Family/Friend Friday --- The Toolbox

When I was in Junior High, I had to take metal shop. We had a few different choices of what we could make, and I decided I would make a tool box for my dad. So throughout the semester I made a toolbox, painted it blue, and presented it to my dad. My dad filled it with some tools, and it sat on the shelf in his tool room for years.

Several years later when it was time for me to go off to college, my dad wanted to put together a toolbox that I could take with me. So he empty out the blue toolbox I had made him and started filling it up with all the essential tools I may need. When he was finished, he handed me the toolbox and said, "Here you go...Johnny (my brother) made this toolbox for me years ago. It's not very good, but it should hold up". I responded, "Johnny didn't make that for you, I did!"

After a moment of silent thinking he replied, "Oh, then I meant it was the greatest toolbox I'd ever seen".

Well, I think the first statement (his honest opinion hahaha) was more accurate...the thing fell apart just a few weeks after I went to school.

Theological Thursday --- Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his people,

the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

What's Up Wednesday --- November 26th

1) We will be leaving tonight to travel to DuBois for Thanksgiving. We look forward to sharing Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, dad, grandma, aunt Mary Lou, Dana, Jim, and the kids.
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2) You can still check my Blog tomorrow and Friday. They have been created already and are scheduled to post at 8:00 on that day.
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3) We will be returning to Ashland Saturday night so we can do the Sunday Service at the detention home.
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4) The FOCUS retreat went very well (see yesterday's video)...we had a great time catching up with new friends, teaching what God put on my heart, and getting some quiet time to connect with God.
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5) Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!

Time Warp Tuesday --- FOCUS Retreat 2008

Here is a video from this past weekend...

Magical Monday --- A New Trick

Well, I was hoping to post a video of "The Long Distance Trick" my uncle and I came up with last week, but we haven't had a chance to film it in action yet (hopefully sometime this week so I can post it next week!). So instead, I played around with a new trick. When I was younger, I used to challenge myself to learn 1 new trick per week (many of them I would invent using my imagination). When I got into high school, I read a book called, "The Professional Amature" which probably had the most influence on my magical career than any other book. It premise is that most magicians know and can do 1,000 different tricks at an average skill level. The mark of a professional is they focus on 20-30 tricks that they can do to perfection. That started me down a path of perfecting my favorite handful of tricks to the point I could do it better than the vast majority of other magicians (my magic club in Pittsburgh was my standard --- and when I won Magician of the Year there twice, I knew I was on the right path!) and it has served me very well! It did however de-motivate me from learning new things (unless they were really good!). So instead of learning something once a week, its been more like once a year. I missed those old days of learning new stuff (just for fun), so here is something new I played around with. It won't make my act, but it was fun!

Family/Friend Friday --- The Plants

As you read this, I am on my way to our retreat in Pennsylvania. It is a great time to connect with God and old friends. We all look forward to this every year (and start planning for the next year before the current year is even over!). My first retreat was in 1999, and I've only missed one (while I had to do a show out of state). Jen and I also met for the first time here in 2001.

CONFESSION TIME:

As I was thinking back over the different retreats, there was a little "practical joke" that stuck out that happened back in 2000. The pastor that was leading the retreat brought a pot with a dead plant in it (as a representation of what sin can do to us). He talked about it all day Saturday and said we would look on Sunday morning at how God can transform us.

Well, that night after the pastor went to bed, we (ok, mostly me) took the dead plant and pulled it out...dirt and all, and replaced it with a very live and vibrant plant that was in the castle (the castle is full of them!). I assumed the pastor would know that it was a joke (as I am sure it wasn't even the same type of plant), but first thing Sunday morning, he went on and on and on and on about the transformation that had happened in that little plant overnight (he really thought it was the same plant!). About 1/2 the group knew what happened, but he was so thrilled, nobody had the heart to tell him.

So there you have it. The 2000 "Miracle of Majesty" was really the "Mischief of a Magician". I'd like to blame my dad for this one...he taught me and would have done the same thing.

