Do You See The Glory?

This is a continuation of the series I started in December called “Bible Brackets”. Please read the following 4 first if you haven’t already. These 4 entries have been leading up to this current entry.

Filling Out Your Theological Bracket – Part 1
Decisions, Decisions – Bible Brackets Part 2
What Did Jesus Say? – Bible Brackets Part 3
Where Did The Bible Come From? – Bible Brackets Part 4

To many Christians, the concept of biblical inerrancy is as fundamental as salvation itself. It’s one of those core beliefs that they cling to tightly, refusing to even consider the alternative. It’s written into most church’s statements of doctrinal beliefs. Any suggestion to the contrary is quickly silenced, or you will likely be labeled a heretic. If our bible is not inerrant, then our whole belief system falls apart, right? If there may be an error in it anywhere, then it might as well be full of errors, and Jesus becomes a fictional character like the tooth fairy. Like the domino theory… if one falls, they all go down (assuming we didn’t stand them up too far apart). If we accept that it may contain an error, then we can just determine that the parts we don’t like must be in error, and we basically get to create our own customized bible.

I know many of you right now are saying, “YEAH, RIGHT! EXACTLY!!” I know because I used to make the same arguments. However, if you’ve read the previous 4 parts to this series, you know that making a declaration of inerrancy is very complicated. You have to pick something specific to be inerrant. Is it the English words in the 1995 updated version of the New American Standard Bible? Or do you go back one step farther to the Greek manuscripts that are in existence today, and say they are inerrant? and if so, which manuscripts, because there are a lot of them, and very few, if any, are identical. I’m guessing that if you can get most scholars to speak honestly, they will say that they believe that only the original Greek manuscripts were inerrant. OK. That’s something I can’t really argue with. I mean, how could I argue with it? They don’t exist any more! That would be equivalent to you and me arguing over whether a Tyrannosaurus Rex could be trained to fetch a stick. We could argue for days, but neither of us will ever be able to win that argument, considering there are no more T-Rex’s around to fetch. So I don’t understand why Christians insist that everyone unwaveringly buy into the inerrancy of the original manuscripts.

So, getting back to the question introduced in the first paragraph above… I confess, I no longer believe in the chicken little approach to inerrancy that the sky will fall if I don’t hold to inerrancy. I do not believe those conclusions will be inevitable. Could somebody “rationalize” their beliefs like that? Sure. Just like any Christian could reason, “if God forgives all my sins, then I might as well go Tiger Woods crazy, and kick a few babies while I’m at it.” Does that happen? Maybe some people have thought that way. But those people are very much the exception rather than the norm.

Do I believe the original manuscripts were free of errors. Yes, probably. But I’m not going to tell George that he must believe it also, considering I have no evidence to support my case, except for my own faith. And even if I believe in the inerrancy of the original manuscripts, how does that benefit me today, considering that does not make my English bible error free?

In the next entry, I’ll write about how the belief of inerrancy, or lack thereof, impacts our lives and thoughts. We’ll try to figure out why it’s so important to some Christians.

This is Part 5 in a series called Facebook Users. You can read Parts 1-4 here:
Part 1 – The Detailer
Part 2 – The Feeler
Part 3 – The Joiner
Part 4 – The Gamer

The Cryptic

I must admit, this Facebook User is the one that irritates me the most.  The Cryptic loves posting updates that nobody has any idea what they mean.   If there were rules for Facebook updates, I think the 1st rule should be that it should be able to be understood.  Teenage girls seem to be good at this, but that doesn’t let middage aged men off the hook either.  I think teenagers like to say something so cryptic that only their best friend will understand because they were talking about it just 5 minutes ago, like “… he did it again!”  Maybe they forget that the updates actually go to all of their friends.  Here’s just a few that I’ve recorded over time, all are real status updates, with my comments in brackets.

Green stuff, yuck.
      [probably better to just keep this to yourself, regardless of what you are actually talking about]

can’t believe that just happened
      [if you could fill us in on what you are talking about, maybe we could help you believe it]

No you didn’t!
      [I don’t know what I did, but if it annoyed you greatly, then we are even.]

love, respect, and trust
      [not sure if this person is a fan of these things, or is complaining, or has lost these, or what, but now I’m not feeling these much about now]

OK, that’s the last straw!
      [but unfortunately probably won’t be your last post]

fool me once…
      [I’m gonna bet you’ve been fooled a lot more than that and just didn’t know it.]

that was sooo not cool
      [are you referring to your own status update?]

Knock, knock.
      [might have been cool if they actually had a joke to go with it, but no, apparently just knocking to hear their fingers rattle]

And then there are the one word updates.  Like “…ouch”, “… pass”, “… evil”, “… snorkel”.  I guess these people are just too lazy to type a complete thought or even a sentence fragment.  Or maybe they are big fans of the old gameshow PASSWORD, and we are all supposed to guess.  Or maybe they aren’t getting as much attention as they want and are just trying to remind people they are still alive, while not being too pushy.

And of course, the ever popular Facebook update of “Samantha is…”  I always wonder if this post is on accident because they don’t know how to use Facebook, or if it’s on purpose because they are just so philosophical…  or they need help figuring out what they are… or they are equating themself to God, because the Bible says that’s what God’s name is… “IS”.  I’ve been tempted to reply with “IRRITATING”, but never actually have.  But at least this post wastes the least amount of the reader’s time, because there’s only 2 letters to read.

