Potpourri – Page 18 – The Welcome Home

It’s all THEIRS

Well, if there’s any money today, it’s all theirs. And all along you thought it was the IRS. Well, if you’re like us, you’ve spent this day wisely calculating every penny and every documented deduction, receipt, form, etc., etc. And if you’re like us, you’ve taken a look at your bank account and have reached the annual conclusion that it’s all theirs — or break that word up and see it: the irs.

So another year… a few more dollars… $6. in gas to drive to the post office to receive the permissible April 15th after hours post mark. I’m always glad that Samuel’s and Kathryn’s births occurred on the dates they did – the 12th and 17th – and that they were not born on April 15. I think some birthdays would have been rather awkward had either of them been born on the 15th. O, I know… we have 365 days to prepare for this day — or perhaps more accurately, we have about 100 days to do so, but alas… we’ve only on very rare occasions had our return in the mail before the 15th. It’s on these days that I am grateful that Wes keeps such meticulous records and every single receipt and documents in the exact same manner year after year every single expenditure and source of revenue. An early brush with the IRS taught lifelong lessons and, experience being the best teacher, we’ve never forgotten the importance of precise record keeping and full and timely payment of taxes due. Yes, an early major business failure taught us exceedingly valuable lessons.

It’s that sort of experience that taught us to back-up, back-up, back-up our computer data. And that resolve and importance of backing-up data early and often was surely demonstrated yesterday when Wes came to his computer and the screen was black and nothing at all could be done to restore the program’s function – what to do, what to do? Usually, when something like that happens, we think: O, no… well, hopefully the important communiques are still there… the websites, the documents, the photos, etc., etc. But yesterday Wes was struck with the thought: O, no… I need to do the taxes. So then, over lunch, we discussed the problem with our son who works in downtown Seattle – he’s in computers, IT, etc., etc. He said: bad news – your hard drive’s toast. Okay… well, that news is bad on most any day of the year but on this particular day that news is, well, particularly bad.

Fortunately… don’t you just love fortunately or words that seem to imply luck or chance? Well, then, providentially, Wes had bought another computer to have for the children to work on in his office and he was able to use that one to access files and information on a back up. Uh-oh… somewhere along the way in March, the back up failed to do so and so some information that he needed had not been backed up. However, it took little time to work around that relatively minor problem and he was up and running again… and then there was a minor problem with his tax accounting program that continually shut down following a sequence of operation. Again… working around that problem he was able to manage. So all this to say, if you’re experiencing glitch after glitch in processing your information and filing your tax return, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone – that, and the fact that after this – well, you don’t need to worry about a thing for 364 days – 365 if you procrastinate. 😉

As for the money? Yep… once again, it’s all the.irs.

intentional or haphazard…

When days are busy, there’s just no way around it — not everything gets done that ought to have been done – but haphazard or intentional (or vice versa) what’s really most important usually does (get done – even if poorly). That’s how things have been or have seemed in the last couple of weeks. I’ve wanted to blog so many things – for there have been so many great things going on – so many things to comment on or to share with you. It seems that for the last few weeks life’s been almost a blurry series of hurry up, clean up, make food, hurry up, wash up, eat up, get up, clean it up, make food… and it’s all good. There’s a big difference between being tired in ministry and being tired of ministry.

For the last ten days we’ve had missionaries, students and other guests here — and before that, we had family from all over. Now, all the hurry, hurry, hurry has passed and all those days, events, and activities are part of a mental scrapbook of sweet memories. So, today is the first day of the new normal. I’m trying to unwind the reel and review the events – and as I do, I’ll write about a few of them… you know… now that things are back to normal (?). Through the years I think we redefine normal about every three weeks or so — for that’s about how long things seem to stay essentially the same — about three weeks. Maybe two. Maybe a day.

