"Pause and think of that"

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Last week's version was the Amplified Version. The hook with the Amplified it to take words that are somewhat poorly defined and give several alternative meanings.

Hearing the Amplified read out loud annoys me as often as not because you get several definitions run together as when reading. One example is Romans 12:3 (read it aloud and all the words, even the ones in parentheses for effect)...

For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

One such word, as you go through Psalms is the word Selah. The effect was not annoying but inspiring when I heard over and over....

Selah [pause, and think of that]

Christus Victor Ministries and Practicing the Presence

I ran across the Greg Boyd's blog tonight. Greg is a pastor, and author. He has a tendency to be somewhat controversial (this might be an understatement). On the other hand, as time goes by, he is helping to answer a question I have had for some time... How much has America's "version" of Christianity diverged from what Christ intended?

One of the most interesting posts that I looked at, however was More "Practicing the Presence". The introductory paragraph really stuck out to me...

One major problem many American Christians face is that we tend to embrace a magical view of the Christian faith. We assume that if a person “prays the sinners prayer,” “surrenders their life to Christ,” and “accepts Jesus as Lord of their life,” this somehow magically “saves” them and will sooner or later magically transform them – if not in this life, then in the next. This is why most evangelical churches place so much emphasis on the “conversion experience.” The trouble is, this magical view of faith doesn’t work. Research shows that, in terms of their core values and behaviors, Christians differ very little from their non-Christian neighbors. We don’t consistently experience, and therefore don’t consistently manifest, abundant kingdom LIFE.

Go read it and let me know what you think.

Home...

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thoughts escaping
Home, where my musics playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
-- from Simon & Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound"

It is always somewhat bitter-sweet coming back home from a long vacation (more than a couple of days), especially when that vacation is truly relaxing.

It is good to be back but there is all the "around the house" chores that need to be done. At the same time, there is the realizaton that I need to go back to work on Monday. (if I had only bought that winning lottery ticket).

It was good to see family and spend some time together. Due to distances, we haven't really gotten to spend much time with Catherine and her family (Pete, Ryan and Rachael) so it was nice to do that. It was great to meet Mario's wife Wanda and see his daughter Jewel as she has grown since we saw her last.

Now... Back to the chores!

Vacation day 8

Day 7 was recovery from day 6. It included internet and grilling.

Day 8, Kyle went with the cousins to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Marj and I went for a drive which included eating at Joe's Crab Shack (the Florida Grouper was quite good), a swamp boat ride and a visit to the medical clinic which diagnosed Marj's outer ear infection.

The swamp boat ride was fun. They seem to like showing people the local 'gator population. We also saw sand hill cranes, raccoons and a turtle.

Vacation day 6

On Saturday morning, we checked out of our temporary spot at Westgate and headed off to meet Marj's brother Mario who had flown in the night before from Georgia.

My joy of having internet access turned to mild disappointment when I found our new room (here) didn't have the wireless working in my room.

Marj's sister Catherine and her family checked in on Saturday night.

At this point we had two missing pieces of luggage.

Mario took off on Monday but we had a great time meeting his wife Wanda and getting re-acquainted with his daughter Jewel. Later, we headed to Downtown Disney for a bit of ice cream at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Soda Fountain.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we all ended up at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Not my favorite place but we have 2 seven year-old's and an 11 year old who love it.

Today, we are recovering from being all Mouse House'd out. We grilled by the pool and while most everyone is relaxing by or in the pool, your's truely found the internet connection does work next door and is free to owners so I am taking advantage of the situation to keep things updated!

A Lethal Weapon?

When Marj and Kyle got me an iPod Nano for Christmas, I don't think they realized how lethal a weapon it was.

I saw a link to "8 Ways to Kill Someone with the Nano" at iPod Hacks.

Hmmm...

Ides of March

Yesterday, March 15 was the Ides of March. My first exposure to the term was a band with that name and their "hit" song Vehicle (iTunes link).

I do find it odd that it odd that something we usually associate with the assassination of Julius Ceaser is usually found somewhere within the whole season of lent.

From Blogcation to Vacation

We are on vacation now... This is something Kyle has been looking forward to for some time. Not because of where we are but the fact he is not in school.

The place we are staying has wireless (for a cost) so I can keep up with everyone!

A Blogcation

A what? I have been missing in action for a bit. I took a Blog Vacation -- a blogcation. One blog writer I know of has quit blogging for lent. I didn't quite go that far, I have been busy.

Between helping Kyle and a friend with a project, work, etc. it has been quite an experience.

We found out over a week ago that my parents were without power due to an ice storm. Within a couple of days of asking for prayer, the power was back on through a temporary fix. (yea!). It took the power company 6 days to do just the temporary fix and a permenent one would have taken longer. Had it not been for the out of area repair people.....

I have also been working at getting a new computer set up... God (and Qwest) were quite generous so I took the plunge. I had been wanting to switch to a Mac (you have seen those commercials) for a couple of years now but other things have taken priority. Finally, the time came! The commercials are right! The only issue I have is that I can't run e-sword on this machine. There are other bible study programs out there but the challenge I am finding is that with copyrights, it is hard to get the versions you want all together. Some of the programs I have found are either too expensive or just not what I am looking for.

On the other hand, I could actually load Windows XP on here and be done with it.

What ever happened to Common Sense (and freedom)?

Tonight I read a news story here...

New York Senator Carl Kruger is introducing legislation that would make it a crime to listen to your iPod while crossing the street. (The next thing you know, they'll ask you to look both ways first!) Canadian comedian and filmmaker Jared Sales has rendered a few mock iPod ads in response to what he feels is an unjust imposition.

The mock ads are below...


My question is, "what ever happened to freedom and common sense"? If I read between the lines on the story above, the reason the New York state senate is considering such a bill is because someone has gotten hurt crossing the street while listening to their iPods. That (those?) someone(s?) have then lacked the common sense to look before crossing.... Now it may cost us another freedom.

