, before I studied the Bible in earnest for the first time and eventually became a Christian. At the time, the commitment to the Father completely erased the low feelings that I had been experiencing. Lately, I’ve been wrapped up in my own thoughts, my own emotions and the endless spiral of trying to sort things out. I’ve been reading and praying less and less.
A few months ago, a friend and I were talking. He observed in me several gifts that God had given me and that those things should be the core of my personal ministry. Not Ministry with a capital ‘M’, but the kind of ministry we all should have. Our own ongoing way of using what God has gifted us for the advancement of his kingdom. He also observed that when I was not doing that, I was not a happy person. The lack of joy was evident.
I think there’s a battle going on. A pull between the spirit guiding me to use what God has given me and my own desires to sit and veg. My flesh has been winning lately, and I’m honestly not sure I want to change that right now. But I’m certainly tired of the funk.
The bottom line of all this is that it’s time that I turned my attention away from myself and back to God. To start that, I’ve decided that my Bible study and my prayer time need to be returned to a higher priority. It’s not the end I seek – I seek God – but to know Him, I need to commune with him.
To that end, I’m taking a break from this blog and from others. I spend a lot of time on line. A lot. Several hours a night. My commitment for the near term is no surfing until I’ve been in my Bible and on my knees (figuratively) that day. It’s not a forever rule necessarily, those sort of things loose their impact after a while, but merely a forced discipline to help me refocus.
I do plan on posting my quiet time notes here, so I won’t be gone completely. Those notes and the discussion generated help me dig deeper. I also hope, frankly, that as I refocus I’ll be inspired to post more here as well – just after my reading time.
Weird Google Search Term #3
Google is an amazing and powerful thing. And confusing, sometimes confusing. It can lead you in the most unlikely places.
Some poor soul, evidently moderately but not excessively wealthy, learned that lesson when they arrived at salguod.net searching for the answer to the age old question how much money till you should get a prenup?
I have no idea, but based on the post it found (see around #8 in the search results), the answer is evidently $6 per member.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
[Edit 12-18-2008 – Replaced video as the old one had been removed.]
This year, this song has struck me more than any other Christmas song. I particularly like this Amy Grant version with the full orchestra rising to the crescendo for the 3rd verse. The video is from 1992, but it’s only here for the music anyway.
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Diety
Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel
Stop and ponder that for a minute. Whoa.
Come, desire of nations come! Fix in us thy humble home.
Amen to that.
Merry Christmas.
Hero Girl
No commentary required:
Detroit
Little girl saves mom: A 7-year-old Detroit girl with learning disabilities was critically wounded when she took six bullets intended for her mother. Alexis Groggins was with her mother, Selietha Parker, in an SUV when Parker’s ex-boyfriend, Calvin Tillie, allegedly jumped into the vehicle and started firing a 9 mm pistol. Crying, “Don’t hurt my mother,” Alexis threw herself in front of her mother and was hit by six shots. One bullet pierced her right eye, and other shots hit her chin and jaw. Her mother was struck by two bullets but sustained less serious wounds. Groggins’ classmates at Campbell Elementary School have placed a teddy bear at her desk, awaiting her return. They have named the bear Hero.
From The Week Magazine (subscription required – and worth it).
Testing
Testing, 1,2,3. This is a test of a new post. Having some server issues at the moment. Let’s see what happens.
EDIT: Checking scripture linking:
John 3:16
Acts 2:38
Google Streetview Tour of Our Life in Michigan
View Larger Map
Thanks to Google Streetview and the new ground level photos of the Detroit area, you can now see the first house Maria and I lived in in Dearborn. Not only that, but go ahead, take a walk around the old neighborhood.
The small (around 800 square feet) two bedroom was just right for newlyweds. The bedrooms were so small that we couldn’t vacuum around the furniture, the vacuum wouldn’t fit.
That front porch was relatively new when we lived there nearly 15 years ago. It seems to have help up well. I also remember there being a rather large tree right by the road which should be blocking the view. I guess in 15 years trees get cut down.
What’s odd is that I recall the house being brick, but it’s obviously sided now. Maybe it was that old fashioned ‘brick look’ asphalt siding and my memory is just a little fuzzy.
View Larger Map
We lived there for a year and then moved to this townhouse in Century Square apartments in Taylor, right off of Racho road. That’s our place with the white chairs in front of it. Racho road was a two lane country road then, they widened it after we lived there.
This is where we lived when Jessica was born. This is also where someone (not too bright) tried to steal my 1988 Nissan Pulsar SE and only managed to disable it, costing me a couple hundred dollars to replace the ignition lock. Funny the things you remember.
View Larger Map
We couldn’t stay put, so after a year and a half in Taylor, we moved to this apartment in Riverview. That’s our building, right next to the pool. We were on the second floor, on the far side. That sidewalk is where I dropped Jessica on her face in the snow when she was a baby. She didn’t like that much, but seems to have survived without any permanent effects.