This is a continuation of the series I started in December called “Bible Brackets”.  Please read the following 3 first if you haven’t already.

Filling Out Your Theological Bracket – Part 1
Decisions, Decisions – Bible Brackets Part 2
What Did Jesus Say? – Bible Brackets Part 3

When it comes to the inerrancy of Scripture, Christians often act as if the bible just fell out of the sky in its present condition as a perfect gift from God to all mankind.  But unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it happened.  I mentioned in Part 3 some of the steps involved in how we come to understand that Jesus said, “For God so loved the world…”, or at least something similar to that.  But there was a lot more to it than just that.  For example,  for the books we call the New Testament, men actually wrote many of these “books” as simple letters to other people or churches.  The book of Romans was a letter written by Paul to the church in Rome.  It might be surprising to some, but there were a lot more letters written by Paul (and others) than just the ones that are currently in our bible.  For example, we have 2 letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church.  But there also exists a 3rd letter to the Corinthians that is not in our bible.  It’s now considered part of the New Testament apocrypha, along with a lot of other writings.  This NT Apocrypha is not to be confused with what is often called the Catholic/Orthodox apocrypha.  So, over many centuries of early church history, the church leaders debated and eventually determined officially which books would be in the bible, and which books would not.  And there are still disagreements even to this day over certain books.  If you are Catholic, your “Bible” contains different books than if you are Protestant.  Martin Luther, the Father of Protestantism, argued to have the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation removed from the Bible in the 1500′s.  He was unsuccessful.  I’ve heard at least one preacher today say that he does not think the book of James should be in the Bible.

So regardless of what branch of Christianity you belong to, you need to understand where the Bible you use came from.  It was compiled over many centuries through debates, votes, and even bloodshed, by church leaders that most Christians have never heard of it.

To make things even more complicated, there are many different Greek manuscripts of the New Testament books.  Some prefer certain manuscripts over others.  Which is correct?  Most Christians just trust, without much thought, whatever some unknown bible scholar decided for them many years ago.

And if that wasn’t complex enough, there’s one more step to go through, assuming you cannot read Greek. In order for you to read the Bible in your language, it had to be translated from Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek into English.  But unfortunately, there is not a computer software program that can spit out exactly what the original authors meant when they wrote what they wrote about 2000 years ago.  From the most recent count, there exists today about 450 different English translations of the Bible.

Are they all inerrant?  Can they all be different and yet still be inerrant?  Or are only some inerrant?  If so, which ones are inerrant, and how did you decide?  Are the actual English words inerrant?  Many people say that God inspired the original authors in their writing.  So did God also inspire the church leaders that choose which books to put in the bible?  Did he inspire Martin Luther?  Or those that opposed him?  Or neither?

Did you know that we do not have ANY of the original hand written biblical manuscripts?  We have copies that have been made over the years.  Did God inspire the many copyists over the years, or at least protect the texts from errors creeping in by copyists?  By the way, we know the answer to this is “No”, because we know there are many copyist errors and/or disrepencies in the Greek manuscripts, insignificant or not.  Did God inspire the translators to protect them from errors being introduced during translation?  If so, which translators were inspired?  The KJV translators?  Or the NIV translators?  Or another one of the 450 English versions?

For those that claim the bible is inerrant, there are lots of questions that must be answered in order to make that declaration.  Tough questions.  Questions that I’m guessing most Christians have never even thought of.  I often wonder if Christians who argue and debate so passionately over their doctrines really even understand where their bible came from.  And I wonder if preachers that seem to have it all figured out sometimes forget (or ignore) where their bible came from.  Or maybe they just need to explain to the rest of us how they figured it all out.  Because there are many preachers and Christians that really do have it all figured out, or at least they want us all to think that they do.

This is Part 4 in a series called Facebook Users.  You can read Parts 1-3 here:
Part 1 – The Detailer
Part 2 – The Feeler
Part 3 – The Joiner

The Gamer

These people are hard core (aka freaks).  They devote hours of time honing their skills and climbing the fame game ladder.  When I first started Facebooking, I would see constant updates related to people playing Mafia Wars.  At first it was rather entertaining, reading about people looking for boxing rings, pig heads, a crucifix tattoo, or whatever it is they look for.  I would play along and comment just to irritate them, telling them I’d give them a lime green shoelace in return for a yellow submarine, but that got tiresome… eventually.  These Mafia War posts continued to clutter my Home Page… but THEN… I found something… what has to be the most powerful feature of Facebook… The “HIDE” button.  Oh yeah.  A lot of people don’t know about this great little button.  If you hover over a post on your Home Page, a little word “Hide” appears over to the right, and if you click on it, you can hide that type of post from showing up on your Home Page.  So a long time ago, I just hid all Mafia Wars posts, and Facebook became much more enjoyable.  There are a lot of options with the “Hide” button, but unfortunately, “Hide all dumb stuff” isn’t one of them.  Maybe they will come up with one of those in the next Facebook upgrade.

Then there are the other games, single player type games, like Bejewled Blitz.  I have friends and relatives that tried to get me into this, and I even tried it a couple times, but when my score is like 5,000, and they just scored 250,000, I quickly determine it’s a stupid game.  My cousin Sherrie is a professional Bejewler (I think that’s what they are called).  Either she’s really good, or she’s found a way to cheat.  Not sure which.

And there are the Farklers.  I’ve received many invitations to Farkle, but have never actually played it.  And if I did, I probably would not admit it.  It just doesn’t sound right.