Just another manic weekend

This weekend was busier than most. I don't know why I think the situation will change.

With one son, one wife and my involvements, things got crazy yet again.

Last weekend, rather than relaxing and recovering from the previous week, I helped Kyle and a friend build an earthquake table for a science project at school. That evening we headed off to church followed by a play that a friends sons were in.

This weekend, we decided to replace Kyle's bed which meant heading to the store, picking out the bed, loading it up... Then I headed off to worship band practice. Sunday after church, Marj had a party for her media team which I was also attending. The weekend was topped off by a meeting at church. All though this weekend, I was trying to clean up the last bit of a project at work.

The highlights for the weekend?

Our Worship Leader Dan, is getting married this month and is down in Brazil finalizing all the paperwork to bring his future wife back for that to happen (you can read about it here). As a result, we had a guest worship leader, Megan Isaacson, come to lead. Megan is a fairly new recording artist from Colorado who, as a friend says, "Has a voice like an angel". I have been privileged to be in worship bands she has sung with twice this year (and once previous to that). If you would like to hear some of Megan's music, visit her "MySpace" page.

The Church meeting was an informational meeting on what is the vision and future at Northern Hills. Many churches with a more "traditional" structure would have called it a business meeting or a members meeting. Northern Hills called it an owners meeting. I don't want to go into specifics as it is not my place to do so. I will go into my impressions however. Most of my life at any church has been filled with members and business meetings where people go out of duty, many with their own agenda of how "church should be done". This wasn't that meeting! I have rarely seen a meeting run with such a focus on God's Kingdom, not on the church, not on business but on God's Kingdom. Sure, the church was talked about, sure, business was talked about but that was not the focus! I walked out in awe!

Interesting listen

Yesterday, I was listening to Samir Selmanovic talking about "Finding God in the Other" using Pauls discussion in Athens as a text basis.

I don't agree with some of what he said but these point's stuck out.

• "Religion" is typically a "God Management System". Most of the religions around are ways of managing God. If we think about your typical pagan tribe who worships nature, the sacrifices and rituals are ways of managing their "gods".
• Christianity can become an idol. He states that anything that is not God is non-god. If something is non-god, it is a candidate for becoming an idol. While ideal Christianity is a good thing, there is really no such thing. The result is that Christianity can become a God management system as well. I believe that as a religion, Christianity has become the idol, the god of many.

There were quite a few other points he made but I am still not sure I can buy into everything he talked about.

Cabin Fever is setting in.

I'll admit that I am spoiled by typical Colorado weather.

We have had a "weather event" every week, usually around the weekend, since the week prior to Christmas. If memory serves me right, it has been snow, snow, snow/cold, snow/cold, snow, fog, snow/cold. We haven't reached our "snowiest months" of March and April!

The bad part is that the last week has been quite moderate and got my hopes up.

All I can say is that if you hear me complain about summer, slap me down!

My sock dream

As I was sorting my socks, I realized I have a dream for my sock drawer. Maybe you could even call it a vision.

That vision is to get enough of "exactly the same" pairs of socks. Why? Because sorting them is difficult and, in the wrong light, can lead to mis-matched pairs.

Let me give you an example. My tastes in socks would look just fine in a 1960 television set. Either black or white. Black goes with pretty much anything, white goes with the rest -- ok, call the fashion police if you will.

The problem I have is that I have a couple of dark blue pairs, many pairs which are not the same size but similar design, some that are the same size but not the same design. Wouldn't it be easier to have 7-10 pairs exactly alike?

It's a side effect

I woke up this morning thinking "It's a Side Effect". Before I explain that further let's talk about side effects.

As we hear those pharmaceutical advertisements, at the end, you will hear "Side effects include...." and a bunch of nasty things that happen.

Sometimes, however, the side effect becomes the desired thing. Let me put my techie hat on and talk amplification. The goal of audio amplification traditionally is to have a small input signal from say a guitar or microphone be amplified through the electronic circuits and come out sounding louder. Originally it was done using tube components which are very inefficient and are not very durable (they can be broken easily). Solid state transistors came along and solved those problems but there was a side effect.

As a signal is overdriven (too much input signal) inside a tube system, the experts say that the distortion (variation from the original signal) produces odd harmonics. As a signal is overdriven (too much input signal) inside a system, the experts say that the distortion (variation from the original signal) produces odd harmonics which, while not accurate, can be pleasing to the human ear. In a transistor system, that same overdriven signal produces even harmonics which is not so pleasing to the human ear. Much of the audio world is now using solid state with one exception. Guitar amplification is done primarily with tube so you can get that warm distortion that you hear in nearly all modern music. The side-effect has become the desired product.

Back to the discussion at hand. As someone seeking to follow Christ, we are given two commands in Matthew 22:37-40.

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."

So, why no more? It's the side effect. If we do those two things, all the moral issues we face in the world go away. No, I don't mean that the world gets more moral. What I mean is that if we obey these two things, the whole 10 commandments thing goes away in our own lives. We also see that issues around giving to and loving others goes away.

The problem that I woke up thinking about is that too often, we are looking for the side effect to become the end product. In other words, we expect those around us to act morally, obeying those 10 commandments just because they are there, not because they are following the two above. We expect people to "act Christian" even if they are not following those two commands.

Matthew 6:31-33 goes right along with the passage above...

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Let's quit looking at the side effects and considering them the end result... Seek after God first and let the rest take care of itself!

What's in a name?

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned hearing from someone with my name, first and last.

Due to things I have listened to recently, I realized that people don't think about what their name means.

In the Old Testament times, your name described your personality. In fact there are several places in the Bible where people were renamed because their name didn't represent their name. Abram was renamed Abraham, Jacob was renamed Israel.

I am in training this week with another Joel. As a result, I started remember what my name means. I found this site.

My name -- Joel -- means "YAHWEH is God"

The blind man and the elephant

Yesterday, I had a doctors appointment so drove there, then to a Park-N-Ride to take the bus to work. As I was driving, I listened to several podcasts, including several messages.