So, we’ve had students here from the same mission’s school that Timothy attended. It was great to see them bright and early each morning, to listen to their classes and to serve them meals each day. They had opportunities each day to go street preaching, witnessing and to do door to door evangelism. From Oregon to Seattle provides quite a different venue and mix of people to talk with. They had ample opportunity to sharpen their skills, to listen to the LORD and to *see* people. It’s one thing to walk along and see the masses, but it’s wholly another thing to *see* people and hear their stories and share with them the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And around Seattle — at Pike Place or Union Square or at the University of Washington, or Western Washington U, there were plenty of people with strong views – plenty of people gathering ‘knowledge’ but none of that knowledge will save, none of that knowledge has eternal value. So, they talked… they walked… they heard and they spoke of the Truth. We pray for God’s Word to not return void – that those who spat on them, those who burned tracts, those who ate tracts would one day come to the knowledge of the Truth – and we pray that God will continue to strengthen the church that the church would see the mandate to go into all the world preaching the gospel and making disciples.

We had a tremendous answer to prayer… One of the young women Wes was talking with, on one of the days street preaching, was a woman new to the area. She asked if Wes was a believer in Jesus – and when he said, yes, she asked if he was a born again Christian — a follower of the Saviour, Jesus Christ the Son of God? She wondered if there were believers in the area – Wes told her he didn’t know specifically in that particular area – but that if she was looking for an opportunity to hear the Word, to sing and to fellowship that she could join us in our fellowship of beleivers on Sunday. Problem – no transportation. Wes told her no problem – he & our family would pick her up. He gave her our phone number. She gave her address – no phone. So, Sunday when looking up her address on Streets ‘n Trips, no location found for that address. Sigh. What to do, what to do? Mapquest? No such address found. So later he came downstairs and asked us all to come into the kitchen and pray with him that Ruth would call. He prayed in earnest to the Lord that the Lord would have her to call, that he would be able to bring her up to our fellowship that was to meet later in the day to accommodate all the guests, students and families. He prayed; we joined him and asked the Lord for His will to be done. Riiiing, riiiing…. Riiiing, riiiing… (we have caller ID announce) call from _________. We had never heard the name before (nor could we understand it), but we knew who it was and we praised the Lord that He had, indeed, heard our prayer and He intentionally answered.

Wes and a few of the children went to pick her up and eventually brought her to the home where our church met. I had gone ahead with a few of the children and waited there for his arrival. When he arrived, he introduced the beautiful Ethiopian woman, Ruth, to the church and they welcomed her. It was lovely. What seemed haphazard was truly an intentional blessing of the Lord. She was blessed and was a blessing. At the end of the day when Wes and I brought her back to our home briefly, she looked at all the photographs in our living room and her eyes landed lovingly on the photos of Kathryn and the Ugandan children and Timothy in Ghana… she turned and saw another photo of Kathryn kissing a Ugandan baby — her eyes welled with tears, she smiled and hugged our younger children… they hugged her with smiles and told her they’d see her again. We drove her home — talking the whole way about her life here and her desire to find work. I don’t know what the Lord has in store — but I do know He did bless that meeting — some might have called haphazard or coincidence.

The students saw the hand of the Lord – we all saw His hand. They saw the intentional work of the Lord when believers simply walk in His ways and follow Him. I don’t know when or if we’ll see her again — she lives such a far distance from here… but God knows — and now, more than ever, I’m sure He’ll make it very clear. Intentionally.

Our lives may be or seem pretty haphazard sometimes. Praise God He loves us so. So intentionally.

Not a ‘depression era mentality’ at all

It used to be that when someone refused to waste a drop or when someone would save everything from produce baggies to cottage cheese containers to newspapers to bacon grease — people who never threw anything away after the originally intended use — they were thought to be products of the Great Depression and, as such, were tolerated (even if made fun of behind their backs) and “understood.” Then, time passed and folks were mocked for being pack-rats or hoarding things they’d never use — that, or they were secretly embarrassed over their hoarding and hiding and groups like clutterers and ‘messies anonymous’ spawned — along with the hoards of organization tips: through books, stores and products. Whatever the case, ‘depression mentality’ or no, there are just some people who have a propensity to stash stuff and never throw things out – you know, because they might — need — them someday. I know people like that. Really well.