Then there are all the other networking game requests I get like Farm Town (or Farmville), Fish World, Zoo, Café World, or whatever they are called.  I just don’t get these games.  I guess I just don’t have time to spend on building an imaginary farm, or zoo, or aquarium.  Maybe I’m missing out.

Just to let everybody know, I have blocked all the gaming invitations, so if you were wondering why I haven’t responded to your invite, it’s because I don’t actually see them anymore.  For those of you that would like a reprieve from all the games, just learn how to “BLOCK” and “HIDE”.  Makes Facebook much more enjoyable.  Some of you may enjoy hiding me, haha.

This is Part 3 in a series called Facebook Users.  You can read Parts 1-2 here:
Part 1 – The Detailer
Part 2 – The Feeler

The Joiner

This Facebook User is often seen joining groups. They are just suckers for cool groups. I think they actually mean well. But I still have to chuckle at most of them. And most all (if not all) of the groups that promise you something are just scams started by somebody to see how many gullible people they can get to join. It’s like a contest to see who can get the most people to join their group by promising crazy things. One of the most popular groups was the one that promises to tell you what other people are looking at your profile page. Then there are the petition type groups that say if we get 1.5 gazillion people to join, Facebook promises to go back to the old Facebook, because we all hate this new one. People start those groups all the time, but unfortunately Facebook has never once changed anything because a lot of people joined a group, and I don’t expect them to anytime soon. The most recent popular group people are joining has to do with adding a “Dislike button”. Like all the other goofy groups, I’m pretty sure this one is a scam also.  I’m thinking about starting a group called, “Help Us Reach 1,000,000 Members and Get a $1,000,000 Check from Microsoft”, or “Just Need 5,000,000 Members to Achieve Peace in the Holy Land.”  I wonder how many I could get to join.

I’m not a member of many Facebook groups, except a few of the ones local to Waxahachie that don’t promise anything. But I did create a group called “The Rusty Davis Global Control Society”, with the purpose of it being that all the people named Rusty Davis in the world can get together and plan how we will take over the world. So if your name is not Rusty Davis, don’t even think about trying to join. So far, I am in the only member, but I’m expecting it to explode any time now.

This is Part 2 in a series called Facebook Users.  You can read Part 1 here:
Part 1 – The Detailer

Facebook Users: Part 2 – The Feeler

This is the person that wants everybody to know how they feel, but usually doesn’t explain why.  The Feeler posts updates such as “Michael is tired”, “Sally is angry”, “Charlie is bored”, “Cathy is confused”, “Joe is hungry”.  I guess these people just think that sharing their feelings is important.  I’ve always wanted to respond to these with something like, “Sally, who ticked you off?” or “Cathy, what is so confusing?” or “Charlie, if you are bored, go do something productive, help somebody, read a book, pull some weeds, clean the toilet”.  But then I figure if they wanted us to know why, they would have told us to begin with.  Maybe its some kind of inside communication that only a couple of their close friends understand.  Unless… they are fishing for somebody to ask them why, just testing us to see if anybody cares.  But the funny thing is that when people do ask them “Why…”, they usually do not respond with an explanation.  Maybe the person that asked wasn’t the person that they wanted to ask.  Or maybe they are just too tired, bored or confused to answer.

I recently had a discussion with a couple close friends about how each of us use Facebook differently, very differently.  We ragged on each other, and then the conversation evolved to all the many different ways other people use Facebook, including all the irritating ones.  I thought it would be fun (and funny) to try to list all the different ways people use Facebook.  And rather than writing one big long post that nobody will make it through, I will just blog about one type of user each entry.

And by the way, I have over 500 friends to gather data from. That’s not bragging, just making a point so that if you see one or two or six things in here that seem familiar, there’s really only less than a 1 in 500 chance that I’m actually talking about you specifically.  So don’t get mad and come TP my house or nuthin. And honestly, if you don’t fall in here somewhere, you probably don’t use Facebook at all.

So to kick it off… We’ll start with:

Part 1 – The Detailer
This is the person that thinks everybody wants to know every detail of their day, especially where they are and what they are doing. Such as, “I’m eating a bagel”, “I’m at the airport”, “I’m eating a bagel at the airport”, “I’m in the turn lane”, “I’m going to bed”, “I’m about to change the toilet paper roll”, “I’m finished changing the toilet paper roll.”

I think you get the idea. And these people are very valuable Facebookers because without them, our Facebook Home page would look really empty.  Of course the downside is that we have to do a lot more scrolling down to find updates that uhh… require more attention.  But hey, if getting carpal tunnel from scrolling is the worst thing that happens, at least I can feel confident in knowing that Suzy is about to pick up her dry cleaning.  How else would I know if she doesn’t broadcast it to all 342 of her close Facebook friends?

Facebook Detailers are kind of like remote controls… we continually wonder how we ever managed to get along without them.

I always thought Fonzi was so cool, especially with how he could just bang things with his fist and turn on lights or juke boxes, or break tables, or unlock things.  But I was wondering… if the Fonz lived in our day, how would he manage dealing with computers.  Can you imagine the Fonz updating his Facebook status?  What would he say?  Something cool for sure.  I doubt it would be, “Fonzi is tired”.  By the way, that’s always one of my favorite ones to read.  There would probably be a lot of “ayyyyyyy’s”, with a few “Exactamundo’s” and “Sit on it’s!” mixed in.