As we were praying at worship band practice, this illustration struck me. The picture on the right is based on the story of the 6 blind man and the elephant. In the story, the men are placed around the elephant and asked to describe it...

A Jain version of the story says that six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body.

The blind man who touches a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the tail-toucher claims it's like a rope; the one who feels the trunk compares it to a tree branch; the man who felt the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the belly-toucher asserts it's like a wall; and the tusk feeler insists the elephant feels like a solid pipe.

A wise man explains to them

All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said.[1]

As I listened to those podcasts yesterday, the people talking were certainly Godly men. They do not approach ministry or God the same and each sees the part of God they are focused on at that time. In Hebrew, the Bible -- Old Testament -- has the same perspective. You can see a list of all the names for (or attributes of) God here. Each one describes God from a different perspective.

A Strange email

I opened up my email yesterday to an email from Joel Frederick. Usually this means someone is spamming me but no.

Joel told me he registered joelfrederick.com and this blog popped up in a Google search.

Growing up, Joel was such a unique name. There was nobody else that I knew that had that name. Up until this point, I have been occasionally bothered (annoyed is too strong) by emails to someone with a similar last name named Joel. But to find someone with the same first and last name is quite unique.

We have exchanged emails now... I don't know that things will progress any farther but we know that we exist.

The weather underground

A friend at work introduced me to the Weather Underground. One of the features that is fun is the personal weather stations, these stations take readings and report them back to the web for us to see.

Here is information from one near me... One on the other side (west) of town looks like this.

Time for a change

I have always liked rather abstract art. That is one of the reasons I picked the image (thumbnail to the left) from 3dCrew. I figured, after over a year of the same desktop, it was time for a change. Back out to 3dCrew to get another.

They have some amazing images. Oh, one other thing I like about this site... The images are free!

Cover to Cover

As I have been talking to people, I am surprised how many people around me who identify themselves as Christians have never read through the Bible at all. By that, I mean the whole Bible. Front to back. That is a lot of reading if you do it in just one sitting. If you split it up through-out a year, however, it is pretty bite size.

This was something I was encouraged to do when I was in High School, then again a couple of years ago.

Since the start of the new year is the time for all those commitments to do things, many of which get dropped, I started out the year with a decision to read through the New Testament this year. That is where my plans changed.

While at a worship band meeting last week, Rob, one of the drummers suggested I check out the Daily Audio Bible because I can download it to my new iPod. I have now decided to listen to the Bible this year. To start out, let me just say, it took me a bit to get used to the readers reading style. I don't even notice it now!

If the possibility of seeing what is really on those pages gets your interest and you don't want to listen, check out this daily reading plan. The year is still young and it is never too late to start.

If I had a $1,000,000, I'd buy you love

That line is from a song by the Barenaked Ladies (they are neither naked or ladies -- they don't even look like ladies) called "If I Had $1,000,000".

This evening, as we rode home on the bus, I glanced over at the billboard and noticed that the Powerball Lottery was now at $151,000,000. Every time I see the sign, especially with that high a dollar figure, thoughts start to swirl in my head.

My first thought is that I realize that without a miracle, I would never win, even discounting the incredible odds, I rarely buy a ticket. I don't consider it gambling, more like voluntary taxes.

So, at $151 million, as a single winner, you would probably take home just less than half of that if you took the one time distribution, after taxes.

So what would you do with that? I was talking to a fellow on the bus about that. He told me he would buy a bunch of land and build a house. While the house was being built, he'd go on a cruise. When he got home, he'd set his friends up as employees and pay them lavishly. He would also set up trust funds for his kids who would receive that money after completing various important life events like years of college or anniversaries.

Myself? I could see taking a enough to feel secure, paying off the house and living debt free, helping out family members, etc. That would leave a whole lot of money laying around that could be put to good use helping people who need it (as opposed to people who think they need it).

So why haven't I won? Honestly, I suspect that God doesn't want me to. Not because it is a punishment but because it doesn't teach me character. At least, I hope that is the reason because the alternative (and if I were totally honest maybe the reality) is that my heart really isn't that charitable.

I do not believe that God cares if we are rich or poor but cares more about our hearts. This closely parallels the message this last weekend (Jan 7) at church. The question that was posed to us was: "Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you"!

A sad media storm

A number of strange (for Colorado anyway) occurrences over the last 3 weeks.

If you have been watching and reading anything about Colorado, you should have seen that we have gotten our 3rd major amount of snow in as many weeks. Typically, one snowfall will melt off before we get the next. Not this year however.

The second item is the Derrent Williams shooting. Not being a football fan (when I watch the Broncos the tend to loose so I quit watching), I have not been interested or know much about the victim. As I was listening to the news, however, I started to wonder... If this had been someone else other than a sports celebrity, would the police be working this hard? Would the news keep such close watch?

I do remember when my friend Joel England was killed in 1998, there seemed to be a lot a press coverage but under normal circumstances, it is a blip in the normal days news.

So, my question is, how do I redeem this post? What is the worth of a person? Well, if you are here on earth, it seems to depend on your entertainment value or your bank account. To God, however, we are worth quite a bit more. Matthew 6:27-33 says:

"... All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Fund raiser!

If you haven't already heard, my friend Dave is putting on a fund raiser for Home of Refuge.

The worship should be great! If you don't live in the area and want to donate, please do!

Quite a few people I know (and know of) have participated in short term missions trips to the Home of Refuge and are looking forward to going back -- a great endorsement!

Please consider showing up and helping out!

Breaking News

A couple of breaking (well, one is rather old) "news" items...

First, so that I could fully join the "techno-geek" crowd, my lovely wife bought me an iPod Nano for Christmas. It is, as my friend Carol Ann pointed out, is really nice to have. Thank You Marj! I have already put one of my other presents, "Concert for Bangladesh" on so I can listen on demand (Thanks Mark).