Theological Thursday --- Let There Be...(Part 2)

Last Thursday we looked at the method God chose to create the world...Speaking! He could have done it any way He desired, but I believe God chose this method to show the power of words. Consider, with words alone you can make somebody laugh, cry, angry, happy, upset, excited, etc, etc, etc. You can also with words alone curse God, praise God, use His name in vein, or worship Him. You can also lie, gossip, slander or honor, encourage, and build up. Our words have power! And what an awesome illustration of that power in the Creation Story! The Biblical writer James (Jesus' brother) captures the power of our words in chapter 3:

By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue—it's never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

One word of caution...although our words have power, they must also be followed by our actions. If we profess to be a follower of Christ, our character should be moving in a direction that reflects Him more and more as we mature in our faith. And as powerful as our words are, our actions can many times override them. I leave you with 2 quotes showing the necessity of actions to accompany our words. The first is from Saint Francis and the second one is a little saying from Ralph Emmerson I see sitting on Jill's desk everyday:

Preach the Gospel at all times and, only if necessary, use words.

Your actions speak so loudly, I can't hear a word you are saying!

What's Up Wednesday --- November 19th

This week is our FOCUS retreat. FOCUS is the Bible study we used to attend in Pittsburgh (where Jen and I met). The group no longer meets on a weekly basis, but we still have our yearly retreat/reunion at Christ's Castle (pictured above) in Franklin, PA. This will be my 4th year in a row leading the retreat, so they either really like my teaching or really like that I am cheap! In any case, this year I am teaching on the Foundations of an Abundant Christian Life based on John 10:10. In a study of how Christians change, the formula that has been shown to be most effective is:

Retreat + Revelation + Relationships = Transformation

So we set up the weekend to allow for a lot of time for recreation (all of Saturday afternoon) and relaxation (Retreat) and each 2-hour session will involve 45 minutes of me teaching followed by 30 minutes of guided individual time for a spiritual exercise (Revelation) and ending with 45 minutes of small-group process time (Relationships). I understand that my only job is to position people to be changed by God (as He ultimately does the transformation, not me)...so above praying for me, pray that God would work in the lives of everyone there. You can pray for Jen as well since she is one of several small-group leaders this weekend.

Time Warp Tuesday --- Smoking Ladies

95% of people addicted to smoking had their first cigarette before the age of 18.

I remember hearing this statistic from the Surgeon General as I was studying to be a health teacher in college. Then I thought, "What about the other 5%"? And I came to the conclusion that the other 5% were the little old ladies that played BINGO in my hometown on Wednesday nights.

Like most Catholic Churches, my church had a weekly BINGO game in which the vast majority of the crowd was little old ladies and they all smoked (seemed to be a requirement!). As a kid I went with my mom a few times to play. It was always like walking into an ashtray and these women were very serious about their BINGO!

One thing that always annoyed me when we went is my mom reminding me of the "Postage Stamp". It is a way to get BINGO that is different than the normal vertical, horizontal, or diagonal ways. Basically it is when you cover any of the 4 corners on your card (making it look like a postage stamp I guess).

So one night we go to play BINGO and I was surprised that my mom didn't remind me about the postage stamp. So midway through one of the games, as a joke, I covered one of the corners of my card (making a postage stamp) and said, "Hey mom, too bad this doesn't count as a BINGO". She glances over at my card, see the fake postage stamp I made, and thinking it was real she yells at the top of her lungs, "BINGO!!!"

Well, everyone starts clearing off their cards, making the "I'm so upset it wasn't me" sighs all the while I am trying to tell my mom it was just a joke and I didn't mean for her to yell "BINGO". One of the workers came over to check my card, realized it wasn't a BINGO and announced that everyone should just keep playing. Well of course many of them had already cleaned off all their cards for that game and we got the evil eye from every old lady in the room with the look of, "You idiot, even the nursing home people can play this game correctly".

So that brings me to another conclusion...what makes this final 5% of the population start smoking? It is people like me, ruining their precious BINGO game.

Magical Monday --- A Long Distance Trick

My uncle Mikey (who taught me my first magic tricks) and I used to do shows together. We would volunteer for youth groups, nursing homes, etc...but it has been many years since we've worked together. As I was thinking about that, I figured with the way technology is today that we could still do magic together...long distance!

Magic is only limited by your imagination, so I came up with an idea that I thought might work and gave him a call. He liked the idea and we worked out some details and we decided to give it a shot yesterday. So I did the Sunday Service as usual at the County Detention Home. As always, I show the teens a magic trick before I leave. So here is how the trick went:

I pulled out a deck of cards and shuffled them. One of the teens randomly picked a card, and we placed it faced down on the table (I didn't look at it, nor did he, or anyone else in the room). I pulled out my cell phone and gave Mikey a call. I told him someone just picked a card, the card was face down on the table, nobody (including me) had looked at it yet, and before we looked, I asked him to try and guess what it was.