The event that triggered this wondering happened yesterday when I had both the boys at home with me, Gramm, my 1 year old, and Jaxon my 6 year old.  I’m busy working on my laptop on the couch, and Gramm climbed up on the chair at my desk and was playing with the keyboard and mouse that goes to our computer.  I thougth… “he’s not screaming… just let him play and enjoy the rare few minutes of quietness…  What’s the worst that can happen??”  Sidebar: Never ask that question.  Nothing good ever comes from asking that question.

So a few minutes later I’m still working… enjoying the quiet… and then I hear voices, which I realize are coming from the computer that Gramm is “working on”.  I look up, and Gramm is watching the movie Apollo 13 on my computer, and in full screen mode nonetheless.  I said, “Gramm, what you doing???” half forgetting that he can’t talk yet.  I didn’t even know we had Apollo 13 on our computer.  My oldest, Jaxon, is standing behind him watching also now.  I asked Jaxon, “How did he do that?” hoping that he might have seen what Gramm did to play the movie.  Jaxon replied with, “I’ll fix it,” and takes over the drivers seat from Gramm.  That wasn’t exactly the response I was expecting, but figured as long as there is still no screaming, I’ll just go with it, and get back to working on my stuff.

Again, a few minutes later, I decide to check on Jaxon to see how he’s doing, and to see if there is any smoke coming from my computer.  When I get over there, Jaxon says, “Daddy, look what I did!”  I’m always surprised at what I see after I hear that.  So I look, and this time there is a slide show playing, also in full screen, of our family pictures.  Many of the pictures I didn’t even know we had, but just lots of random pictures from different times and places.  I said, “Jaxon, that’s cool.  How did you do that?”  He replies, “I just banged on all these letters here.”

So I guess if the Fonz was living in our day of technology, that’s probably what he would be like.  Just banging on a keyboard and having things like Apollo 13 and family slideshows start right up.

Have you ever thought about the most historically important video footage ever?  What is it?  I’ve been trying to think of a few that may be at the top.  But I know I’m missing a bunch.  Maybe Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.  Nixon’s resignation in 1974.  Lou Gehrig’s Farewell speech in 1939.  The video footage of the Challenger explosion in 1986.  Or maybe it’s war related footage such as the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 or the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.  The video footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in 2001.  Maybe some movies would be included such as “Gone With the Wind” or the “Wizard of Oz”, both released in 1939.  Or how about Michael Irvin’s hall of fame induction speech?  OK, maybe I’m getting distracted now.

While I’m sure I’ve left out many, those above have to be a few in the discussion.  Considering the historical importance of these videos, can you imagine the lengths people have gone to to preserve the original footage of these videos?  Can you imagine the money spent to make sure these videos are properly archived and protected so they will still be around hundreds of years from now?

I intentionally left out one video from the list above, one that I believe may possibly trump all of them for some people.  I’m talking about the original video footage of the first moon landing, the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  I’m sure we’ve all seen that horribly grainy footage of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for the first time.  But what you may not know is that the footage you’ve seen is only a copy, not the original.  That’s because for many years now, NASA has not been able to find the original footage.  Just recently on the 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk, NASA has finally admitted that the original footage the astronauts took of the first Apollo 11 moon landing was “accidentally erased“.

Uhhh…. are you serious?  Is this a joke?  You accidentally erased it?  Did you need some tape to record the latest American Idol episode?  and you forget to pop off that little tab that prevents recording over it?  NASA, do you really expect us to believe you are THAT STUPID?  Maybe you shouldn’t answer that.  The only 2 options we have are:

1) NASA are complete idiots, on par with Raymond Barone who accidentally taped the Super Bowl over his wedding ceremony, or
2) They are lying.

I’m sorry, but honestly, those are the only 2 options we have.  Which is it?  Personally, I’ve believe they have been lying for a while now.  But hey, I don’t want to be that conspiracy nut guy.  Also, compare the video quality that you’ve seen from the cameras used on the moon in 1969 with others.  Just for comparison sake, the original Star Trek series was filmed, in color, in the ’60′s before we supposedly landed on the moon.  You can see the dates above in the 1st paragraph for some of the others, including the two movies filmed in 1939.  And the best NASA could do in 1969 was that terribly grainy footage that looks like it was filmed back in the 1800′s.  Well actually, even some in the 1800′s look better than what NASA gave us in 1969.  Heck even the Gilligan’s Island episode where the Russian cosmonauts land on the island looks more believable, and that was filmed in 1965.  But hey, lets cut NASA some slack.  How could they have possibly known that this video footage would be important to anybody?  And you know NASA is always trying to save money where they can, so they were probably just trying to do the environmentally friendly thing and resuse their old video tapes.

Actually, if you want to know what I believe, I don’t believe anybody landed on the moon in 1969.  I think this video link is more likely what really happened: Real Moon Landing Video

If you notice on the video, this was originally posted on a website called moontruth.com.  I remember reading that website a couple years ago and getting a lot of good information on the fake moon landing.  But now, the website is gone.  I wonder what happened to it…  Oh noooo….  They GOT HIM.  Poor guy.  At least now, I can say this ahead of time.  If I end up going missing in the near future, you will all know what happened to me.  Check NASA’s secret basement.  I’ll be banging my cup on the door to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island them song.  Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale… a tale of a fateful trip…

Who do you think has more experience on dieting?  A skinny guy or a fat guy?  OK, but let’s not kid ourselves – experience does not equal mastery, right?  Kind of like the guy that has a LOT of experience with the 5th grade.  It doesn’t exactly make him a 5th grade genius.  But I’ll bet he’s got a lot of interesting stories to tell, right?  I guess that’s me.  I’ve been fighting with my weight ever since about the 3rd grade.