Today, instead of being thrifty or careful to use and save items, there’s sort of a new generation of folks who save things to remake to use and reuse and reuse. Maybe they’re tight-wads, maybe they’re thrifty, but this tight-waddy-ness (you read it here first!) has led to some clever ingenuity. Consider ‘shabby chic’ and all the retro-think and then think of eBay, Craigslist and Freecycle — to name a few. Thrift stores are the main sources of clothing for many people we know (including everyone who lives at this address). I think that’s sort of a combination of the signs of the times (save the planet – recycle – renew the earth) stuff and the Depression Era parents and grandparents passing on that gene.

Well, there was a point to this post. Really. I received an email with this tip for reusing a man’s dress shirt to make a toddler dress [look at all the great photos and tutorial!] . It’s so cute and so clever and sooooooo neuvo. So, you wanna see it? I’m thinking this is a keeper — something to try out! Other ideas are coming to mind! I’ll let you know if I do make it (and it’s worth showing)! :o)

I love doing this sort of thing! For example, recently I made kitchen curtains from a beautiful white-eyelet bassinet skirt that I cut it apart — I hated messing up the originally beautiful workmanship – but it wouldn’t have been any use to me as it was. So there I had plenty of fabric to use for the curtain, and it was just what I would have purchased and I got it for free!

I’ll bet you’re thinking of stuff you could remake… aren’t you.

one of the first gents of emergents – clip

And the truth.

Each day the lines are clearer.

Will there be gentlemen?

I wonder this. I ponder this question: Will there be gentlemen? Will there be gentlemen who guard their behaviour, guard their conversations and the words they choose to use in mixed company or not, men who will refrain from crude or vulgar speech or innuendo?

Not much time for blogging as we’ve been covered up with things to do and errands to run lately. Phone talks & letters with Timothy in Ghana, Kathryn in Uganda… comings and goings… a husband to love, children to teach, meals to prepare, a home to keep… ah, a life – nowhere better!

Not much time for blogging, either, when I’ve spent my ‘computer time’ reading about and listening to more from Marks Hill (typo intended). I mulled over each talk and each time was left with an uneasy – okay, sometimes disgusted, feeling. Now, you know I’d be the first to say: whoa, watch that – you cannot trust ‘feelings’ about things – you need to have some reality on which to base your thoughts or your convictions or whatever. And so I pondered that a bit. What is it about his talks, his sermons, his shows? What is it. Did I click on the videos of sermons hoping to (he is a ‘pastor’ after all) find a studied theologian? Did I assume I would hear the words of a wise and faithful scholar? Of course I did. I wouldn’t waste my time otherwise. Not usually.

So my uneasiness turned to regret and disappointment when I watched a few more Mars Hill… or Marks Hill videos… saw or heard some crude innuendo and lack of exegetical or expositional teaching. So, I thought, hmmm; is that the problem? Is the problem that I am not seeing the teaching of sound doctrine? No… no, that wasn’t the heart of the matter. The matter was that there was another teaching going on – yes, some with the words, but more, a general teaching… the general teaching that one can be a pastor, teacher, elder – whatever – in the church and as such, it’s okay to be glib about the scriptures, it’s okay to mock people who don’t fit his particular paradigm, to make fun of people groups, to handle Biblical truths lightly and to be crude and irreverent in the process. I know the Word says this will be so:

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. — 2 Timothy 4.2-5

So I wonder, the young impressionable men of ‘his’ congregation, receiving weekly (or more often) teaching and modeling are, in fact, being conformed into an image… the new pastor persona, the brash, sometimes irreverent, cool preacher who seems unconcerned with social graces. So, I wonder, in the pulpits in churches here and abroad… will there be gentlemen?