I won’t bore you with the places Maria and I worked or anything more. We left Riverview for Columbus OH in 1996. Funny, except for the white siding on the first house, things look pretty similar to what I remember.
Happy (Belated) Birthday to Me
I had great intentions of marking the occasion when it happened, but, well I didn’t. Pinakidion’s birthday post reminded me.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a birthday. Nov. 27th to be exact. Same day as Jimi Hendrix, only 25 years later. 27 years after Bruce Lee and 12 years after Bill Nye the science guy. 872 years after Pope Urban II launched the first crusade. Yippie.
For those of you good at math (and history), you may have figured out that this was a big year for me. Yep, the big 4-0. I’m officially over the hill at this point.
The number itself wasn’t a big deal. I don’t suddenly feel old now that there’s a 4 in front of my age. No, it was the circumstances of life that did it. 😀
The extra 25-30 pounds that have gathered around my mid section in recent years, for one.
Seriously one of the real things that hit me as I approached 40 was the realization that I had nothing to look forward to. What I mean is, as you grow up, you have all these things you look forward to doing. For me I looked forward to graduating from college, getting married, having kids, getting my career going, getting a new car, getting a classic car, buying a house, etc. I realized that I’ve done all that stuff. In some sense, I find myself standing here, right where I wanted to be, saying “Now what?”
Of course there are things to look forward to, I guess I just need to change gears. Getting the kids through school, baptising them, seeing them through college, seeing them married and of course grandkids (That last one was a bit scary to type!). OK, I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but I guess it’s time to shift my perspective. A new decade, a new perspective.
40 down, another 40 or so (I hope) to go. It’s a little sobering to think that I’m at or near the point where the years I have left are fewer than the years that have past. Of course it’s not real healthy to think of things that way, but it is reality.
Certainly, these realizations have played into my rather melancholy, introspective mood of late. I didn’t intend this to be a downer post, I know there’s plenty of good things ahead. Life does not end at 40, but it seems a fair bit of it comes to a head.
It does make one pause and think a bit.
If You’re in the Area …
Our church is doing a short play (that my daughter and I are participating in), written by our minister for our service this Sunday called Securing the Season. It’s a neat little story about how a lone little security guard made a difference for the folks he’s supposed to leave alone – the shoppers in the department store where he works.
The cool thing is that we aren’t just doing this for ourselves. We performed it for a nursing home last light and we’ll be doing it at Children’s Hospital tonight. We hope that this will be a springboard to a real arts ministry where those with talents can use them to bring hope and to honor God.
We’ll be at Grandview High School at 4 PM this Sunday if you’re in Columbus and care to drop by. We’ll be singing some songs and taking communion too. Directions and details on our church’s website. Make sure you say hi if you come.
Luke 2
Luke 2:1 – Caesar dictated that ‘all the world’ should be registered. Of course, not all the world, but all the Roman world. Interesting that they referred to it like that. Surely, they were not unaware that there was more to the world than the Roman empire. Yet, they said ‘all the world’.
I am confident that the phrase did not mean what we take it to mean today. I would think that, by extension, when Paul says later in Colossians 1 that the gospel is growing ‘all over the world’, he referred to Rome. It certainly wasn’t growing in South America yet, nor in Japan or Australia. In fact, in most parts of the world in century one, it was unheard of.
Back in the day, one of the silly things I took at face value was the proclamation that the first century Christians evangelized the world in one generation, therefore we should have that as our goal. First of all, there’s no evidence that they had that as a goal at all. More importantly, when they spoke of ‘the whole world’, they meant something different than what we think of regarding that phrase. More like us saying ‘ the whole nation’, it seems. That seems clear from this one verse alone, if you think about it for more than 2 seconds rather than just believing what someone tells you.
Luke 2:15-16 – They saw the angels and went to see. Much has been made that God chose to announce this birth to shepherds. I don’t want to take away from that, for certainly shepherds were special to God. Jesus compares himself to a shepherd and David was a shepherd. However, I wonder if perhaps the angels didn’t visit others that night as well. Perhaps they did, but those didn’t think the announcement was important enough to merit a trip to the city, or perhaps they decided that maybe they had had too much wine and were seeing things. No way to know, but I wonder. These shepherds heard and went.
Luke 2:19 – Mary was always thinking and wondering about stuff too. I think she and I would get along. 😀
Luke 2:22-24 – They went to Jerusalem to be purified and to offer sacrifices and dedicate Jesus to the Lord. I wonder how common it was for Jews to follow this ancient command at this time. Did most make this journey, or did they settle for something else that they could do closer to home? Perhaps they did because of all the angels and predictions concerning Jesus. i doubt it. More likely, God chose them because they were the sort of people to follow the ancient commands because they loved and respected the Lord.
Luke 2:35 – There’s something for Mary to ponder!
Luke 2:25-38 – First a man in the spirit and then a prophetess publicly proclaim greatness for the baby Jesus. I wonder what the crown present said or thought?
Recent Comments