I’ve done most of the diets out there.  I even tried cutting back on ketchup, but that didn’t last long.  Atkins says ranch dressing is healthy.  Just about every other diet calls it white death.  Some say eat less, some say eat more.  It’s kind of like arguing over religion.  Everybody has good arguments for their theory, and everybody has success stories to show.  Don’t you love those before and after pictures?  He started out as a hippo wearing a fur coat and ended up as Michael Phelps.

Here are some tips I’ve found that work very well.  I’m planning on writing a book on dieting in the future, hopefully before I die of a heart attack.  If you follow these rules closely, I can guarantee you success.

1. When you are eating food that you would normally eat with a fork or spoon, try losing the utensil and eating it with your hands.  Like spaghetti, a big piece of chocolate cake, banana pudding, etc.  Sound goofy?  Well do you want that six-pack abs or not?
2. Right before every bite, yell loudly “FATTY WANT MORE ______!”  and just fill in the blank with whatever you are eating.  This one works especially well if performed properly.
3. And for those of you that have already figured out a plan for #1 and #2, you may only eat while there is at least one other person in the room.
4. I’ve seen diets that tell you to chew each bite 16 times.  That may work for some people, but not me.  The concept is good, but the plan is too soft.  My plan says to chew each piece 100 times.  This helps in 3 ways.  1) You may get tired and fall asleep before finishing a meal, and 2) your food begins to taste like it was mixed in a blender, and 3) much less yelling.
5. This tip #5 was inspired by tip #4.  Take your favorite meal, say for example, pizza and cheesecake, and put it into a blender and turn it on high for a couple minutes.  And don’t forget your drink.  This tip pretty much works with anything except in the event you eat an ice cream milkshake for lunch.

I’ll leave you with these 5.  I don’t want to give away all my secrets to show up in somebody else’s book.

I recently found out that it’s a felony in the state of Illinois to “threaten or accost an Umpire in a youth sports game.”  That’s great!  I know they are not the only state to do this, but I’m not sure if Texas is one of them.  That got me to thinking… so I came up with a few more actions that I think should be upgraded to felonies on the law books.  I guess these could be put into their own class of felony called “The Moron Laws”.

1. It should be a felony to vandalize or riot in the streets after your team wins a sports championship.  What kind of person decides to celebrate his team’s victory by throwing rocks through people’s windows, tipping over people’s cars, or setting things on fire?  It happens just about every time somebody wins a major sports championship.  Maybe we could give all of them their own island to vandalize and just drop them off by helicopter on Moron Island, for good.
2. Whoever invented those tiny ketchup packets should be charged with a felony.  I don’t want to think about how much of my life I’ve wasted opening ketchup packets.  Has anybody ever just used 1 packet on an order of french fries?  1 packet is enough for about 4 fries.  And then once your fingers get greasy, they are practically impossible to open by hand.  And why are the mustard packets even smaller than the ketchup packets?  Mustard is cheaper right?  But boy, when it comes to mayonnaise, you get a big giant packet?  What’s the deal? Do they size them by their health classification?  You get the least of the healthy mustard, and the most of the fattening mayo.  Are the drug companies behind the packet sizing?
3. People that use the F-word in their Facebook status updates should be felons.  I just dropped one moron as a friend because he kept using the F-word.  He’s got 450+ Facebook friends.  Does he really think that is appropriate behavior for all of them to see?  What about the kids that see his updates?  And this guy is supposedly an “intelligent person”.  He’s finishing up law school at UT, so you would think he would know better.  I guess this is the type of person that gives lawyers their reputation.  But at least he should make a great politician someday, right?  Maybe we could save ourselves from a few of these bad apples if they were weeded out by the Facebook felon filter early enough.
4. There are some morons that evidently think its funny to knock down stops signs at the intersection near our home.  These people should be charged with felonies.  Do they not think about what could happen the next time 2 cars approach the intersection and the stop sign is missing?  People have been killed in automobile accidents because of this very thing.
5. And lastly, it should be a felony to sell a thin crust pizza for the same price as a thick crust pizza.  OK, maybe a little harsh on this one, but it sure bugs me to to pay full price and only get half full.

I just recently determined that I needed a new computer for our home/business.  I’ve always hated all the marketing software and junk they put on new computers (like Dell, HP and Gateway).  I don’t want all that that on my computer.  And often times, when you buy from them, they use proprietary components so that when you have a problem, you almost have to go back to them to fix it.  For example, my parents have a Dell that is a couple years old, and it runs very slow.  I inquired with Dell about upgrading the processor, and it will not handle the new fast ones of today, but they were willing to sell me an older processor that was just a little faster than the one they had for $800.  Are you kidding?  $800 for an old processor.  I can buy a whole new computer with a new processor for less than that.  They obviously prey on people’s ignorance and trust.

So I decided to build my own computer.  There are several advantages.

