Mr Smith goes to Washington

Kyle & I caught the last 45 minutest of this Jimmy Stewart/Francis Capra movie. Sometimes I think it should be a pre-requisite for any politician prior to running, then again, after they have been elected.

AMC (the movie channel) said that it was considered an un-American movie as it was too critical to those that held the offices at the time.

If you have never seen the move, rent it! The message contained in the movie is that a politician works for ALL the people they represent, not just the rich few.

Farewell to Falwell

The question on the bus on Tuesday was why the flags were at half mast. Nobody figured it out. We did find out that Jerry Falwell had died. I still don't know if it was related as Law Enforcement Memorial Day was Monday or Tuesday as well.

I remember in the early 1980s when Falwells Moral Majority came into prominince. It was the Regan years and it seemed that "Christians would finally get what we deserved". We may have, I don't know. I know that many of the changes in our society in those years have not been pleasing to God or to Christians. Some changes in society may have been pleasing to Christians but maybe not to God, something I won't judge here -- just a tendency to think that what we think is good is not necessarily reflecting God.

I don't know if Falwell's work there slowed the slide towards Chaos or if it had any effect at all. You see, God is in contoll, whether we recognize it or not.

Sometimes it's the little things

Sometimes it is the little things which show us that God cares for us.

Today, I need that reminder (more about that at a later date).

The background? Due to an effort to save money, I have been taking my lunch nearly every day for over a year. The lunches consist of a frozen entree which tends to saves at least $5 daily.

Today, I grabbed the one from the freezer which looked "the best" for the day, a nice little Italian dish with noodles, sauce and meat. It felt a little light so I did a quick check to see if I had gotten just a box. No, from the check, things looked normal so I packed it in my bag and headed out the door. That was my first mistake.

Around lunch time, I went to the break room to heat it up, pulled it out of the box and found I only got one of the three ingredients -- the noodles. Disappointed but not defeated, I figured I'd pop down to the nearest sub shop and buy a nice sandwich and chips. The shop even has Diet Dr. Pepper in the soda machine, a bonus!

A few minutes later, my boss pops in and I hear something about being interested in lunch. I shout out that I am interested and ask where he was going. He said a vendor he was meeting with has bought lunch for the meeting and there were some left that they would share. When we got up there, I found a nice turkey sandwich and a Diet Dr. Pepper.

Considering this sort of thing has happened several times, I hardly think it is an accident!

Thanks God!

World Views

This evening, I received an email from an organization. That mail was deleted but it gave me a new realization.

I have been bothered every time I hear the words "Biblical World View", the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I have taken shots trying to figure out why it bothers me so much but tonight I think I have the issue figured out.

My first attempts of figuring out why it bothered me were along the lines of...

A "Biblical World View" depends on someones interpretation of the Bible. What if their interpretation and mine don't match up?

Tonight, the light bulb went off above my head when I read those words. The thing that is bothering me is that I am on earth to help prepare for God's Kingdom, whatever that means, not "follow the Bible" (it's a side effect). If that is the case, should I not be more concerned with a "God's Kingdom World View"?

Bottom Feeders

Yesterday, I listened to this message from Woodland Hills titled "Leadership with a Limp". The summary is as follows:

• We are created to fill ourselves with a relationship to God.
• Anything we fill ourselves with that is not God is idolitry. We often fill ourselves with praise, judgment of others, etc.
• If we are feeding that desire with Judgment, we are bottom feeding, similar to catfish, etc.
• We need to remove that plank from our eye before trying to remove the spec from other peoples.
• In order to lead well, we can not hide our faults and sins, if we do, it can become a different form of idolatry.

If there is any question that I "limp" feel free to contact my wife.

A conference and a challenge.

This weekend, Marj and I attended a Family Life Marriage conference at Northern Hills. I left with a lot of mixed feelings.

Let me first tell you that the conference was quite good. It dealt with communication and the road blocks that are put up that inhibit communication. The longest married couple had been married for 40 years, the newest for 10 weeks with at least one engaged couple there.

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One thing that struck me as we were going through the material was how easy it is to pull scripture out of context. I'll use some examples here...

I remember seeing the picture of Jesus standing at a door, poised to knock. This is based on Revelations 3:20.

“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (New Living Translation)

Typically, this is used as an evangelism tool. That is not, however, the use that was intended for that verse. In fact, it is quite the opposite. That verse is stuck at the end of a passage that John wrote to the church in Laodicea. This is asking the people of that church to get rid of their apathy.

The question I have been dealing with is the ethics of using a verse out of context. This is something I see being done all too often.

Pandora Podcast

A few months ago, I discovered Pandora and shared it with a friend (and I think here).

This week, my friend told me about the Pandora Podcast.

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project, an effort to analyze music. The result is their player which allows you to enter a song or the name of an artist. That song or a song from that artist will be played, followed by songs which are similar in sound or style to the one you entered.

Their podcast is also is an analysis project full of information. They have shows that talk about the basics of harmony, drums, bass, guitar, guitar effects, major and minor, vocal mic placement in recording and several more.

So far, only 11 podcasts have been produced but they are full of information!