In the room with us is always 2 guards...there is also one watching us on camera from down the hall. At this point in the trick, the guard watching on video came sprinting down the hall as they had to "see this in person". After a few jokes and playing around with the kids over the phone (that's Mikey!) he named a card. We flipped it over, and believe it or not, it was the card Mikey predicted! The teens (and the guards) all went nuts...they couldn't believe it!

It was great to work with my uncle again! We decided to keep this trick going (and who knows, maybe get it published in a magic book)...so anyone who wants to see it, hand me a deck of cards, and as long as Mikey's home to take our call, he'll do it. I'll try to do it again some day this week for our neighbors, and have Jen videotape our new "Long Distance Magic Trick" and post the video next week.

Family/Friend Friday --- Janet's Birthday

Today is the birthday of Jen's mom (Janet). I couldn't ask for a better Mother-in-law! She is always very kind and giving, especially when she lets me and Jerry (Jen's dad) go golfing every time we are together and the weather is nice!
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Among the many special talents Janet has are cooking, drawing, painting, sewing, etc, etc, etc. One of the most popular items we own is a quilt she made us for our wedding that has our baby pictures, college logos, etc. Over the past week or so, I have been mentioning something in my office that gets the most attention by visitors. It is a replica of the building I work in which Janet made for me for Christmas a few years ago. It it perfectly done! People always ask where it came from and can't believe what a great job she did! The director for my building asked if there was any way he could order 100 of them to give to donors, special guests, etc (and I am sure he wanted to keep one for himself too!). Now that she is retired, she may want to consider?!? Below are some pictures of the building I work in as well as the replica Janet made. Can you tell which of the 3 are real and which are Janet's...

So Happy Birthday Janet! Jen and I put our dance lessons we took a few years ago to good use and did the "Birthday Dance" from the era you are used to. Take a look below...

Janet's Birthday Dance

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Theological Thursday --- Let There Be... (Part 1)

The creation story in Gensis 1 is an amazing example of God's order in this Universe. Consider the "6-day creation" and how days 4-6 correspond perfectly with days 1-3.

Day/Creation

(1) Light ---------------> (4) Sun, Moon, Stars

(2) Water and Sky ---> (5) Fish and Birds

(3) Land ---------------> (6) Animals and Man

Some theologians believe that the sole purpose of Genesis 1 is to show both God's power and His order over chaos (it is to be taken completely figuratively). Prior to God giving Moses the Creation account, the belief back in that day was the Egyptian Creation Myth called Enuma Elish. It has several "gods" fighting and ultimately 1 being sliced into two pieces that divided and created the heavens and the earth. It's very chaotic and God's truth (as contained in the Biblical Creation Account) shows order, power, and control.

Other theologians believe in a literal 6-day creation (the 7th day was for rest). It took exactly six, 24-hour days for the Earth to come into existence. Fossils, carbon dating, etc can be attributed for by either God creating the Earth slightly aged (which they say would make sense as the Garden of Eden wouldn't have started out with nothing but seeds), or the impact of Noah's flood which would have caused extreme damage and ageing to the Earth.

Some theologians also believe that each day of creation does not represent 24 hours (as the sun and stars weren't even created until day 4 they will argue), but rather each day represents thousands of years. As Moses says in his only Psalm, "For a thousand years in your sight is like a day" (90:4).

I'll let people way smarter than I am determine which one of these are true, and although I have a belief on which one it is, that is not the point of today's post. All this was to lead into the one thing we can know about how God created the world (what method He used). As God, He could have waved a magic wand, spit, breathed, or even just thought the world into existence. But let's look at how he decided to do it...

And God said (וַיֹּאמֶר --- my Hebrew coming in handy!), "Let there be"...

Out of all the ways God could have created the world, He chose to create it by speaking! Why is that important? Well, come back next week and we'll take a closer look...

What's Up Wednesday --- November 12th

1) This week is Janet's birthday (Jen's Mom)...look for a post about her on Family/Friend Friday!
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2) It's been a hard week at work...with a loss in endowment (because of the stock market), lower enrollment, lower retention, overspending, etc --- 52 people lost their jobs here yesterday and everyone else had to take a pay cut ranging from 3% to 6%.
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3) We are getting very excited for next weekend's FOCUS retreat. I will be teaching 4 sessions that are about 2 hours each. I am finished with 2 of the 4 (the hard ones!), and the others should fall into place this weekend. This retreat is always a highlight of the year as it is time away with God as well as old friends.
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4) This weekend will be busy. I am going to an eschatology (end times) seminar on Saturday as well as a party for our class at church. We call it "Thanksmas" as we combine Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'll have a Thanksgiving meal and then open some gag gifts together. On Sunday, I'll be going to the detention home as usual. Last week we had a great discussion!