1. I get to pick the parts.  I can read reviews of each component, and pick the best and most reliable ones.  I don’t get stuck with all the parts they happen to be overstocked with and are trying to get rid of because nobody else wants them.  I get the latest and greatest components.
2. I get to load ONLY software that I want.  I will never install any version of Norton AntiVirus or RealPlayer again.  Those programs are worse than viruses.  They are like cancer to a computer that get into it and starts spreading and taking over all your resources, and you cannot get rid of them.  Even trying to uninstall them leaves their traces all of the place.
3. And of course building one is cheaper than buying a prebuilt one.  You get a lot more value for your money when you build it yourself.  I was able to build this brand new computer for $600.

Here’s my parts I bought, right before I started assembling it.  I bought everything off of Newegg.com, which is my preferred place to buy.  Most computer parts there are much cheaper than you will find elsewhere.  Shipping is fast and reasonable.  I just finished putting the computer together a couple nights ago, and it’s running like a dream so far.  I using Windows Vista for the first time, so I have a learning curve to figure out all the differences from Windows XP, which is what I’m used to.  But I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Our clothes dryer stopped heating a couple days ago.  A few years ago, I would have just called a repairman, but for some reason, I’ve been feeling very handy lately, so I decided to tackle it myself.  The first place I went to learn how to fix a dryer was, of course, the Internet.  I would have never even attempted a do-it-yourself repair like this before the Internet was around.  I can’t thank Al Gore enough for inventing it.

I had assumed the dryer just needed a new heating element, but when I got online, found that the lack of heat could be due to a variety of different things.  The first thing to check is the exhaust vent – that small vent duct that goes from your dryer to the outside of your house.  If that vent is not clear and allowing good airflow from the dryer to the outside, your clothes will not dry, or will take a long time to dry.  So if your dryer usually takes two cycles to dry clothes, you should probably clean out your dryer vent.  It’s recommended that it be cleaned out about every 2 years.  We’ve been in our house for over 10 years and have never cleaned it out.  Lint collects in there over time, clogging the vent, kind of like cholesterol in arteries.  I bought a dryer vent cleaning kit at Lowe’s for about $35 and cleaned our vent.

It still didn’t heat, so I figured out how to remove the heating element, and took it to CA Wilson.  They tested it, and said it worked.  So the other thing it could be is the thermostats – there are 2 of them.  I removed both of them and took them in to CA Wilson, and one of them was dead.  Of course, they only sell them in a pair for $40, so I have to buy one I don’t need.

I put everything back together, and miraculously, it worked.  This is what it’s supposed to look like when it’s heating.  So I ended up spending about $75 getting it working.  I’m sure that’s a lot cheaper than it would have been to call a repairman.  Lastly, when I was inside the dryer, I noticed there were piles of lint everywhere, including collecting on the can that hold the heating element.  That is very dangerous and can easily start a fire.  So that’s also recommend to clean out the inside of the dryer about every 2 years.

This is a continuation of the series I started in December called “Bible Brackets”.  Please read the following 2 first if you haven’t already.

Filling Out Your Theological Bracket – Part 1
Decisions, Decisions – Bible Brackets Part 2

This is a very intriguing subject to me.  We’ve all read the red-letter words of Jesus in our bibles for many years.  And when we envision Jesus in our head, we see the guy on the right speaking something like this, “For God so loved the world….“  Well… that’s not exactly how it went.  First of all, I think most scholars would agree that Jesus looked nothing like the man on the right.  Some scientists studied several skulls of middle aged Jewish men during the time of Jesus, and reconstructed an average face, and they came up with the guy on the left.  Not really the picture in your mind’s eye, is it?  And technically, that’s not really what he said either.  Because, as surprising as it might be to many Americans, Jesus did not speak English.  Everyone that has seen “The Passion of the Christ” probably figured that out when they showed up in the theater and found themselves reading subtitles.  But did you think about what Language it was that he was speaking?  Many people might know that the New Testament was written primarily in Greek, so that might be a good guess.  But no, not likely.  The common language of Galilee during Jesus time was Aramaic.  Aramaic is an ancient Semitic language related to Hebrew.  So most scholars believe Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic when he was being quoted in the Scriptures, but that He also spoke Greek and Hebrew when necessary.

“So what?”, you might say.  Why do I care what language Jesus spoke?  Well, it just gives us a little more background information on how the bible came into being.  So here’s how it went.  Using a well-known quote, we’ll look at John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”

1) Jesus did not write any of the bible.  Jesus did not write down his conversation with Nicodemus.

2) Jesus spoke these words to Nicodemus in Aramaic.

3) The disciple John somehow heard the story, and probably about 60 years later,  translated the story into Greek, and wrote it down in his gospel.

4) Then depending on what Bible you are reading, the Greek manuscripts were translated into English many centuries later.  For example, the most popular English version, the NIV, was translated around 1970.

Add to this the notion that the ancient Jewish culture was not really big on direct quotes.  You can probably understand why considering there were no reporters carrying around notepads or audio recording devices in their pockets.  In fact, the Greek language did not use quotation marks at all at that time.  So all the quotation marks you see in your New Testament were placed there centuries later when it was translated into English, using the translator’s best judgment.  Ancient Jewish culture was more concerned with conveying a message, rather than with direct quotes.

So, in conclusion, as we read our English bibles, we are trusting a specific group of men whom we probably know nothing about, to tell us what their best guess is at the meaning of the story that John wrote in Greek, about what he heard that Jesus spoke in Aramaic.  Is that clear as mud?

Knowing this, does it make some of the arguments we have over interpretations, the use and meaning of specific words seems kind of silly?  Does it make the people that think they have it all right while everybody else is wrong, seem kind of silly?  Just wondering.