Second, my "Back to Beck" suggestion made this Music I-Quiz! (If you are unfamiliar with "Back to Beck" as I suspect most are, think of a musical "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" with Jeff Beck as the end point.

Music memories

My friend Donna's thoughts here reminded me of how much music has complemented & defined me. Some examples of that...

• Growing up, I listened to the small radio station from the local college. It was on FM and was a whole 10 watts. I remember waking up every Wednesday morning one year, hearing the Beatles sing "Good Morning" and jumping into Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the light"
• I still have a dislike for Opera because every Saturday growing up I heard the Firestone Opera on the local AM radio station.
• I still have a love of what Steeleye Span did for (to?) English folk music because my cousin gave my brother and I one of their albums for Christmas.
• I still have an attraction to Herbie Hancock music because a friend and I arranged "Chameleon" for jazz ensemble in our senior year of high school.
• I still love Procol Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" because I did an arrangement for full jazz band that same year.
• I still remember where I first heard the Eagles "Life in the Fast Lane" as I was crammed in the back of a car on the way to a college age church event next to an unwed soon-to-be mother thinking that it was so accurate (judgmental huh?).
• My appreciation for Classical music (and probably covers) was enhanced by the versions of songs I heard from such unlikely sources as Spike Jones and P.D.Q Bach.
  

There are many lasting impressions like that and they continue to occur.

Plastic Jesus

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
I'm afraid He'll have to go
His magnets ruin my radio
And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar

from Plastic Jesus

As I mentioned here, I was reading Eric Sandras' "Plastic Jesus: Exposing the Hollowness of Comfortable Christianity". The title and the chorus of the song above seem to expose the same thing. Too often, we have settled for much less than God would have us be and do.

"Plastic Jesus..." is published by NavPress.

In "Plastic Jesus...", Eric challenges us to quit being comfortable, raising lots of issues that affect me "where I live". For instance, it is quite easy for me to, once making the commitment to follow Christ, check that box off my to do list, continuing down the road to something else. This book challenges the reader to look beyond that initial commitment and determine what it really means to follow Christ.

I am putting this book back into my "to re-read" pile, actually, I am promoting this as a small group study for the group I am in.

2006 Coverville Countdown

I have been enjoying the 2006 Coverville Countdown. This is a selection of cover songs which listeners have voted on as their favorites (no, I didn't vote).

My favorites so far?

From Part 1, the Icehouse version of David Bowie's "Heroes" and The CopperBox version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" (sort of bluegrass/zydeco).

From Part 2, the Cake version of the Muppets "Mahna Mahna" (progressive rock), the Johnny Cash/Joe Strummer version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (folk), Joey Ramone's version of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" (punk) and the Yum! Yum! Orange! version of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't worry Be Happy" (ska).

From Part 3, the Opie Gone Bad version of the Rolling Stones (and Stevie Wonder) version of "Sympathy for the Devil/Living for the City", the Weird Al version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (actually called Bohemian Polka) and the Gypsy King version of the Eagles "Hotel California".

Since these are legally (as Brian does work with ASCAP) downloaded, check them out!

By the way, if you are wondering what Sympathy for the Devil is about, check out this Lyrics Undercover which explains the song. There is also a Lyrics Undercover on "Hotel California" here.

A Life Lesson

No not plural, one really.

I stayed home today while Marj & Kyle went to see a movie. While flipping through the channels, I flipped stopped at "The Jerry Springer Show". I have one life lesson I have learned from watching that show.

If Jerry Springer (or any of those types of shows) call and invite you on, DON'T GO, SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN!

There are numerous little lessons but that is the primary one and will avoid all the rest.

Christmas Eve Services

Today being Christmas Eve was a special time for many people. In fact, it is a time when many who don't normally attend church will show up.

In order to show Northern Hills to these people, we did something that, for some of us on the worship teams, was pretty revolutionary and somewhat stressful (for Dan & Dave more than us).

This morning in The River services as well as the two services held this evening, we played "Angels We Have Heard On High". Then Scott or Rob got up to speak. The topic was the "Noel's of Christmas". Noel means song. Prior to the bulk of the message, the people in each service were asked for things that Christmas that were important to them or that they were thankful for.

While Scott or Rob spoke, telling about the 5 songs or Christmas in the Bible, Dan (and in Whitewater, Dave) went to the back and wrote new a song based upon the phrases the people in that service expressed. By the time the message was completed, we had a new song. It was copied, sent up to the media team to be input for words up front and the worship team walked out on stage and performed it, asking the people in the audience to join in.

Each song from the services as well as the one the worship team put together was unique. The words, of course were different, but so were the chord progressions and the tune. The one with the neatest chorus was "Thank you for coming down here".

We then sang "Silent Night" and Dan's song "Humble King", finally we got to sing the song the audience helped to write as the final song.

As the day went on, each of the songs written to that point was performed prior to the service (we were out singing and playing 15 minutes prior to the last service).

This weekend, 5 new songs were written and sung for Christmas.

The "Saturdays with Mark & Tony"

Huh?

Well, thanks to this post, I got introduced to Mark Lowry who is now doing a Saturday video or audio show with Tony Campolo called "Saturdays with Mark & Tony". I have had a long time interest in Tony Campolo and what he is thinking as he pushes the "traditional" evangelical envelope.

The first show I listened to was sort of "mind-blowing". One of the questions they were asked was "What is your soul?". Great answer!

More Karate

By the way, I took Kyle to karate Tuesday and found he had earned his High Red. Only 3 more levels before he tries out for his black belt! It is a real pleasure to watch him teach and work with the younger students!

Christmas Early

If you don't live in Colorado or haven't heard the news lately, we're pretty snowy here. Marj got stuck in our development yesterday after coming home. After digging her out, I got stuck trying to get into the garage. We dug it out and both cars are in.

Kyle is staying overnight at a friends house so, depending on the weather, we may not see him until tomorrow.

Rocky was complaining that he needed his daily walk so I figured I should give Marj one of her Christmas presents early.... Here are a couple more pictures.


