Videomania

Okay, so I'm not the brightest guy when it comes to technology or just plain computer stuff. Actually I'm a bit of a computer moron. But now that I've figured out how to put videos on my blog, I might as well share some of my favorites.

This one is a couple of years old but a great performance by a mens' a cappella group called Straight, No Chaser (gotta at least love the name).




By the way, at 6:04 AM CST on Sunday, the Earth will slip past the magical plane that marks the Winter Solstice. The Twelve Days of Winter Celebration begins and then ends at the New Year.

John

Sunday morning note: Woke up to 4 degrees (F) this morning, that's -15.5 C for my overseas friends. Welcome to winter!

Editing note: This morning I found that the video I loaded last night is no longer available due to copyright infringement. Straight, No Chaser has reunited after ten years and is performing again. The video posted now is from a month ago in DC.

Trying Something New

Here's one for the Christmas Season: Jesus vs Santa



Enjoy!

John

Christmas Shopping

In about 30 minutes the date will turn to December 20th, giving me just 5 shopping days until Christmas. I'm thinking that I should start seriously considering what I'm going to get Chris for Christmas.

Before anybody thinks that the master procrastinator is thinking of running out on the Saturday before Christmas to brave the crowds and beat the last minute rush, I only said that it was time to consider what to buy. I still have 5 days. Actually, 4 days...between work on Wednesday and Christmas Eve stuff at church, I probably shouldn't count that day.

I guess I'll be ahead of the last minute shoppers after all!

*******

Aaron is home...and as expected is out with the girl tonight. We'll manage to see him for a few moments each afternoon when he gets out of bed and figures out what he and Jenny are going to do for the rest of the day. He'll tell us if Jenny will be over for dinner or if he'll be eating at her house or if they have other plans (or whatever Jenny tells him they're going to do). Ain't young love grand?!

I think that Aaron may still have some shopping to do. I'm glad that he is following the example set by his dad.

Oh well, I guess I'll get a jump on Saturday and start considering while it is still Friday! I'm so proud of myself...getting an early start on Christmas shopping this year!

John

From The Book of Acts

I'm currently reading through the Book of Acts. It is an exciting time in the history of Christianity. Christianity is in its infancy and isn't even called by that name...yet. Early believers simply referred to themselves as followers of The Way or disciples of Jesus. The church today looks to the Book of Acts to learn about church growth. Several different church planting organizations use the word "Acts" as a part of their name.

One of the things that stood out as I was reading was found at the end of the second chapter.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
(emphasis added)

Why do we miss this part? It's not like this is a new teaching or a new way. If we really want to see the church grow today like it did 2000 years ago, why not follow the model?

1) Devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching.
Today we have the written word to study along with countless commentaries and studies.
2) Devote ourselves to fellowship; to the breaking of bread.
Hang out with each other. Support one another. Take care of each other. Eat together.
3) Pray.
Pray together. Pray alone. Pray a lot.

This passage goes on to say that they met in public. They met in their homes. They ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They praised God and they enjoyed the favor of all the people! When was the last time that the church of today could say that it enjoyed the favor of all the people? When was the last time your local church could say that it enjoyed the favor of all the people? Why not make it more personal? Do you, as a believer, enjoy the favor of all the people?

I know. I know. Even Jesus had enemies or at least, those that didn't like him. And we'll have people that don't like us, too. Jesus even said so. But let's not give them a reason by being hateful, hurtful and judgmental. There is a real attraction to wanting to be around people that are joyful and enjoying life. If we are not causing people to want what we have, maybe we don't feel that it is worth having or worth sharing. Maybe we are not all that happy about our salvation.

...enjoying the favor of all the people.
It was just one of those lines that jumped out at me. Thought I'd share.

John

Christmas Party Time

'Tis the season for gathering together with people that you normally wouldn't hang out with and for bringing your spouse along to meet the people that you work with. While co-workers gather and discuss things from work, spouses (that have no idea what you're talking about) linger, mingle and anxiously await the magical moment that you can safely leave, having fulfilled the annual requirement of your presence at the festive gathering (where half of the people only know half of the people and the other half only knows their spouse or significant other).

Of course, there are other Christmas parties that you both enjoy; meeting with common friends from various places like clubs, church, neighborhoods, family, etc. For the most part, either gathering is okay for me...I'm pretty comfortable in a crowd of strangers as long as I have some justification for being there. I also look at any social gathering as an opportunity to network and make some connections with new people from various backgrounds and fields of work, knowledge, etc.

