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Stock Tip

March 31, 2006 By Leave a Comment

I want to buy stock in the company that invented this – “Device warns you if you’re boring or irritating“!

Think of the other markets this could be used for. People need this device! Think about the uses…

We could start by issuing one to every telemarketer out there. I remember more than a few teachers who could have benefited greatly from this technology. There are preachers I’ve heard that I’d be more than happy to give one to! The market opportunities might be endless!

Oh, yeah. Perhaps I should get one for myself while I’m at it…

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Resident Evil

March 31, 2006 By 3 Comments

Today’s Friday Free-For-All deserves a special title.

You see its Spring Time, the time of year the Old Testament says when the Kings would traditionally go to war. Here in Savannah it the time of year we have a different battle on our hands – against the sand gnats.

Sand gnats are tiny biting flies that swarm down here in the spring. They are small enough to get through all but the finest screening, hang out especially in the mornings and evenings, and are attracted to CO2 and sweat.

Which means that they own the cooler parts of the day, but just in case, the hotter you get the more likely they will be attracted to you because you are sweating more and breathing more heavily. Oh, and you can’t really get away from them because they will swarm into your car as you open the door. And you better have good screens on your house!

Did I mention they bite?

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting your scalp gnawed on from a dozen different angles at once. Especially in the morning.

I checked Wikipedia and Wikispecies and neither have entries for our special kind of gnat. The best web entry I could find is here.

I’m convinced these things are beyond nasty. They are pure evil. I think I can back that up Biblically.

They’re bad enough that they are the mascot of our minor league baseball team. I bet folks who come out of season think it is a cute choice for a mascot. But if they come down here now, they’d realize how annoying the gnats can be.

Apparently they breed in the marshes of the Low Country. I’ve lived on Amelia Island, FL (just over the border) and in Charleston, SC and I promise you the gnats were nothing like they are here.

Do you get the feeling that I don’t like gnats? Gorgeous will tell you I’m not so much of an outdoorsy kind of guy anyway. My idea of roughing it is a hotel that doesn’t have room service.

And I don’t need much of an excuse not to do yard work. Of course the time I have available to do it is in the gnat owned evening. So if you happen to drive by and see my yard is knee deep, please be patient. I have to combat Evil before I can even get to the grass.

People here talk about moving above the “gnat line” like it is some mystical far off place. I’m not sure where the line actually is on the map, somewhere between here and Atlanta, for sure. Near Macon, perhaps?

I don’t think the kings of the Old Testament were really so keen on fighting. Maybe they were just trying to get away from the gnats!

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The Peacemakers – Part 3

March 30, 2006 By 5 Comments
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

I’ve taken on a study of the above verse to determine what Jesus really meant. I decided to start by focusing on the Biblical term “peace” to get a firm understanding of how Jesus would have understood that word.

Reading through the hundreds of verses that refer to peace in the Bible, it seems to me that they can be roughly divided into two general categories, Social and Spiritual.

On the Social side of the ledger we are talking about peace between people. It involves a reduction of, or better yet, a complete absence of interpersonal conflict. It is a horizontal thing, man to man.

Some examples of verses that deal with the Social side of peace include:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:7)

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

People who have focused intensely on addressing the Social side fight to correct injustice, and often do so in particularly non-violent ways. Two examples of great men who were champions of non-violent confrontation of this sort would be Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Their willingness to stand up to governments without violence ultimately helped bring about peace in a social sense to millions of people. People who take a stand here and understand this facet of peace should be honored and can obviously accomplish great good by touching many lives in a positive way. But that’s not all there is.

Unfortunately I’m out of time for this morning. I’ll address the Spiritual side another time.

Enjoy!

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Hmmm…

March 29, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Chris Surratt has some freaky people checking out his blog.

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A Bad Thing

March 29, 2006 By 2 Comments

Yesterday I did a bad thing. Not bad as in evil, certainly. More like bad as in perhaps a little unwise. You see a good friend of mine started working in a bike shop down in Jacksonville recently. I figured that since I was down there for a job anyway, why not stop in and catch up. Seems like a reasonable plan, doesn’t it?

Now I like motorcycles. I’ve owned a few in my day. My two favorites were an early model one of these and the older one of these that I had back in my Navy days. I am definitely more of a cruiser guy than a sport bike guy. I always figured my dream bike would be something along these lines. But I never really let myself look at them because purchasing one would create a cash flow issue in our household. I am not willing to finance that much of a toy. Besides Gorgeous and I have an agreement. I’m not getting a bike until we can afford to get two because she’s even had a bike back in her day and she has no interest in riding on the back of one. (Hers was more like this one she says.)