When Marj got back from her snowshoeing adventure in the development, I went out to clear snow away from the back.. Here is what I found!

The prodigal son...

I was mis-informed. Well maybe not as much mis-informed but just plain ignorant.

Back in February, I posted this. The title was "Todays Prodigal Sons".

What was I ignorant about? The meaning of the word prodigal. If you look up the word in dictionary.com, you will find out that prodigal means:

1. wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.
4. –noun- a person who spends, or has spent, his or her money or substance with wasteful extravagance; spendthrift.

Oddly enough, it doesn't really invalidate that post, it just puts it in a slightly different light.

Now, how did I find that out? I have been reading Plastic Jesus: Exposing the Hollowness of Comfortable Christianity. So far, it is an excellent book! If you'd like to read a few excerpts visit the authors blog here and here.

What I like about it so far is that it gets "into your business" but is still fun to read!

Congratulations Kyle

This is a picture of Kyle after the conclusion of yesterday's Power Up weekend at Origin Martial Arts. Kwanjangnim Scott is with Kyle.

A little over a year ago, we were extremely proud of Kyle and I posted about his green belt here. Besides the color of belt, he also is wearing a new outfit. That is the Dojo's (Karate Studio's) outfit (and can be taken away if Kyle does not fulfill the responsibilities of his position or belt). It signifies that Kyle has worked as an apprentice (the black shirt) and has put in 200 hours helping out (the black pants). Kyle started as an apprentice early last year for the right reasons. In his words, "...because I want to help other kids...". I have gotten to watch him teach over the last year and he is pretty good at it, especially when you consider his age.

I wish him luck and blessings over the next year as he pursues his brown and black belts!

Understanding your pet

We often don't realize how much our pets understand of our speech. We had an interesting revelation this morning however.

A year ago when we were going through training, we were told that dogs, especially Border Collies, could learn as many words as a 2 or 3 year old child. I suspect they learn these words just like a child does, by context.

One characteristic of the herding dogs is a desire, no, a drive, to anticipate what is going on. This comes in especially handy when you have an unruly animal who will not cooperate. With no animals to herd, Rocky has decided to anticipate what we want.

It was especially funny today. Kyle was getting ready to leave for a Karate Power Weekend and we told Rocky to say goodbye to Kyle. Rocky would start toward the stairs, then turn around and go to his kennel, even though Marj was ready to take him for a walk. We called him out, started to send him upstairs to say goodbye and he again headed for the kennel.

We figured out that he knows that the word goodbye meant that we were leaving and failing to put everything into a proper context and faced with a drive to anticipate, we had him running in circles.

Music downloading and the recording industry

Every since Napster and the popularity of the iPod, the recording industry has (rightfully) cried foul.

They have been aggressively pursuing violators without prejudice. Sometimes some rather funny stories about this such as grandparents who don't use a computer are sued.

All the time, they wronged party is the poor artists who deserve their royalties (no argument here -- it is only fair).

Of course, though out the last few years, the recording industry is just as much trying to protect it's fiefdom as evidenced by this report.

The short form?

RIAA Petitions Judges to Lower Artist Royalties

Aggressively litigious group has claimed to protect musicians in the past. Now believes musicians deserve less for "innovative" music distribution.

Prolific no, oops yes

I had my friend Scott make a comment this weekend that got me thinking...

No, I didn't post 20 items this weekend. What I did do was fix some of the labels for those items.

It hits the RSS readers really hard.

National Treasure and Family Business

If you have watched the movie National Treasure, you learn about Trinity Church and the wall at Wall Street, at least the movie version.

This weekend I received a call from my Aunt in Iowa. When I called back she told me that she had found an ancestor with ties to those New Amsterdam (now New York) land marks.

According to Roots Web, it tells about one of my ancestors, Christian Barentse.

On August 1, 1657, Christian Barentze, carpenter, was granted by Peter Stuyvesant, director general of New Netherland, a lot in New Amsterdam, by the Land Gate, (now Broadway and Wall streets) for a house and garden. He also owned several other properties in the neighborhood, some of which are said to have covered a part of the present Trinity churchyard.

Kyle made me post this

Graduation

Last night was a very special occasion for Shelby.

It was the night she got her black belt. This is after 14 years of training (she moved around a lot and started over each time).

It was also a special night for Kwanjangnim* Scott, the leader of the school, she is this school's first black belt.

We considered not going to the ceremony but were quite glad we did. Why? First of all, while we do not know her well, it gave us a chance to honor Bo-Sabumnim** Shelby as she is now titled. Second, it gave Kyle a chance to see what he would be doing if/when he graduates to black belt level. Third Kyle got to particpate (more later). Fourth, I got to hear more of the faith (Christian) of Scott than I have before.

The ceremony started with a diagram of the Black Belt testing stations and Scott asking Shelby to set up the stations silently according to the diagram. There were 8 bricks set up around a circle with the black belt stretched across the center. On each brick was a tree of candles. A fourth candle tree was set across the black belt. A student or friend was set up at each station around the side. Shelby was then given a word which described a characteristic of a black belt and asked what that word meant to her in relation to her life and in relation to karate. After she explained what it meant the person sitting at that station was asked to blow out the candles in front of them because without that characteristic, the world would be a darker place. The characteristic Kyle blew out the candle for was 'respect'.

The final characteristic was faith. That candle was not blown out. After this was done, Shelby was presented with her black belt.

* Kwanjangnim means Kwan Leader, a Kwan being a martial arts school. (see Taekwando)
** Sabumnim means teacher, the bo in front means baby or beginning.

My friend was right!

Years ago, when I was doing a lot of cycling, a friend used to tell me things like "The wind is your friend. It cools you on a hot day and teaches you to ride harder."

The same sort of thing you might hear watching Kung Fu.

Body builders know that as they lift weights, it creates small tears in the muscle that are replaced with other muscle cells.