Perhaps the best way to insure that both you and your spouse (or significant other) know and enjoy the people at the holiday gathering would be to host the party yourself. You are in charge of everything from the guest list to what food and drink will be served. You are also in charge of set up, clean up and spending some money. There always has to be a downside.

Progressive dinner parties are one way to share the downside and still deliver on a great night for a small group of friends. Sharing costs for a party room at a restaurant or having a caterer are other ways. I say all of this and it sounds like I'm a great host or party going sort of guy...I'm not. I'd be just as happy with a good cup of coffee, a Christmas cookie (or two) and my laptop or a good book to read.

I started down this rant because of another blog that I read. It had posted about a hosting a party of a different kind that immediately made me think of a few readers and fellow bloggers that may enjoy this particular kind of party. And it is not related to the Christmas season so you could do this anytime.

Bilbo enjoys cooking and he and Agnes seem to be the host/hostess type of people. Sicilian blogged about her mother's holiday fare and open house atmosphere. Perhaps she'd like to share some of those Italian recipes. I also thought that Heidi (who always has healthy eating on her mind) would be able to use this type of venue to help teach a few people about healthy choices and great meals. My brother Pat would use a party like this and I'm sure that other readers might also enjoy this kind of recipe sharing.

Personally, I'm more into the recipe tasting side of the equation and feel bad that I won't be able to be there to sample the cooking/baking that will taking place without me.

John

Looking for $$$ in All the Wrong Places

Okay, so I'm getting real tired of hearing how the Union has put the Auto Industry in the proverbial crapper. It may be true that union workers are getting paid a little bit more than their non-union counter parts, but I seriously doubt that this has been the demise of the industry.

Has anybody taken a look at what the big shots of the auto companies are making? According to this article CEO compensation is up from 25 times the average laborer's salary in 1970 to 500 times the average laborer's salary in 2004! My guess would be that has close to doubled that for 2008.

This USA Today website shows that the CEO of General Motors had a total compensation package worth nearly $16 million for 2007. Ford was nearly $23 million. Wal Mart's CEO (that's the company with a small full-time to part-time worker ratio...you don't have to provide benefits to part-timers) made over $29 million for '07.

I think maybe we need to shift the focus of salary to somewhere a little bit further up the line. If there is money to be found to save the industry, how about a little top-down trimming rather than the other way around?

For all of the non-union workers out there--laborers and management alike, you can thank the labor movement for your 40 hour work week, overtime compensation, employer paid (or partially paid) health benefits, paid holidays, paid vacation time, workman's compensation (if injured on the job), retirement plans, safe working environments, freedom from harassment and a host of other benefits that are taken for granted in today's work world. Don't be crapping all over the unions unless you're willing to give up ALL of your many benefits that they've won for all working men and women (that means protection against child labor, too).

John
National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) AFL-CIO
former District 9 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW)

Chillin' on a Saturday Night

Today was a nice quiet Saturday at our house.

It began with an almost unheard of full night's sleep (eight hours!). The only problem that I have with a full night of sleep is that I wake up with a bit of a sore back. That doesn't happen with a normal four and a half to five hours of sleep.

In any case, I was well rested and ready for the day. After a quick shower, a cup of coffee and a few minutes to print off a couple of things from my computer, I was off to the monthly meeting of the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers (OCACW). This month's meeting was the annual Christmas/winter reading session. Writers brought some of their work to read to the rest of us. There are some fantastic writers in this group. One would expect the published writers to excel, but everybody that participated by sharing their own work did great. Poetry, stories, devotion type writing...all of them were extremely well done. I have a lot to learn!

We skipped the critique session afterwards and I headed for home. Just as I was leaving the house in the morning, Chris got a call from her dad. He was in Branson with a friend and they were wanting to stop by before heading back to Festus, MO. I called home and they were just getting ready to go to lunch. I gave Chris my order and arrived at the restaurant moments before the food came!

The afternoon proved to be a very lazy afternoon. Hannah and I went to take care of the horses and we all spent a few minutes this evening at the local Wal Mart. Now I'm just relaxing in front of the TV while watching the UFC Ultimate Fighter Finale.

I'm catching up on reading blogs, e-mails and e-news while keeping an eye on the fights. I'm looking forward to church tomorrow and a relaxing Sunday before the weather turns nasty tomorrow evening.

Hoping that your weekend is great,

John

Live for Today

I know that it is sometimes very difficult not to get wrapped up in what might happen tomorrow. I know that in the times of a troubled economy it is hard not to worry about a vanishing retirement plan or even what you're going to do about buying Christmas presents. This past weekend I was reminded of a passage from the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew, chapter 6. There Jesus says:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[b]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

That last verse pretty much sums up the lesson that is mentioned by the sister of John Challis at the end of this video. John had plenty that he could have been dwelling on about a future that held one certainty--each day could be his last. The video ran on ESPN in August and was re-aired the other night.