Now here’s the link for my buddy’s bike shop:

I figured I was safe going in there because, along with not being much into sport bikes, choppers don’t do much for me either.

I may have miscalculated somewhat.

I didn’t realize that a couple of the models were much more cruiser-like than chopper-ish. And boy were they just enough to bring back those memories of being out on the open road. And apparently these guys down at Big Bike Motorcycles are perfectly able to modify nearly anything about a particular bike to make it into exactly the dream machine you envision. And they are eager to do it too.

The whole experience with these guys was very impressive. And more than a little tempting.

Fortunately I remembered that the cost of buying a motorcycle yesterday would have been far more than a monthly payment that we can’t afford right now. Gorgeous would not have been, shall we say, happy if I had done something that foolish. And she would be totally right to feel that way about it. The knowledge of the potential conflict I would have brought on my self for doing something as silly as buying a motorcycle on impulse kept me in check. That knowledge was good accountability.

But did I mention it was tempting?

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Do Not Be Alarmed

March 28, 2006 By 1 Comment

I’m on the road quite a bit with my job (hence the company car). There is a good chance one of you might see me on the road if you are out and about along the I-95 corridor here in the Southeast. For example I’m heading down to Jacksonville for a job today. Because there are such good odds that you might see me out there in your journeys at some point I wanted to give you a caution:

Do Not Be Alarmed.

If you happen upon me, say, waiting at an intersection for the light to change color, and you look over to see that I appear to be convulsing uncontrollably, shaking my head, flailing my arms around the car and screaming, maybe even to the point of tiny bit of spittle spraying about – Do Not Be Alarmed. I am neither demon possessed nor suffering from a medical condition. What is going on in my car is a little ritual I refer to as “singing.” Everything is really OK in the lane next to you. Just consider yourself blessed that my windows are rolled up.

If you see me approaching and you happen to notice that I am talking on my cell phone while eating a biscuit, drinking a cup of hot coffee, changing the CD in the dash as I merge into rush hour traffic from the 25 MPH entry ramp without taking my cruise control off of 65 – Do Not Be Alarmed. I know you are there and I promise that I will miss your car by at least 12” as I slide past you to merge directly into the left lane. You see I have undergone extensive training years ago by the US Navy during flight school to hone my skills at multitasking. Basically you could say I’m a trained professional. (Of course this skill doesn’t seem to apply to listening. I can only hear one thing at a time. Sorry Gorgeous. You are either going to have to turn that good song down or wait until it is over if you want me to hear what you are saying.)

If you happen to look in your rearview mirror and notice that you can’t see the hood of my car below your back window because I appear to be attempting to land my car inside your trunk – Do Not Be Alarmed. My eyes are fixated alternately on your brake lights an the traffic up ahead that I can see through your windshield while my brain is computing an improbably complex series of equations that involve such diverse and comprehensive variables as your vehicle’s velocity and acceleration, my foot position in relation to my accelerator/brake pedals, the current road surface moisture content, the proximity to the nearest rest stop, and the quantity of coffee remaining in my travel mug. Keep in mind that you could ease your own frustration significantly by simply sliding over into the right hand lane to let me pass. I assure you I’d get completely by you before you were even firmly established in the right lane. Besides, I’ve only ever rear-ended one person on I-95 and I wasn’t tailgating him.

That about sums it up for this morning. I’ve got to hit the road!

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What is a Christian?

March 27, 2006 By 2 Comments

I came across this question this afternoon, “In your own words, what is a Christian?”

Below is how I answered the question. What do you think?

I see a Christian as a follower of Jesus Christ. He is a person who has given up trying to “get right” with God, realizing that no matter what he does it will never be enough to reach the perfect standard that a holy and perfect God requires. Instead the Christian has brokenly accepted Jesus’ payment for all his wrongs and has submitted his will to the authority of Christ.

As a result the Christian experiences new life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is transforming him into the image of Christ. The natural result of this transformation is that the Christian grows in spiritual maturity, has an ever increasing desire to serve people, and to influence the world around him for the cause of Christ.

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The Peacemakers – Part 2

March 27, 2006 By 5 Comments
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

If I’m going to figure out what Jesus meant by the term peacemaker (assuming he intended “one who makes peace”), then I guess the place to start here is by trying to figure out what Jesus meant by the term which we translate “peace” in English.

My Scribner-Bantam English Dictionary defines peace this way, “1. freedom from or cessation of war; 2. friendly international relations; 3. any state of calm or tranquility; 4. public order”

Now we’ve got four slightly nuanced understandings for the same word. Did Jesus mean one of these? If so, which one? If not, what did he mean?

