What??? Leftovers again? Sorry but this week is not working for fresh blog offerings. Another gently reheated post is the best I can do today. Complimentary, of course.    Blessings,  Dave A Peanuts comic strip features Charlie Brown’s sister Sally struggling to spread frozen butter on her toast. Finally she exclaims, “Nobody told me life was going to be this hard!” I can understand Sally’s frustration. Life is hard. This was not in the brochure. Or at least that is what I once believed. In fact that very information is in the brochure. The Bible is very clear that life will be a journey of struggling to spread frozen butter and worse (that is a paraphrase). Much worse. I am going through one of those frozen butter times right now but I have come to understand that those times are part of the journey. God has given us a wonderful gift that we too often leave unwrapped. The gift of laughter. The following excerpt is from my sporadically selling book “Bring’em
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Because of a busy schedule there is no time to whip up a fresh post. Please accept this gently warmed leftover on the house. Blessings,  Dave An interesting note in a recent edition of The Week magazine featured two short blurbs about the art of resume writing. One company that does background checks has found that well over half of all resumes contain false information. Background Information Services has found that most people stretch the truth about their work and educational credentials. This one hit close to home for me. A few years ago I was asked to write a bio that would be sent out with a press kit for my new book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. My educational background was, to be very kind, inconsistent. I was attention deficit before it was cool. Instead of having accommodations and testing and medication I was called into the guidance counselor’s office and chastised for underachieving and laziness. Those
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I am sure that at least a few readers of these humble ramblings remember a song by Five Man Electrical Band. The song was called “Signs” and it told about some warnings that dared to tell us what to do. Sign Sign everywhere a sign Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign I remember the opening part of the song quite well. And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why He said you look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you’ll do So I took off my hat I said imagine that, huh, me working for you woah! What struck me most is that the official Five Man Electrical Band website actually has that last word spelled “woah”.  Hearing that song recently on an oldies station made me think about the
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In December 1979, a tragedy occurred in my home state of Ohio. The Who rock group came to Cincinnati to perform at Riverfront Coliseum. The tickets were sold in a then-popular format called festival seating.  Ticket prices were fixed, and the best seats went to the concertgoers who could get inside most quickly. Needless to say, festival seating caused some chaos in the best of circumstances. But in Cincinnati that night, the self-centered desires for good seats led to disaster. When the doors finally opened, the impatient crowd surged forward, resulting in a crush of humanity. Eleven people were killed that night and scores injured.   I would venture that not a single person went to Riverfront Coliseum that night with idea of hurting (and especially killing) another person. But hundreds of people were primarily concerned with their own interests: getting through the door first and getting a seat close to the stage. That seemingly harmless desire met with tragic results.  
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Country music sometimes gets an unfair reputation. Some of that reputation is self-inflicted thanks to a few colorful and occasionally silly song titles. I confess that I have made fun of some country tunes. Here are some actual song titles with bonus commentary in italics. Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure     There is one you probably won’t find at Hallmark. I Flushed You From The Toilets Of My Heart    Bonus track…I took the plunge, then took the plunger I Wanna Whip Your Cow   No comment I’m So Miserable Without You, It’s Like Having You Here   Perhaps a tad too honest. I Would Have Wrote You A Letter, But I Couldn’t Spell Yuck!    But you just spelled yuck in the…never mind. I Wouldn’t Take Her To A Dawg Fight, Cause I’m Afraid She’d Win    See, this song writer didn’t care if he could spell. He just wanted to share his dawg-gone feelins’. If My Nose Were Full of Nickels, I’d Blow
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I suspect I am a rather typical guy that is trying to follow Jesus effectively. Some good stretches. Some bad. I tend to take two steps forward then one or two or three or ten backwards. In retrospect I can see that much of my stumbling, bumbling walk has been because I did not have a solid, well reasoned theology to back my desire to know God. I approached Christianity just like I approached everything else. With that ill-conceived male bravado that led me to utter such later regretted classics as… How hard can this be? I don’t need the instructions. I am sure we turn here. I measured it once already.I think it is disconnected. I am growing in my appreciation for having a good theological foundation. I have quoted Pastor Tommy Nelson who says “you cannot live a successful Christian life without good theology”. I would only amend that slightly. I think to live the Christian life successfully over many years requires good theology. You
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The King James version of the 23rd Psalm says that he leadeth me beside the still waters. That came to mind yesterday as I drove to Stillwater. The Oklahoma version…not the Biblical one. The long drive gave me lots of reflection time on what has been a very rough stretch of personal highway. Joni and I have been walking through the valley of the shadow of death during the first three weeks of this year. Yet we have been able to say, like the Psalmist, that we fear no evil for He is with us. Still, when you go to three funerals in three weeks you tend to think about larger life issues than the eighteen-wheeler blocking the passing lane. Yesterday’s home church sermon dealt with the cost of following Christ. While that was still percolating in the gray matter I listened to Andy Stanley on a podcast. Andy talked about forgiveness from his series Life Rules. That forgiveness word keeps coming up
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