Ironically, I hadn’t taken any time to read Steve Camp’s blog for the last several months and did so this evening and I was amazed that the matter, among other related things, was the topic of recent blogs – and at Tim Challies, too. Interesting how this so often goes. So that I don’t have to link the material here ( I think the last video a few days ago was plenty ) I decided to just post a couple of links and you can see for yourself – or not. But I must say, I grieve for the church. Until recently, I thought I was really just grieving all the seductive, emergent, seeker, purpose, I wanna-have-it-my-way, new age infiltration and proliferation. I thought that was the great threat to the church. And it is. They are. But the loss of reverence, the loss of respect, manners, decency and decorum… I didn’t see all this coming as a ripple effect from those who reject the old paths. But here it is.

Who will take a stand against the superfluity of naughtiness? Will there be gentlemen?

Happy Valentine’s Day Sweet-tarts!

1 cor 13

with blessings and love to you all.

Are Your Locks Secure?

Ever heard of a bump key? Well…. you may have never heard of them, but thanks to the internet and easy accessibility, thieves have! Here’s a video showing just how easy (and cheap) it is to effortlessly break into any house. Illegal without a locksmith license, bump keys are easily accessible on the internet for a few dollars. Thieves can efficiently enter your home with little effort or trace of forced entry. This news story is nearly a year old but I just received a mail today with this video clip. O — there are apparently locks you can purchase and install that aren’t opened with a bump key. Here’s the locksmith guy’s website with info on bump keys and secure locks: bayarealocks.com

miscellaneous miscellany

Have you ever noticed that, in conversation with a relative stranger, when you mention your occupation or favourite subject of study or hobby or whatever, the person will often make a comment about your particular passion or interest. Often they’ll be an expert on the subject and will say something like, you know, there are two things about – thus and so.

Try it sometime, when someone mentions something you happen to have an interest in, just say something like: there are two things about __________. I read that somewhere, some time ago. It’s kind of like that book, Everything I ever Needed to know I Learned in Kindergarten. Well, the Two Things goes like this: “For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.”

I’ve been mulling over lots of life’s Two Things (try it, you’ll find yourself thinking of many “The Two Things about________…”). Here are some I’ve been thinking about… and each time I think of one, I then think of what I think might be a better one. Or two.

The Two Things about parenting:
1. What’s the most important thing right now?
2. This, too, shall pass.

The Two Things about marriage:
1. Today’s the day to make it the best.
2. Things won’t always be this way.

The Two Things about life:
1. Everyone wants to be loved.
2. Everyone wants to be accepted.

The Two Things about people:
1. Everyone wants to be right.
2. Everyone wants to feel important.

The Two Things about the game of life:
1. Don’t cheat.
2. Don’t give up.

The Two Things about social life:
1. You only have one chance to make a good first impression.
2. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

The Two Things about marriage:
1. Always be the first to say you’re sorry.
2. Always say you’re sorry first.

Here are some more ideas from the Two Things guy – Glen Whitman

The Two Things about Computer Programming:
1. Idiocy increases faster than idiot-proofing.
2. All compiling errors boil down to a missing semicolon.

The Two Things about Blogging:
1. Everyone who runs one is a kook.
2. Everyone who comments in one is a kook.

The Two Things about Women
1. When complaining, they don’t want your advice, they want your sympathy.
2. Don’t you dare tell them you can sum them up with just Two Things.

The Two Things about Parenting:
1. There’s no such thing as too much affection
2. It’s not so much what you say, as it is what you do

The Two Things about Driving:
1. Don’t hit anything.
2. Don’t let anything hit you.

The Two things about homeschooling:
1. Education has nothing to do with going to school.
2. It’s not really about education.

More “Two Things” another time.

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Have you had enough of the elections already?!?!

Do you still wonder who you’re going to vote for? Take this test… you’ll see your choice.

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Vote Chooser

Just think… one of the greatest promises in Scripture is one we might not consider to be our greatest or favourite promise: 2 Timothy 3.12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”