We don’t go to Ryan’s very often, but when we do, strange things seem to happen.  If you are not familiar with what happened during one of our last visits, read “The Cone on the Throne“.  Jaxon and I decided to go, because it’s one of his favorite places.  When we walk in, the first thing we notice is this sign in front of the register.  I’m not sure what “Sorlion” is, but I don’t think i want any.  So is it lion or cow?  Click on the picture to enlarge it for a better view.

Then once we got to our table and sat down, I noticed an older gentleman walking around the buffet.  He appeared to be probably in his 60′s I’m guessing.  He caught my attention because the shirt he was wearing was one of those athletic compression shirts.  If you not familiar with what a compression shirt is, click on the 2nd picture.  They are designed for athletes to wear while working out to keep their muscles warm and also to show off their muscles, since they are designed to be skin tight.  So I’m guessing this guy wanted to try out his new shirt that he got for Christmas, at Ryans.  It ws kind of hard to walk past him without staring.  I was able to snap a picture because I knew that pictures are much better than just a description.  Granted, I’d be pretty happy to look like that when I’m his age, but still… I think I’ll stick with the regular T-shirts and keep a little bit to the imagination.

I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.  I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a couple Christmas related notes.  First is a conversation I had on Tuesday with my son, Jaxon.  We were together and my brother-in-law, Mark, called to ask if I had any suggestions about what Jaxon would like for Christmas.  I told him that Jaxon hadn’t really asked for anything except for a skateboard.  So I turned to Jaxon and asked him if he could think of anything he wants for Christmas.  Jaxon turned to me, and as serious as a 5 year old can be, he says, “Is that Santa?”

And lastly, I thought this was worth sharing.  I walked into our game room Tuesday and saw this small torch still in the packaging.  I thought, Hey I could use that to work on my Jeep, I wonder where it came from.  I asked Beth, and she said that Jaxon found it behind the TV and that it was in my Christmas stocking from last year.  I thought, cool, nice timing.  Then I began reading the package, as I always like to do.  Packaging can be some of the most interesting reading.  It lists about a dozen applications, just in case you weren’t quite sure what to do with your new fire blowing torch.  The third suggested use on the list caught my attention: “Dental Repairs”.  Uh, ok.  I’m glad they put that on there, because I have to admit that I would have never thought of that on my own.  But now the next time I hear of anybody needing dental repairs, I will graciously suggest they come to me, because I have just the tool for it.  Any of you need any dental repairs, and don’t have insurance?

This is Part 2 in a series.  You can read Part 1 here: Filling Out Your Theological Bracket – Part 1.

We have a lot of decisions to make in order to fill out our theological bracket.  Some of them can be very confusing.  Some of them, you may not have even realized were in question.  If you’ve grown up in a single denomination, you may have just assumed everything your church believes and teaches is correct.  You may not even realize that thousands of other “Christians” disagree with what you believe.  Some people may know what to write into their theological bracket, but have no idea why they believe that, or what the alternatives are.

Let’s look at one of the foundational issues: Salvation.  Just brainstorming, here are some of the questions related to Salvation that we need to answer.

1. Who can be saved?  Anybody? or only those God calls?
2. What do we really need to be saved from?
3. How does one become saved?
4. Is there a way to tell if somebody is saved?
5. Is one saved instantly, or is it a process that takes place over time?
6. Once one is saved, can they be unsaved later?  If so, how?
7. Can one be saved without being baptized?
8. Can one be saved without speaking in tongues?
9. Can one be saved without making Jesus Lord of their life?
10. Can one be saved without having any good works?
11. Can one be saved without asking for forgiveness?
12. Can one be saved without repenting?
13. Are babies that die saved?
14. Can I be sure that I am saved?
15. How were people saved before Jesus’ sacrifice?
16. Can my actions, or lack thereof, keep somebody from being saved?

OK, so that’s a quick 16 questions on a single subject.  Add to that many other major topics such as:

• Predestination vs Free Will
• Who does God love?
• Is Jesus Christ really God?
• What is the relationship of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit?
• What will happen in the end times?

I think that’s enough to suggest the many decisions involved.  Of course, I realize many Christians never actually study and come to decisions on all of these.  I guess a lot of people just leave some spaces blank in their bible bracket.  Maybe they are not all important?  Yet some theologians have spent their lives trying to figure this stuff out.  They want their bracket to not only be complete, but correct.  Of course I should mention that the number of years people spend studying the scriptures doesn’t really correlate to how correct they are.  So is there any way we can be confident that what we believe is true?  Or are we just spinning the roulette wheel and hoping our number comes up?  That’s kind of what this series is about?  I’ll write more in the next few entries.

Even if you are not big sports fans, I’m sure you’ve heard of an NCAA Tournament Bracket.  We are a little early for that this year, because it happens in March every year, but we can still talk about it.  College basketball has a 64 team tournament at the end of their season, and all the teams are placed in a big tournament bracket.  If you win, you move on to play again, and if you lose, you are finished for the season.

But this blog entry is not about sports.  Its about our theology.  You don’t have to be a theologian to have a theology.  Everybody has developed their own theology, whether they realize it or not.  Your theology is defined by how you think and what you believe about God.  And regardless of how many Southern Baptists or Catholics there are, I’ve come to realize that our theologies are kind of like our fingerprints in that no two people’s are the same.  But unlike our fingerprints, our theology can change, and most often does.  I don’t imagine anybody would say they believe the same thing about God now as they did when they were 12 (unless they are still 12).