I mean did Jesus mean to say, “Blessed are those who make friendly international relations, for they will be called sons of God.”?

That seems a little silly and wide of the mark to me.

Because of the potential to misunderstand the actual intent behind the words, I’m not willing to just assume Jesus meant, “Blessed are those who make freedom from or cessation of war, for they will be called the sons of God” either.

If I’m going to get anywhere, I’ve got to go to the source. What is the Biblical understanding of the word peace? Throughout the Bible does the term peace simply refer to an absence of war, or does it mean something different?

And here’s where it may get interesting. A word search in my Bible software shows that the NIV translation of the Bible uses the word peace 250 times. The King James Version uses the word 429 times.

This is obviously going to take me some time. And then once I finally get an accurate understanding of the Biblical concept of peace, I’ve got another question to answer. Who actually are the sons of God? Because it is in that half of the statement that we see the blessing part of Jesus’ statement (i.e. the good stuff).

But right now I’ve got to go to work.

Enjoy!

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Cats in the Dog House

March 26, 2006 By 8 Comments

The harmony in the Cree household is slightly upset at the moment. Gorgeous is not happy. One of the boys is in big trouble. I think the only thing keeping one of them from some serious unpleasantness is that we have no idea who is responsible.

Low Rider is in trouble enough already. Because of him, the boys are banished to a back bedroom nearly every night. He had sort of a fit when we set the clocks back to standard time last fall. Now every morning at 0330 he decides that its time to get up. And he’s smart about it. He makes quick passes across the bed to make sure everyone’s awake. But he takes special care to run across our legs. You see he has precisely calculated the time-to-reach-radius of the average undercover groggy adult on our end of the block and he never crosses that boundary. Ever.

Then its time for a fun game of chase the black cat in the dark when you are half asleep without your contacts in. That game is sooo much fun that we usually resort to bribing him (and Fat Boy too while we’re at it) with food to get him locked in the back bedroom, which of course only serves to reinforce Low Rider’s annoying behavior. The trouble is Low Rider is smart.

Fat Boy on the other hand is, well, not so bright. Whenever he got up before the alarm, I always found him within arm’s reach and could scruff him and drag him off to a penalty box somewhere. He never quite figured out that he’s much faster than I am and that if he stayed out of reach I’d probably never catch him. I got him trained to never bother us until the alarm went off. And it was a good system.

Low Rider played by that system as well up until we changed the clocks last fall, which brings us back to our current troubles.

Someone has taken to peeing right outside the litter box. Fortunately Gorgeous keeps a little rubber backed throw rug right there to catch the bulk of the litter the boys drag out of the pan, so it hasn’t soaked into the carpeting yet. And it’s only happened three times so far. Even so, “Houston, we have a problem,” if you know what I mean.

I think I’ve pretty much convinced Gorgeous that it isn’t me at this point. I mean I’m a guy. I can see how the boys might miss from time to time. Aiming can be a challenge at times even with thumbs. But I’m keeping my peace on this one because three times in a row is beginning to look less like an accident. Besides, I’m not ready to take that kind of heat.

Anyway, if Gorgeous ever figures out which is the responsible party, things could get pretty ugly for him. She’s got no patience for bad aim.

Here’s a shot of the boys. It might help you pray for them.

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The Peacemakers – Part 1

March 25, 2006 By 6 Comments
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
– Matthew 5:9 (NIV)

The whole discussion about the Christian Peacemakers Teams has got me thinking about this verse from the Sermon on the Mount. I don’t really agree with how the CPT chooses to do what they do. And I’m not sure I even agree with most of their basic premises, although I can’t bring myself to point my finger at them and say, “You are wrong.”

Perhaps I’m wrong.

I decided I need to spend some time looking at my whole understanding of that verse above and what Jesus really meant when he said it.

Now I’m no theologian. I’m not even especially smart. But I do know how to read. And I think I can ask some decent questions.

Who was Jesus referring to when he spoke this particular beatitude?
What do peacemakers look like? What do they do?
What does it mean to be called a son of God?

The good news is we have a whole ton of resources available. Our church is in the middle of a series on the Be-Attitudes. So I am obviously looking forward to the week we are taught about the peacemakers.

John Piper is one of my favorite current heavy theological thinkers. He has an article on the subject, appropriately titled Blessed Are the Peacemakers, which I think I will read a few more times before I get started.

That should give me enough to get started on in amongst all the other life obligations I have…

Filed Under: Jesus, Life, Peace Tagged With: , , , ,
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