The principle holds through a lot of things in life. A show on the Discovery Channel or one of it's affiliates that we saw called Xtreme Martial Arts tells how the process of breaking boards causes small cracks in the bone being used. The healing process of the body, like with muscles, repairs these cracks, filling them in, making them harder.

I think that many of us are so comfortable that we are afraid of challenges. In fact, we are more than willing to whine when things get tough. We forget that they do build us up.
Remember what James 1:2-4 says:

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

Done with the end...

I finally finished Great Tribulation--Past or Future?

It was sort of a long read but I did it because I have been curious about the Preterist and Futurist views of Revelation, The Great Tribulation and the end times.

Just to set the record straight, I think to adhere to either view takes faith. In this book, two "evangelicals" debate the issue.

The interesting thing about this debate was the way it was approached by the debaters. I the attitude I picked up in the book (and I could be very wrong about this) was arrogance. I felt the preterist had a much more humble spirit, at least at the start (and again, I could be quite wrong).

A word of warning about debate (not necessarily this one). The winning of a debate does not necessarily depend on the facts.

An example of this was a debate I was assigned to participate in while in High School. I was assigned the position that the world was flat. We won! Why? Because the opposing team was so convinced (and rightfully so of course) of their viewpoint, they forgot the rules of debate, that the newer (in this case, 15th Century view point) was considered true unless proven otherwise.

The format of the book is 2 chapters of explanation of the preterist view, 2 chapters explaining the futurist view then rebuttals.

Would I recommend it? If you are willing to trudge through a lot of linguistic mire, yes. If you hold one viewpoint or the other and wonder how in the world someone could think differently, yes. If, like me, you hold what a friend called a "pan" view (it will all pan out in the end), this one is probably not for you.

Underestimation

As parents we often under estimate what our kids can do and what they can accomplish.

As I was thinking about this weekend I was over whelmed with the busyness. 2 trips to Longmont, a Christmas party and a banquet.

Why so busy? Because Kyle was in Black Belt University. At 11, he now has a solid goal of becoming a black belt. He already teaches as an apprentice so is doing well. This weekend, he earned his high blue and tonight is testing for his red belt.

What actually brought on this post however is this from my friend Dave's wife Tara.

Snakes in the Pew

I was reviewing some of those items in Google Reader that I looked at and marked for later. 1 month later, I ran across this from Church Marketing Sucks. It struck way to close to home, leaving me very sad and very encouraged.

Snakes in the Pew

Thinking things out...

Today, we got a layer of snow on the ground again

I got the privilege of shoveling the layer off alone. Why is that a privilege? Because I get to think while I shovel.

Some time ago, when email was relatively new, I got a list of "imponderables". Thinks like:

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways.

I would characterize an "imponderable" as a question with no real answer.

I tend to think in "ponder-ables" lately. Here is my pondering.

Yesterday, as I drove to a park-and-ride to catch a bus, I listened to the start of "Focus on the Family". Not a show I typically would listen to. As the host was introducing his guest speaker, Josh McDowell he made mention of McDowells latest book, "The Last Christian Generation", he said the book was "scary". Through this, I may have discovered a little more what has bothered me about the traditional "Christian Right" movement (this links to an article about the Christian Coalition for instance).

I heard fear. Fear that the our children may not follow Christ. Fear that our "Christian lifestyle" may be nearing an end.

Contrasting that, we went to a Worship and the Word Movement dinner last night. There Dave said that God is doing great things today.

Why the difference?

I think many Christian leaders have substituted the things of God with the things of this world. This then dribbles down. Here is the list that I thought about this morning.

Gods things	The Worlds Things	In Substituting...
Hope	Fear	We look at the things around us and forget that God is in control
Love	Hate	We forget that those who are our enemies are people that Jesus died for also
Joy/Peace	Uneasyness	We cast of the beauty of God and portray God as unattractive to those around us.

Scott McKnight

I have been enjoying reading Scott's blog.

I have never met but have enjoyed his writing and perspective. You can read more about him here.

We're Toast

I saw this and thought it was so cool! The rolling toaster.

There is a feud afoot

Ok, I think I am mixing metaphors (Hatfields & McCoys with Sherlock Holmes) but I suspect you get the drift.

For the last 2 or 3 years, I moved from Internet Explorer to Firefox, at least for home use. One of the big reasons is the tabbed browsing, a feature I use extensively. Now Internet Explorer has released a new version (7.0) with tabbed browsing.

At about the same time, Firefox has released their latest and greatest 2.0.

As with any new code, there are bugs, incompatibilities and, at least with browsers, security holes. As a result, you may want to wait awhile before upgrading...

In spite of that, I have moved to the latest of both.

During that move with Firefox, I realized one of my favorite features is the "add-ons" which are typically user written. One of my favorites was a "link visitor" which allowed you to mark all links on the page read or unread. This makes looking for new content quite a bit easier. It wasn't compatible (at least I thought). I found that the Link Visitor website had a work around so I now have my favorite plug in back.

High (Church) Tech

One of my favorite "geek" things to do is to listen to the "Creative Synergy Podcast". The guys who do the podcast know what they are talking about.

This month, they have an interview with the operators of the "Church Marketing Sucks" website. One of the take aways from that interview is that you are always marketing, whether it is your beliefs, your church or your business.

Another thing we tend to think is that our competition is the "other churches in the area". The reality is, your competition is the movie theaters, the football game, anything that may come up to distract someone from God. Just think, the coffeehouse down the street out markets many churches.

One of the distinctions that they draw in the interview is the difference between branding and marketing and the synergy between them.

It's a great interview.

Winter Wonder Slam

Tonight I took Kyle to the Toby Mac Winter Wonder Slam.

I didn't know what to think prior to getting there. Wow, what a show. He brought in his favorite acts. Some crazy some great but quite diverse.

His show? Kyle loved it, I was impressed!

One year...

Tomorrow (Nov 27) is my first year anniversary of blogging. During that time my friends and family have tolerated my joy, frustration, amazement and just babbling.

