November in Review

The end of November is finally here!

At the beginning of the month, I decided that I would post everyday at Out of My Hat. I've managed to do that--sort of. On the fourth and again on the seventh, I actually posted twice--once in the morning and then again late at night. I could have scheduled the posts for early the following morning, but opted to just publish them as I finished them. One day (the second) I did post twice. 

That makes this my 31st post for the month.

Reviewing the posts from November and late October, it is easy to see that political posts or posts on controversial social issues generate the most hits. Post that have to do with religion or faith generate the fewest. Although in the early part of the year, religious posts did very well. 

A few people comment on Out of My Hat. A few more on Facebook. Occasionally, somebody will share a post via Facebook or Twitter; rarely via LinkedIn or Google+.

I still find the diversity of my reader group to be pretty amazing. Admittedly, readership has seemed to drop from the beginning of the year. Apparently some have decided that they are no longer interested in the rantings or opinions of an evolving curmudgeon, or those that once read the religious posts have decided that they no longer care for my "religion."

For those of you that are still here and still reading, Thank you!

And thanks for sharing the occasional post or leaving an occasional comment.

I wish that I could promise you that posts that wrap up 2012 and continue into 2013 would be less offensive, less controversial and less opinionated; but that would require me to get somebody else to write Out of My Hat. I will promise to write more often than I did for most of 2012. And perhaps, more frequent posts will generate more varied topics and a greater readership...or maybe not. 

After posting for 31 consecutive days (32 posts), I may just take tomorrow off.
But then again, I may have something to say...

John <><

Christmas Challenge

It's not too many days until Christmas--less than a month.

With the passing of Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season into full swing, the signs of the coming holiday are everywhere. Radio stations are playing Christmas music. Christmas decorations and lights line the streets of the business districts. Homes are sporting the seasonal decorations. Parties and family gatherings are being planned.

It is Christmas time!

For those that recognize the holiday as the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus (that's the Christ part of Christmas), we often lament the fact that so much of the seasonal activities have little to do with the birth of our Savior. Sadly, we are guilty of participating in the festivities while condemning those that ignore the spiritual significance of the holiday.

For the followers of Jesus, I offer the following challenge:

As your conversations turn to the things of Christmas, make it a point to mention the birth of the Christ child. Ask if their family celebrations include celebrating the birth of Jesus. Invite them to your church's Christmas service. Share how you keep Christ in Christmas.

Let us, the followers of Jesus, make the commitment to share the story of Christmas this Christmas season.

Can I get an "Amen" as a sign that you will accept this Christmas challenge?

John <><

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

It's a rare night that I have trouble falling asleep. I really don't know what's up tonight (other than me), but it appears to be one of those nights. As long as I'm not sleeping, I figure that laying awake in bed is a waste of time. I decided that I'd get up and do something for a short while and perhaps sleep will come.

As a sleep aid, I decided to look back at posts to Out of My Hat that come up when I type "Christmas" into the search bar. Wow! There were some good posts. Some of them were a bit repetitive (I guess I should do a quick search before re-writing another similar post each Christmas), but good stuff just the same.

The post that I've had more hits on than any other post was from the first Christmas after I started blogging in 2006. Title was Merry Xmas. Go ahead and click this link to reread it and keep it as my number one post!

I think my favorite one was from the following Christmas season (2007). It's a good reminder to everybody that the season is for celebrating different holidays and in different ways. Be gracious as people wish you "Happy holidays" and accept it as a sincere wish of happiness for you and yours. Oh wait, I don't want to rewrite another post so if you want, you can reread it here. Maybe you haven't been following this post for the past 5 years and it will be a first time read. In either case, enjoy.

Maybe reading my own posts has brought on the necessary drowsiness that I can get a few hours of sleep (4) before the alarm sounds and it's time to face another day.

Be well.
Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!

John <><

Our Amazing Solar System

I'm a little bit crazy. I know it.
I'm the guy that took a day off work, pulled the kids out of school for a day, and traveled several hours to make a day trip to be within the path of total annularity during the annular eclipse of 1994.
I'm the guy that called home to wake everybody up to view the Leonid meteor shower of 1998 ...at 2 in the morning.
I'm the guy that people call to ask about night sky events. They call on their smart phones that can give them expert answers rather than the regurgitated information that spills from the trivia crowded brain matter in my head.

I find our solar system, our Milky Way Galaxy, our entire universe to be unbelievably fascinating. The order of our universe is complex, intricate and beautifully perfect.

This morning I set my alarm clock for 4 AM. I got up, brewed a thermos of coffee and headed out in the 20 something degree temps (F) to find a place where I could view Venus and Saturn rising in the eastern sky. They were just 0.6 degrees apart. That's practically on top of each other, astronomically speaking.

I get that it is not a visually stunning event to witness. And yet, it is a truly remarkable event. The simple science of the planets of our solar system orbiting the sun on the same plane makes these events possible. The order of the universe could not have happened by accident. Nature does not move from chaos to perfect order; it moves from order and deteriorates into disorder.

It is the perfect design of our world, from a single celled life form to the vast expanses of space, that gives testimony of a Great Designer. It is the teleological argument that says if there is a design, there must be a Designer.

I am awed and humbled by the creation of our God. In all of His vast creation, He cares about us; about me. He knows me. He loves me. I can't understand why, but He does.