Even though no one is promised tomorrow, we all live like we'll be here for sometime to come. I wonder how we might change if we were to think that there might not be a tomorrow. I'm not talking about living a reckless or irresponsible lifestyle. I'm wondering if we might not be more appreciative of the simple things in life and the people that we interact with every day.

After watching the video, I'm thinking that I really have no problems that I could compare to what John Challis faced...and no excuses for not living life to the fullest.

John

2. Matthew 6:27 Or single cubit to his height

Just Plain Mean

I know that the Bush Administration has spent the last eight years actively destroying the gains made by organized labor. During the Clinton Administration, President Clinton had signed an Executive order that declared air traffic control to be an inherently governmental function. That simply means that the responsibility of providing safety for the flying public belongs to the government. Oversight of safe air travel is a duty of the Federal Aviation Administration.

President Bush quickly signed an Order that stripped the "inherently governmental function" from air traffic control to pave the way towards privatization of the industry. A vital part of the system--Flight Service Stations--has been contracted out in what has turned out to be the grand fiasco of the decade. The government now pays a private contractor to provide pilots with the information and services that were once provided by government employees. This was supposed to be a cost savings move. Instead, it just provides some politically savvy friends of Washington with a lot of money and little oversight. The service that was once providing general aviation pilots with all kinds of pertinent information is now the joke of the industry.

All of that happened some years ago and we (air traffic controllers) have been fighting to keep the FAA from consolidating facilities and getting air traffic controllers ready for contracting out. We have been in a contract dispute for the past two years, operating under imposed conditions when our Agreement clearly states that it will remain in effect until a New Agreement is reached.

And now, as a parting shot to federal labor unions, President Bush has signed an Executive Order to deny bargaining rights to certain government employees. You can read about it here.
Talk about just being mean! If our soon to be former executive wants to do something in his last 43 days (and counting) in office, why not do something meaningful? Why force soon to be President Obama to waste his time signing executive orders that nullify the personal attacks on organized labor? Why not just get around to issuing Presidential Pardons to our convicted Alaskan Senator and what ever other buddies he's going to pardon...and go home?

I know that the President's actions won't always be popular with all of the people...but that is just plain mean. It makes me think of the kid on the playground turning around and sticking out his tongue as he's being sent home for misbehaving.

John

Did You Ever Wonder...?

It’s Christmas time. When Christmas time draws near, we read and reread the Christmas story from the Bible. One of my favorite parts is the visit of the Magi. (go figure!)

Matthew 2

The Visit of the Magi

1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east^[b] and have come to worship him."

3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ^[c] was to be born. 5"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
6" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'^[d]"

7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."

9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east^[e] went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod.

Have you ever wondered about the gifts that the Magi brought?

I’ve heard sermons that talk about the gifts themselves...odd gifts for a child—gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold, a gift for a king. Frankincense, a gift for a priest. Myrrh (the strangest of all), a burial spice. (but that's all stuff for another post)

I think that God sometimes has an odd way of presenting us with the gifts that we will need. Often times they come in such a way that we readily dismiss them as coincidence. All of these gifts were valuable. I’m just making a guess that Joseph and Mary weren’t very wealthy people. I doubt that they were ready to move suddenly or take a long journey. Surely they would need supplies for the journey. They didn’t have the time to sell the goods that they couldn’t carry with them—at least, not at a good price. The Bible says that they left in the night. They may have taken some things...but they couldn't have taken much.

Somehow I see God providing Joseph with some quick getaway cash and also with something to sell later on. He would need funds to escape and then he would need a way to provide for his family. Maybe he would sell the incense to buy tools for his trade or to find a home once his family arrived in Egypt. The Bible never makes another mention of the gifts.

It just seems too well planned for this family of modest means to be given gifts of great wealth right before God tells them to move to a far away land. It makes me wonder...it causes me to do a little self examination. What gifts has God provided me with? And for what purpose? What gifts has God provided you with? And again, for what purpose? Are we using the gifts that He has given us for the purpose that He intended? Or have we decided to use them for our own benefit? Or maybe we’ve decided not to use them at all.

I was just wondering.

John

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 2:1 Traditionally Wise Men
2. Matthew 2:2 Or star when it rose
3. Matthew 2:4 Or Messiah
4. Matthew 2:6 Micah 5:2