WebLog20040420

Regarding Grace, pt2

Taxes suck. I finally got money deposited to cover the check I had to write to the IRS last week. Blah.

Regarding Grace

The question I posed on the 11th was retorical. Quite frankly I can’t remember what the specifics where that made me think along those lines, but I know what the general idea was. Being in leadership, and concious of God’s calling on my life to work for Him, I am often keenly aware of grace. Usually this is most evident when I am privileged enough to see some result of God’s use of me in other people’s lives.

Although I say I am “keenly away of Grace”, I beleive that is much easier said than done. I know with my mind what Grace is: that it is not a matter of deserving anything, and all the good theological stuff. On paper it’s an easy equation. o != ~. However, like all other aspects of our God, the things he does are so stupendously big and our brains, however beautifully fashioned, are so small, that sometimes things just spill out the top.

On the 11th I was just amazed at how much was spilling over.

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WebLog20040411

Regarding Grace, pt1

Why am I blessed enough to be called a servant of Christ Jesus the Risen Lord? What did I do to deserve the gift of life He offered?

Nothing. And therein lies grace. Not that we deserved it but that He gave it. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that WHILE we were STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8) All the more reason to be grateful for the sacrifice. When we had no desire to turn to Christ, He died for in order to draw us to Himself. — anonymous

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WebLog20040305

It took me an hour and a half to get from Ouray to Silverton this morning due to blizard conditions on RedMountainPass, but the rest of the trip was dry.

I picked up Daniel Bellum in Albuquerque and we chatted on the drive down to Tuscon. I’m increasingly glad that I was not subjected to a public high school growing up. As we talked we called into question the fundamental principals of government, religion, education and families. What is government around for? How is public education as a branch of government fufilling that role?

Checked in at the Roadway Inn in Tuscon at half past twelve in a lobby full of high school freaks and vibrating from the tunes at a sorority party in the conference room.

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WebLog20040227

I just sat down to write a rant complaining about all the people who claim ThePassionOfTheChrist doesn’t have a point. In order to make my point I decided to look up the defenition of the world “passion”. Was I ever surprised.

Passion, n.

  1. A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger.
  2. a) Ardent love. b) Strong sexual desire; lust. b) The object of such love or desire.
  3. a) Boundless enthusiasm. b) The object of such enthusiasm.
  4. An abandoned display of emotion, especially of anger: He’s been known to fly into a passion without warning.
  5. a) The sufferings of Jesus in the period following the Last Supper and including the Crucifixion, as related in the New Testament. b) A narrative, musical setting, or pictorial representation of Jesus’s sufferings.

In light of that, nobody should really be surprised that a movie about the passion of Jessus would be about anything other than his death.

But that not much of a case, so here is attempt two. Several critics I have read asked the question “Why?”. Why would anybody watch this movie?

To answer that lets start with the question, “Why would Jesus go through that?”. I think the line to Mary as he struggled with the cross along the Via Delorosa summs it up fairly well. “Behold, I make all things new.” Jesus was a man with a mission. He was convinced that by his suffering he could make all things new. Was he correct? I beleive so, but that’s your choice.

So what needs making new?

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WebLog20040213

Practical jokes have never really worked out very well for me. Today was a great case in point. As a fundraiser for a missions trip we have been going around town shoveling people’s walk ways. Clean up the snow, leave a note on the door and move on to the next house.

This particular morning one of our team could not be with us. We happened to be shoveling along and went by his house. Since he had missed a couple shovel parties, we figured we should shovel his walk and leave him a note just to make him feel guity or something. Being the kind hearted soulds that we are, we shoveled his walk and left him a note.

In my brilliance I figured it would be funny to take it one step farther and burry his door while we were there. A good thirty seconds later and I had his door about 3 feet deep in snow. As I threw up a nice big shovel full, thunk against the door, to my chagrin, the door opened. And a man looked out. And it wasn’t Dave. It wasn’t even somebody who knew Dave. We were at the wrong house.

Todays lessons:

  1. Check the number.
  2. When caught, tell the truth.
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WebLog20040211

My jeep has been low on gas and flashing the little alarm thing all week so I decided to buz down to the other end of town to fill it up tonight on my way from work to home. Unfortunatly it was so cold that when I got down to the station the pump was iced up and gas came out in a little tinny trickle.

In other news tonight, it looks like optical computing may actually happen sometime before I am old and grey.

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