A quick note, if you do a quick calculation, I have posted an average of once every 2 1/4 days this year.

I'm back...

In August, Marj made it clear that she didn't like something... my attitude.

The reason was that this summer flew by because I made myself too busy. Along with bass duties at church, I was also running sound and playing at another church.

Her answer (correct as it turned out) was to take a couple of months off. Although I fought it, almost immediately after making that decision known, my attitude got better, even making my final month of service tolerable.

I wasn't supposed to play again until December but the bass player that was scheduled to play was out of town. Since he had picked up a week for me, I volunteered to be the "ace in the pocket" so he was free to go. Nobody else offered so there I was.

What is it like to be back? My fingers got sore faster, my hand tired and I didn't know the music (we played only one familiar song -- things change fast). It was great!

What did I learn? It is well explained in this (.mp3) sermon from this church titled "The temptation of practical goodness". The short answer is, however, being busy doesn't mean a whole lot to God if you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing with your time.

You gotta watch what you're doing

You gotta watch what you're doing, didn't you know
You gotta watch where you're going, didn't you know
-- (chorus) Watch What You're Doing, Larry Norman

This doesn't really fit into the context of the song above but as I was thinking about the following, the chorus kept coming into my head.

I started this blog because I had thoughts running through my head and needed a way to get it out onto a media that I could see it, organize it and, even be criticized (constructively I hope) on it.

Throughout this year, I have started re-examining many things about my beliefs. No, not about my chosen beliefs about Christ but more about my beliefs within that context.

To explain a little, let's dial the way-back machine to where and how I grew up. I grew up in Iowa in a small town. The challenge for those in that small town, especially in that time, there were not a large choice in churches. My parents were members of the non-denominational church.

If you remember, I mentioned here that I related to a culture where the realization of God's grace happened a generation ago and I had been taught the taboos of the Christian faith which, both protected me but also would serve to guide me to that grace also.

The problem with this is that the taboos don't necessarily line up with what the Bible says. What does that do to the faith of those around you that you have spiritual input with.

Here is an example. At the time I was growing up, dancing was frowned upon in the church, in fact, it was considered taboo.

Then, when reading the Bible, you read 2 Samuel 6:17-23, the story about David dancing before the Ark of God (in his underwear no less). Now as a kid, you have several possible responses to that:

1. I am going to ignore this because the adults (or those around longer if you are an adult) know best. An approach I would call the turtle approach to life. Where this approach fails is that when you are approached by someone who has "better" guidelines, you follow them without looking at Scripture.
2. I am going to ignore both those around me and God because obviously they are "full of it". An approach that best fits with the rabbit view, running away from anything that may be a challenge.
3. I am going to figure out what Scripture says about this and ignore unscriptural taboos. This is the hardest stance to take because ultimately, it means standing alone until the next person like you comes along. You get judged (and possibly rejected) by both sides above. This is the approach I have chosen to take many times, especially lately.
   

Now, how does that relate to my life? My son goes to Cornerstone Christian Academy. It is quite a good school both academically and spiritually. They, like most institutions, have rules for various reason.

Like most compliant kids, Kyle takes many of the rules at face value. I see this as a danger and ask him to question everything. The High School principle, on the other hand, teaches a class that encourages the kids to do exactly that!

I really appreciate advice given by one of my college Teachers Assistants. "Be skeptical about everything, cynical about nothing."

The Sunday Service

Today's church service was a unique blessing.

Dave and the worship band lead off with "You are Good" and "Your Grace is Enough". Scott introduced our other worship leader Dan who gave the message on being alone and God never leaving you. His take-aways:

1. Listen to the Holy Spirit
2. Pray continually
3. Read the Bible

You can listen on line at http://www.northernhills.cc/sermons in a few days.

In the twighlight zone?

Yesterday evening, listening to the local radio stations was like being in the Twilight Zone.

While on a trip to the local Radio Shack, I tuned into one of the local Christian radio stations. On the show was a woman host who, from what little I heard, made Rush look liberal. From what I heard, America should be doing more against Iraq and Al Queda. The rant I heard was for a simpler term "Spouting Hate". I then turned the radio off to talk to Marj.

A few miles down the road, I flipped on one of the local AM talk radio stations, one that is usually pretty conservative but is not particularly religious in nature. The host there is talking about an Elton John statement suggesting that we ban religion banned. The news stated:

Elton John has declared that organised religion should be banned, as it turns some people into "hateful lemmings".

The host on this station was telling how Christians are told to love and how his church (I don't know which one) does that. This is a host who, from his language and demeanor on the air does not strike me as a particularly "Christian" individual.

I was struck by the irony. The station who is the "outreach" to the unchurched is spouting hate against it's enemys. The station that has no commitment to any "Christian" values is sending out a more "Christian" message.

"Here's another old saying that deserves a second look: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

-- Matt 5:39 (The Message)

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love.

-- I John 4:7-8 (The Message)

"Hope is like a lighthouse keeper's beam.
Hope - the master cobbler of our dreams.
For Hope believes in desert streams.
The mightiest of stars,
the microcosm in a jar -
vast or small they all revolve on Hope."

-- "Hope" - Klaatu

Years ago in college, I bought an album (yes, vinyl) from a band I had never heard about but had this wonderful album cover, Klaatu. The band had a sound that was similar to The Beatles but the lyrics were "Sci-fi rock".

I think often about the word "hope" as I go through my day and the quote above has stuck with me for many years as somewhat profound. I have many hopes and dreams. Where does that fit into my life? I Cor 13:13 says:

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

Sickness and health

I was reminded of that phrase because we had friends stay at our house this week for a couple of nights.

Claes and Diane, friends from our college years, called a couple of weeks ago and said they were going to be in Denver then up to Estes Park to do some work with the Weekend To Remember. They were wondering if we could get together sometime when they were in town. We were able to put them up for two nights before they headed up hill.