So what does theology have to do with an NCAA tournament bracket, you ask?  Well, we have a lot of theological decisions to make in our lives, and some of them build on the foundations of others.  I think we can relate our decision making to filling our own theological bracket.  Everybody’s will be different.  Take for example one of the foundational first round matchups: Inspiration of the Scriptures.  There are typically four main views of what it means for scripture to be “inspired” by God.  I’m not going to go into them, but depending on what view you choose, it will dramatically impact your other views.  Some views allows for their to be errors in the Bible, whether they are from the original writers themselves, or just copyist errors passed down over the years.  Some views say the bible on your coffee-table is completely free of even a single error.  If you are going to study the bible, at some point you will have to decide whether the words in your hands are true, or not.  That would be one of the first rungs of your theological bracket.  How can you support what you believe with Scripture if you haven’t even decided if the Bible is reliable or not?

I’m not going to get into a lot of theology here in Part 1.  I’m just trying to explain what I mean by our Theological Bracket.  Hopefully you get the idea.  We’ll take a deeper look into our bracket in the next extry, Part 2.

Have you ever wondered where cashews come from?  Or maybe why you never see a cashew inside it’s shell like other typical nuts?  Well here’s why.  Cashews grow on a cashew fruit tree.  The Cashew tree actually produces both fruit and a nut.  Here’s a picture of a cashew fruit with the nut inside the shell attached to the underside of the fruit.  The fruit is pretty typical and can be used for jellies, juices, etc.  But the nut is a little unusual.  In its raw state, the shell is leathery, not brittle, and it contains a thick oil, CNSL (Cashew Nut Shell Liquid), within a sponge-like interior.  This CNSL is a valuable raw material for producing things such as paints, varnishes, and glue to name a few.  And here’s where it gets dicey.  The cashew tree is a relative of the Poison Oak/Poison Ivy plants, and it’s outer shell contains the skin irritant urushiol.  So handling a raw cashew nut could be very dangerous, and eating a raw cashew could even be fatal to someone allergic to poison ivy.  The cashews that you see in the store labeled as “raw” are not really raw.  They are at least boiled and/or steamed to remove the urushiol before being offered to the public.  Cashew processing facilities are a very dangerous place, and you probably would not want to work at one.  There are a lot of ways to get the nut safely out of the shell.  Most involve roasting, boiling, and/or steaming before cracking the shell open.  If any part of the shell is not removed from the finished product, it can be very dangerous.

There you have it.  Now you probably know more than you ever needed to about Cashews.

The Building Campaign

Our church is in the middle of a building campaign.  You know what what means, lots of talk about money and finances.  While I know its not a very popular topic, I don’t mind it too much.  It’s a topic that Beth and I embrace and try to really seek what God is wanting us to do.  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, or even simple.  The church was asking for 3 year commitments to give over and above your regular offerings.  So Beth and I had discussed it over the period of several weeks, what we felt God leading us to commit to.  I had a number and Beth had a number, and we were not very close to the same number.  So what do we do?  How do we figure out which one of us is not listening to God, and which one is, because I’m assuming God would not give us different numbers.  Just like He would not tell one pastor that their Salvation is eternally secure and another that it’s not.  But let’s not get off topic.  So I basically explained all my reasons to Beth when I decided on my number, and then we both agreed to use her number, which is usually par for the course.

You Can’t Out-give God

Over a few weeks time, the church had people give testimonies of how God has blessed them financially for being faithful.  One man got up and said, “You can’t out-give God.”  I’ve heard that many times before, and my logical brain always asks myself, “REALLY???”  What would happen if I tried to out-give God?  Because “logical” people say that if you give too much, you will be neglecting and harming your family.  What if, instead of giving 10%, somebody gave 50%, or 90%, or even 100%?  I don’t know because I’ve never heard anybody do that.  And I’ve never heard anybody say, “I decided to test God like it says in Malachi, and give 90% of my salary, and I lost everything, including my family, and now I’m a street beggar.”  Do you know of anybody that has taken Malachi 3:10 this seriously?  I’m guessing there are people out there somewhere with this kind of faith, but I don’t know them.  Do you know of any?

Keeping God on Our Leash

I think this philosophy spills over into all aspects of our lives.  Henry Blackaby says in the book “Experiencing God” that we often don’t see miracles today because we never attempt to do anything that only God can do.  Did you catch that?  What’s the last thing you attempted that you knew only God would be able to do?  We attempt things all the time that we think we can accomplish.  Isn’t that how we make most of our decisions in life.  We contemplate whether or not we think we can pull something off.  If we think we can, we go for it.  If not, we pass and look for something else less challenging.  And we don’t give God an opportunity to do something miraculous in our lives.  We keep God on our leash.  And God’s role in our lives is to help us when we run into trouble.  If one of our own assignments goes awry, we call on God to see if He can bail us out.  That’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

What if we got God involved from the beginning?  When we are contemplating a task, and we determine there’s no way I can pull this off, what if we give God a shot at doing it through us?  Some might think we are crazy, battling windmills.  But that just makes it that much more amazing when God performs a miracle in our lives.  And this way, God gets the glory, because we know we could never have done it on our own.  Let’s challenge ourselves to let God off our leash and give God a chance at doing something miraculous in our lives.