Beneath The Dirty Hood

That's her

Laying in bed I knew I wasn't getting to sleep with the headache.  Plus it was hot but I was too tired to get up and adjust the ac.  So I started praying for her and thinking about her and having those half-awake thoughts.  Some people’s influence is like God the Father and they make a big impression and everything seems (only seems) to go right for them and everybody knows who they are.  Maybe like Billy Graham.  Some are like Jesus and there's struggle and suffering, and a small dedicated group of serious followers.  Not much in the world's eyes, but a big effect on a few.  Like my friend Steve.  Others are like the Holy Spirit.  You don't hardly realize they're there.  Almost invisible.  Very few notice them, and if you do, they get uncomfortable and want to get away.  But when you spend time with them you end up thinking about Jesus.  And you don’t know why. 

To get her reaction, I had gone over a talk I was going to give at a church.  I’d spent several hours praying and preparing but it didn’t seem to have any power.  Sometimes that happens and there’s no power til the time comes.  She said it’s not coming together.  I thought, I knew it and now I’m dead ‘cause there’s 2 hours to the thing.  Very gently, she said, you’ll do great.  Just tell the ladies what you tell me.  Tell them they can’t try to get from their husbands what only Jesus can give them.  Tell them…  She went on for only about a minute.  I started crying cuz I knew it was right.  When she stopped talking she didn’t repeat anything or say another word or hug me.  She got up from the table and walked over to the sofa and turned on the tv, leaving me with a wet face.  And thinking about Jesus.  Again.

Won't go away

Six months ago she tore a corner off my pad in church and wrote this when she saw me slouched over looking defeated.

I still have it.

We moved since then and I can’t find my little Bible or my home improvement notebook but this scrap of paper ended up in a pile of stuff back on my desk.

“A smart, morally consistent show"

Why Melinda Penner likes 24:

because it affirms objective moral values, good and evil are at odds, and, though there are difficult moral decisions and mistakes might be made, there is a right and a wrong answer.

Decoding the decoder

The Da Vinci Code says traditional Christianity is hiding something.  Dallas Seminary Theologians say so's The Da Vinci Code.  They say the book’s important…

not because...issues it raises has substance, but because where the issues it raises is coming from. It’s coming from strands of scholarships in the universities and some religion department around the country. It’s being portrayed as if it’s a top drawer scholarship. Culture often tends to want to draw its attitudes about things from what it perceives to be the top drawer scholarships.

Unfortunately, it’s not the best in ability in school, it’s very misleading. Most people are completely unaware that this under layer to the book even exists. Even though it’s starting to surface now in very obvious places.

Thermometers & gas knobs

Many gas grills have a thermometer in the hood to tell the temperature inside the grill.  That’s helpful, but if you want to actually change the temperature you can’t use the thermometer.  You have to use the gas knob.

There’s a wonderful writing that’s inspired me over the years.  It’s called “Dying To Self” and each stanza describes a godly response to a specific circumstance and ends with—that is dying to self.  It’s very challenging.  When I read it, I think I sure can’t do THAT.  I know it’s the temperature I want, but just knowing doesn’t make me able to change it.  With all humility and respect for the unknown author (I’ve never seen it attributed) I’ve modified it to account for the gas knob.  This helps me to picture what I want and also reminds me of my only hope for getting there.  (My changes are the bold which in the original say that is dying to self).

DYING TO SELF

When you are forgotten or neglected or purposely set at naught, and you sting and hurt with the insult of the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ--that is when you know that you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient loving silence--then you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, or any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus endured it--you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any attitude, any interruption by the will of God--you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown--you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When you see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances--you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit.

 

When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart--you are remaining in Him and He is bearing His fruit. 

Lunch with Mykadink at Carolina Cafe

The table in the booth was wide, which I like, and which it has to be so your words don’t jump right out of your mouth and pop the other person in the face.  They have to have a moment to float, gathering gentleness and weight as they go. 

She said she didn’t really have any close friends.  She said she seemed to attract people who were “needy.”  It was good to help people, but they weren’t usually the ones you picked to get real close to.  And she would meet the new ladies who didn’t know anyone and help them get settled.  But, again, there wasn’t that girl-to-girl connection.

Her husband had lots of friends.  Some of them went back to high school and college days.  They might not be constantly in touch, but they hooked up once or twice (or more) a year and picked up right where they left off.  She watched how he did it when he made friends.  They’d move to a new area and he’d lay back for 6 months or a year and just observe.  Then he’d actually pursue the guys he’d “chosen,” and they would end up in a men’s group or a Bible study, or they’d just hang out.  She told him she noticed how he did it, and he said, yeah, doesn’t everybody—isn’t that the way it’s done?

So she asked him to pick some friends for her.  He immediately rattled off the names of 3–4 women.  They were mostly the wives of his men friends.  During his “research” he had also noticed the women.  But they’re the most spiritual women in the church and they already have tons of friends—they don’t need me.  He said, they’ll love you, you’ll get along great.

She wasn’t about to go after them.  That just isn’t me.  But she promised if any of them ever invited her to do something, she wouldn’t hesitate.  They did.  She didn’t.  We’re going on a cruise, wanna go?  She was scared, what if they don’t like me?  I don’t really know them.  Every usual reason to give the usual I’m busy.  By faith, it was yes.  Then more invitations, more yesses. 

So how has it worked out?  They love me!  We get along great!  

We walked across the parking lot to Barnes & Noble.  She bought this, I bought this.

The biggest riddle of 'em all

So how can a judge punish the guilty and everything they did wrong and be completely just, and at the same time show mercy, letting the guilty off?  Hmmmmmmmm?

If he lets the guilty go, he’s an unjust judge.  If he compromises and lowers the standard, then he’s compromising the law.  If everyone is guilty and has to be punished, he hasn’t shown mercy and compassion.  The Riddler’s gotcha!

Maybe the answer's in that book he’s holding…

(Frank Gorshin died—he played The Riddler on the Batman TV show a long time ago.  Via Worldmagblog)

No, not Cher's daughter

Lauren F. Winner thinks about the difference between abstinence and chastity:

With all aspects of ascetic living, one does not avoid or refrain from something for the sake of rejecting it, but for the sake of something else. In this case, one refrains from sex with someone other than one's spouse for the sake of union with Christ's body. That union is the fruit of chastity.

Who pays?

The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked—Proverbs 15:8

Well, that feels good, eh?  I used to think “wicked’ meant mean, nasty, ugly, but now I think it means guilty criminal offender.  Basically, someone who is on the wrong side of God.  It’s like, when you’re on the wrong side, there ain’t nothin’ you can do.

So I can’t say, hey, I read the Bible, or I go to church or I pray or I really try to be a good person, and expect that to put me on the right side.  He detests that I would think that was the way to cross over. 

I guess if I sacrificed and spent a million dollars to adopt someone and they said no, I won’t accept that, but I will PAY you $5 to adopt me, I’d be insulted and detest their measly 5 bucks, too.

Places nobody's ever been in

It all started with a dad saying, “I bet there’re still Ivorybills in there.”

When I got news this week that scientists in Arkansas had seen an ivory-billed woodpecker thought to be extinct, a rush of memories came back, and they had little to do with the woodpecker…