The problem we had was that first Kyle and then Marj came down sick so I don't think they felt that they were much fun to be with. So far, however, I haven't caught it.

It was wonderful being able to catch up with them!

Thanks Brian

Thanks to Brian Bailey at "The Blogging Church", I have one more thing to point you at today.

Read the Ed Young article he points us to in Relevant Magazine.

The quote that blew me away?

Have you ever wondered where that phrase, "a fall from grace," comes from? Galatians 5:4, "You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (NKJV).

How telling that we use that particular terminology to describe an incident (usually of the high-profile variety) of moral failure. By doing so, we tip our theological hand. While we talk a lot about God's inexhaustible grace and unconditional love, when it comes right down to it, we still believe that grace is exhaustible. We know that we owe our salvation to Christ's grace-giving work on the cross. But it doesn't take long before we trade in that boundless grace for the boundaries of the law.

Sorry about the 2 link jump but I really wanted to let the original author have his credit.

I am sad about the election

No, not necessarily the results but the money spent.

We had 2 big ballot initiatives, one an amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman, the other a referendum to allow "civil unions" between same sex couples.

I don't want to debate the merits of either. I do want to comment on this.

I heard that one organization who supported the marriage amendment and opposed the civil union law spent$1,000,000 in advertising. That is a 1 with six zeros behind it.

Let me put that in a little different perspective.

The average wage in Colorado is $43,000. That is enough to pay 23 of the the average wage earners here.

You could generously feed 5000 families for one week with that same money.

If given to World Vision, you could feed over 2000 children for one year.

This makes me quite sad.

It's all over but the crying...

The election polls have closed and our election officials have been counting the votes.

The best part? I don't have to watch any more advertisements slamming the opponents.

I'd scream but you wouldn't hear.

More thoughts on Pastor Ted

As I mentioned below, we have been having a media storm here in Colorado due to the elections (I am glad this is the end) and the actions around the pastor in Colorado Springs.

Since the weekend, he resigned from the church he lead and is undergoing personal counseling.

My observation? In spite of the fact he was a very public figure, way to many people are talking that are involved. People involved in the pastoral staff were talking in ways I would say was inappropriate when the story of Ted stepping down from NAE. I heard interviews with those involved in the overseeing process who told much more than was made public. The latest are interviews with those who are monitoring his recovery.

I don't know the terms of his recovery program so it could be legitimate but this bothers me.

A King and a Kingdom

I was listening this evening and heard this chorus. I felt it applied to this election

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

From Derek Webb's Mockingbird album.

Freeing the mind?

Thursday and Friday of this week were spent working from home. It is quite nice that Qwest allows this.

On the other hand, one of the bad things about my job is the amount of time I spend on the phone in meetings.

Something happened yesterday that was quite interesting. I was on a call and one of the people sharing his desktop so that all could see was using an application called FreeMind. FreeMind is a "mind- mapping" tool.

According to the Wikipedia mind- mapping link:

Mind maps (or similar concepts) have been used for centuries, for learning, brainstorming, memory, visual thinking, and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists and people in general. Some of the earliest examples of mind maps were developed by Porphyry of Tyros, a noted thinker of the 3rd century as he graphically visualised the concept categories of Aristotle. Ramon Llull also used these structures of the mind map form.

FreeMind is a Java application which allows you do do basic mapping. I thought I would try it out next week... maybe my mind will be freed.

Political Dramas

Over the last two days, I have seen a spark of accusation turn into a firestorm of news as we watch a larger than life pastor here in Colorado be vilified.

I have watched as political critics such as willzhead and Jim Wallis have said very little, an act consistent with what I have seen from them before. I have also watched as the traditional "religious right" have offered compassionate pleas for prayer. I now have friends that have offered their thoughts here and here.

I agree with the requests asking for prayer for the pastor and his family. These are my thoughts...

Many times, I am not content to sit back and watch. One of the characteristics of my personality is being somewhat analytical. This came out as I was thinking about the situation. What can we learn from what is occurring?

• None of us are immune from sin. We often times hide it, sugar coat it, build a facade around it but it is still there. We need to remember that outside of God's grace, we are all the same. Inside God's grace we can be clean.
• While I agree we need to pray for the people who attend church. I don't know that we should ask, however, that their pain, grief and other emotions are made easier. Scott Hamilton spoke at chapel at Kyle's school last week. The topic was struggling (or wrestling) with God. His point (second hand here) was that in the ancient Jewish culture, struggling against God was a badge of honor. Here in this country, we look at struggling with God as a bad thing. I hope that his church do struggle against God to understand why this is happening and through this, see God face to face.
• It shows us that we should never put my spiritual leaders up on a throne as they are as prone to sin as we are.
• It shows us that the politics of this world do not matter nearly as much as the politics of the Kingdom of God.

I am very impressed with the actions of the leadership church involved. Way too many churches would have "run the pastor out of town".

Just in time...

I voted (early) yesterday... And just in time too!

It seems the 11th hour efforts to discredit the issues and/or candidates are in full force! If there is any question that politics are not what God would have us concentrate on, these last few hours of this election may serve to convince us otherwise.

The things that hit me on this years elections were:

• I used the new Diebold electronic voting machines. There is quite a lot of talk swirling around the internet about vulnerabilities since it is software based. On the other hand, at least the models my county uses have a paper trail that prints out prior to your vote officially being cast.
• Kyle was off school yesterday so I was able to take him along to watch Dad do his civic duty. I remember doing something like this with my parents many years ago with the mechanical voting machines.
  

Whatever happened?

I recently heard that in the 1950's "futurists" were predicting that technology would give us a 3 day work week....

I have heard that the head of IBM in the 1940's stated that there would never need to be more than 5 computers in the world...

Your digital watch has more computer power than the computer power that put man on the moon in 1969....

The computer you are reading this on is likely to have more processing power than the computer used for the computer animation in the movie "Tron"...

The first computer I purchased in the 1980's cost me about $2000. The computer I would love to have would cost me about $2000...

Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.