Time Warp Tuesday --- The Shot Heard Round Pittsburgh

There is a plaque on my wall in my office that was given to me by my aunt Rose Marie that reminds me that something special happened on November 11th, 1999...exactly 9 years ago (but that still isn't the most popular item in my office...more about that later this week)! The city of Pittsburgh (where I was living) had unusually warm weather that day (very similar to the warm weather we had last week)...so some friends and I decided to hit the local golf course. To appreciate the story and the moment, you have to know a little bit about the people who went that day:

Steve --- My roommate at the time. We had just moved in together a few months before and he loved my little putting machine (although he never golfed on a real course before). So this was his first day to ever play. It was very evident on the first hole when someone asked him to mark his ball (to put something flat down like a coin so it doesn't interfere with someone else's putt) and when he was told it meant to pick up his ball and put something in its place, he picked up his ball and set down his car keys. Steve could always hit his 5-wood perfectly straight, 120 yards. Unfortunately it takes him 5-6 shots to get to his "sweet spot" of 120 yards away.

Eric "Dice" Miller --- Our next door neighbor from "Bawston". We loved his signature line of, "You've gawt to golf early so your ball can break the moornin dew". We called him "Dice" in comparison to Andrew Dice Clay, the comedian who loves to let the 4-letter swear words fly...and Eric had the Boston 4-letter words down pretty well! It was funny the day we talked him into going to church with us...he threw on his Budweiser T-shirt and sat in the very front row. I also remember on a slow day of golf when he drove his ball on a par 3 when the group ahead of us was still on the green...Eric's ball bounced right through the guy's legs (he had his back to us) which started a swearing and shouting match that almost resulted in a fight. Don't get me wrong though, Eric was a GREAT guy and we always enjoyed spending time with him --- although I will never tell the story of the time we were on the radio together!

Zolton --- I know very little about Zolton other than he worked with Steve. He was from another country, but I don't remember where??? He had a very strong accent and I remember eating with him at the Lube and he got the suicide wings. With a beet red face and sweat pouring down, he kept saying, "Deez are goowd, Deez are goowd!". From what I understand, when Steve talks to Zolton, he still mentions what happened 9 years ago...

We were walking around the course having a good time. For how nice the weather was, it wasn't very crowded (although there were some people behind us). We walked up to a par-4 which was only 259 yards (most par 4's range from 280-400 yards). So I knew if I could really get ahold of my ball, I could get it on the green.

When my turn came, I gave it a good smack, and knew that it would make the green. It bounced up on and started curving toward the hole. I figured there is no way to get a hole-in-one on a par 4 as it is next to impossible to get one on a par 3. But much to my amazement (and obviously a ton of luck), the ball dropped into the hole! That set off the following events:

Me --- I ran a "victory lap" to nowhere. I don't really remember much other than I was excited and running in circles and felt like the guy in Chariots of Fire.

Eric --- "Holy @#%! I don't &$^#*% believe the *#&%)$_# ball just went into the &#$*@! hole!!!

Zolton --- "Holwee Cowl" "Holwee Cowl" "Holwee Cowl"

And to put a damper on the party...

Steve --- "I don't get it...is that something that doesn't happen very often?"

Magical Monday --- A Bag of Crap

A couple months ago, I became a fan of Woot, a website that sells electronics at very discounted prices (http://www.woot.com). It lists only 1 product per day (starting at midnight), and it gets frustrating because I don't stay up that late and if it is a "great deal", the product is sold out by the time I check first thing in the morning (some items sell out within 10 seconds!).

Every few months they have whats called a "woot off day" where they sell more than 1 product in a day at even a higher discounted price. They put on one item after another until it sells out (ranging from 2 seconds up to 1 hour). You can download a little alarm that goes off when a product sells out to warn you a new item is coming. On a "woot off day" a few months ago we were able to buy a recordable DVD player that sells on Amazon for $250 for only $35 and a leather Nike ipod case that sells on Amazon for $30 for $0.99 for 2!

All this brings me to the point of one item they sell. It's called a "Bag of Crap". Basically they are trying to clean out all the "leftovers" from items that never sold out. People have gotten boxes full of ipods, computers, big screen TV's, while others have gotten random wires and junk. A "Bag of Crap" is only $0.99 so it is worth the risk...however it sells out immediately (less than 2 seconds) cause everyone wants one. Well, last "woot off day", my alarm went off and the "Bag of Crap" showed up and I immediately hit the "buy" button and was able to get one! As I tracked the package while it was being shipped, it was taking several days as it went slowly from state to state. Well, I had visions of my shipment being on an "Oversize Load" truck with police escorts. Jen and I were excited when it finally showed up on Friday. So what was it?...check it out...

Family/Friend Friday --- The Closet

I was going through old posts to see who I haven't said much about on Fridays, and one that stuck out was my sister Dana (pictured above with her family). Her name gets mentioned a lot around here as she bought me a "Talking Jesus" and people love to come into my office and get the "Word for the Day" from Jesus. He is currently on one of my office tables with arms straight in the air (signaling a TD) in honor of football season. There is only one thing more popular in my office (given to me by another family member) that I will tell you about next week.

Growing up, my sister had the bedroom in the house with no closet. So she kept many of her clothes in the closet in my bedroom. With the "80's hair", she required a lot more time to get ready than I did. So every morning, she would walk in my room, wake me up by turning on my light, and stand in front of the closet. And when I say "stand", I mean she would just stand there and stand there and stand there and...it took her forever to decide what to wear. I thought that was pretty abnormal, but I married someone who is the same way (go figure). I would get mad and turn out the light...she would get mad and turn it back on. I would slam the closet door on her and she'd start yelling. This happened every morning! Why we just didn't switch rooms, I'll never know --- ok, maybe it is due to the fact that I stapled baseball cards (all 4 corners of each individual card) to every square inch of my door, or that I had written in marker the name and phone number of everyone I knew on my wall, or that my room was covered with nailed up "Nintendo tournaments" I had with my friends, etc, etc, etc --- in any case....nobody wanted my room!

So one morning I hear my sister's alarm go off and I felt pretty awake. I got out of bed and stuffed some pillows and blankets in my place to make it look like I was still in bed. Then I went into the closet and waited for my sister to come do her 20-minute, "What will I wear today" routine so I could jump out and scare her. Well at some point during my waiting, I fell back asleep in the closet. To make matters worse, for some reason, Dana never came over that morning (she must have picked out her clothes the night before...why didn't she do that every night???). So about 10 minutes before I had to be at school my mom is knocking on the door wondering where I am at.

Obviously I was a little late for school that day. When I arrived my teacher asked why I was late. I said, "Oh, I was trying to scare my sister". He said, "Ok, it's nice to hear a good excuse every so often...I like that one".

Theological Thursday --- A New President

Well, the elections are over and we have a new president. I am sure many of you are happy and many of you are very upset with the new choice of leaders. But as we discussed in my blog post Tuesday, leaders are only in place and only have power because God in His perfect sovereignty has allowed it (John 19:11, Romans 13:1). So it is ok to disagree with policies, ideas, etc from our new president, but to complain about the president is to complain about God. I tend to believe that God knows what He is doing and doesn't need my help! So what should we do as Christians? What we should ALWAYS do --- PRAY! (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Can you imagine the difference we could make if we would spend as much time praying as we do complaining? And now, more than ever, we need to pray! So what should we pray for? Well, 3 things stick out in my mind:

1) President Obama --- In his heart, man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps (Proverbs 16:9). Pray for the Lord's hand to be very evident in his life. We know (based on past voting records) that he has supported things that go directly against God's Word. But we also know that God can use him in any way that pleases Him...so pray that God's glory would be known throughout our nation because of God working through Obama. Remember what God did with Saul (who later became Paul)? If not, read Acts 9 --- don't you think God could do the same to Obama if He chooses?

2) Obama's Decisions --- The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision comes from the Lord (Proverbs 16:33). Obama is currently putting together his cabinet and the men and women who will have a huge influence on him as president. Pray that he (under the sovereignty of God) would make wise godly decisions and surround himself with believers who fear the Lord. Also pray for God's truth to win out on moral issues of abortion, marriage, etc.

3) Our Decisions --- Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Pray that Christians everywhere would get there house and life in order (from an e-mail from Jen's dad yesterday!). Pray that we would choose to trust God in all things. Pray that we would stand firm like Joshua who chose to trust in God when things got tough and the easy thing to do would be giving in with the others (Numbers 13). Pray that we would always stand for truth and not compromise.

So again, I think it is very safe to say that Obama is not the end of the world (unless that is God's plan), nor is he the perfect man. He's got a very tough road ahead of him so instead of complaining about God's choice let's unite in prayer, get our own lives in order, and be living sacrifices for Him (Romans 12:1).

What's Up Wednesday --- November 5th

1) I have my second big test tonight in Hebrew. Now that I have been to about 1/2 of the classes, I am semi caught up, but still a little lost! Look at the chart above and see how hard it is to tell the difference between the dalet vs. res and the he vs. het (especially when they are hand-written!).
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2) These next 2 weekends are free (other than the usual Sunday School, Church, Detention Home)...and we are definitely looking forward to it as beginning in 2-weeks until the New Year we will be overwhelmingly busy and traveling. So this is our calm before the storm! I am using most of this time to prepare for a retreat I will be leading back in PA in a few weeks (I have to prepare for 4 sessions...about 2 hours each).
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3) Elders meeting is tonight (I'll be heading over as soon as I get done with my test). We usually go until around 10:30 or 11:00, but I am hoping to get out early as I am tired from watching the elections last night!
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4) The wedding reception for Jen's brother went really well back in PA over the weekend. I got to be the "MC" for the event (only for about a 5 minute speech), but I told his wife Kerby that as the newest member of the family, she can do these little jobs from now on!

Time Warp Tuesday --- Who Would Jesus Vote For?

Well, today is finally election day (and my mailbox will be far less stuffed!), and I have been reflecting on the question, "If Jesus were here on Earth today, who would He vote for?" We can narrow the question down to just a few choices:

1) Jesus would not vote but want us to vote

2) Jesus would not vote and would not want us to vote

3) Jesus would vote for McCain

4) Jesus would vote for Obama

5) Jesus would write someone in

Well, I think we can immediately eliminate #1. The Gospels clearly show us that every time Jesus asks us to do something, He does it as well. Things like loving others, obeying the Father, paying taxes, being Baptized, etc, etc, etc...if Jesus said it, He did it. So if He would want us to vote, He would vote as well.

Taking a look at choice #2, it helps to look into the politics of Jesus' day. He lived in a society where the government was FAR worse than ours. Unfair taxes, death for disobedience, oppression, etc was the norm for His day. Even as the King of Kings (who could have changed things in an instant if He wanted to), His only stance on politics was, "Obey and pay your taxes". However, Jesus did not have the opportunity to vote since the government back then was a far cry from a democracy. Jesus always took advantage of opportunities in His society such as speaking in the synagogues, teaching in public squares, and being involved in daily life, and as part of that, I believe He would have seen voting as a privilege and a way that we can honor God.

So if Jesus would vote today, who would He vote for? Well, I think it is pretty clear that He wouldn't expect perfection. After all, in choosing His closest followers He picked (among others), a traitor (Judas), the uneducated (Peter and Andrew), the governmental terrorist (Simon the Zealot) and the cheat (Matthew the tax collector). In the Old Testament, God used murderers (Moses) and adulterers (David). So perfection isn't the standard here.

I also don't think Jesus would be a "single issue voter". You hear people today say Christians should vote for the person against gay marriage, or the one that will take care of the poor, or the one that will give to faith-based programs, etc, etc, etc. I think He (and we should as well) look at all the policies of each candidate and determine which one would bring the most glory to God. The only Scriptural warning I would give is when Jesus tells us to "feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take care of the poor, etc", He uses a 2nd person singular verb in the Greek. That means YOU (personally) are responsible for taking care of these things, and not leaving it up to or expecting the government to handle them for you.

No matter who wins, take heart that He is in TOTAL CONTROL. Jesus told Pilate, "You only have control over me because it was given to you from above" (Jn 19:11). Romans 13:1 also teaches that there are "no authorities except that which God had established". So even though I will not tell you which candidate I believe comes closest to aligning with God's Kingdom, I do encourage you to use your privilege of voting today. So let's take part in being used by God to put into place His choice...look at all the issues, spend some time in prayer, and vote for the best AmeriCain.

Magical Monday --- The Magic of Pictures

Jen has wondered if the two of us had been born and met at a different time in history, if we still would have dated. Well, with the "Magic" of technology (and special thanks to Jill from work for telling me about the site), we can get an idea of what we may have each looked like in different decades. So check it out:

THE 1950's



THE 1960's

THE 1970's

THE 1980's

THE 1990's

Make your own at http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

What's your favorite year in these pictures?