When I consider your heavens, 
the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
which you have set in place, 
what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 
human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4

John <><

Who is Jesus? ...and Why Should I Follow Him? (2)

Is Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah?
Is He the appointed one?
The one whose coming is foretold throughout the prophesies of the Old Testament?

We've already looked at evidence that this Jesus really did exist (here). Though there are some varying accounts of the details of his life, there can be no doubt that he did, in fact, live and die in Israel around the time indicated by the gospels of the New Testament.

But is this same Jesus the long awaited Messiah?

There is much that has been written of the messianic prophesies, far more than I could ever read and written far better than I could ever write. There are more than 300 prophesies in the Old Testament that either promise a coming redeemer or tell something about the coming redeemer. Many of those scriptures can be found here.

Some might say that many of these are general in nature and could be fulfilled by any number of people. It many be correct that many people could fulfill many of the prophesies, but how likely is it that only one person is able to fulfill all of them.

Scientist Peter Stoner conservatively calculated the probability of just eight prophesies being fulfilled in just one person at 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. It has been said that if you covered an area the size of the state of Texas two feet deep with silver dollars and had one marked with an X; the odds of a blind man walking along and randomly stopping to pick up one coin and having it be the marked coin would be about the same!

You can see how Prof. Stoner arrived at these numbers here.

Also contained in the article by Dr. David R Reagan are other prophesies and probabilities and some oddities that point to divine revelation. Consider the following:

One of the most remarkable Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures is the one that precisely states that the Messiah will die by crucifixion. It is found in Psalm 22 where David prophesied the Messiah would die by having His hands and feet pierced (Psalm 22:16). That prophecy was written 1,000 years before Jesus was born. When it was written, the Jewish method of execution was by stoning. The prophecy was also written many years before the Romans perfected crucifixion as a method of execution.

Even when Jesus was killed, the Jews still relied on stoning as their method of execution, but they had lost the power to implement the death penalty due to Roman occupation. That is why they were forced to take Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, and that's how Jesus ended up being crucified, in fulfillment of David's prophecy.

The bottom line is that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the life of Jesus proves conclusively that He truly was God in the flesh. It also proves that the Bible is supernatural in origin.

Though it would appear, even to a casual reader, that there is a great deal of evidence that supports that Jesus is the indeed the Messiah, each of us gets to decide for ourselves what we will do with the information. If Jesus is the Messiah; if he is the Son of God; if he is God--what then?

What does His life and death mean for us? What are we to do with this information? How can it be that a God that is great enough to create the whole of the universe cares about each of us as individuals? Or does He? Is our God a god that desires to have a personal relationship with His creation?

Those are questions we'll address in another post. For now, who is Jesus--to you?

John <><

How would they know?

Most of the people that know me, know that I am a follower of Jesus. Most know that I am an evangelist. Being a "Christian" is who (or what) I am.

However, I wonder just how long it takes people to figure that out. How well do people need to know me before they discover that I am a disciple of Jesus?
Do I guard that part of my identity?
Do I want to get to know people before I open up and share my belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior?

Evangelical Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. We believe that until one confesses Jesus as Lord and believes that God has raised Him from the dead, they are condemned to eternity separated from God. (That's the evangelical sugar coating for going to hell.)

So now the question becomes, "How well do we need to know somebody before we care enough to tell them about Jesus and give them an opportunity to receive His gift of salvation?"

Are we hard enough that we are comfortable to stand by while the people we meet are going to hell? Wouldn't we warn a complete stranger that was getting ready to step into traffic of the danger coming his or her way? Our world is littered with warning signs. Our cars warn us if are about to drive without our seat belts fastened. We are warned when a floor is wet and may be slippery. We are warned if we are approaching a high voltage area. We are even warned that coffee is hot.

We are warned of all sorts of impending dangers. Has anybody ever warned you that you can't get to heaven on your own? That saving yourself or being good enough to gain access to heaven is impossible? Jesus taught that He is the only way to the Father.

Maybe you've never really thought about it before. Maybe you would consider that since life is uncertain, examining the possibility of heaven and hell should be something that you undertake at some point -- before it's too late. If there is a heaven and hell, it might be a good idea to examine what it takes to get into one and to stay out of the other.

A short while back, I posted about the historical person of Jesus. Next up is examining if Jesus is the Messiah. Is Jesus the Son of God? Did he come to save us? And what will you do with the information that we examine?

Sounds like a good pre-Christmas topic.
More to come.
Have a great day.

John <><

Black Friday: What does it cost us?

I know that there are many Black Friday shoppers that make a sort of weird sport-like event of the day. For some, the long waiting in lines or strategic planning of which stores to hit when has become a family tradition. Even before this year's early start on Black Friday with retailers starting door buster sales as early as 8 pm on Thanksgiving day, the big shopping day had a way of encroaching on the family celebrations of Thanksgiving.

Okay, so let's just say that I'm not a shopper. I can't say that I've never been out early on a Friday morning to get a good deal for a Christmas present; I have--twice that I can recall, and both times it was before Black Friday became the crazed, crowd trampling event that it has turned into today. Today, I can't think of an item that I would stand in line for hours to buy--at any price. 

And even if the deal saves a couple hundred dollars, is standing in line while others are enjoying family, food and friendship worth the savings? And there are those low wage retail employees that don't get the chance to participate from the shopping/saving side of Black Friday; they are there to serve the greedy masses.

I think the whole thing is pure madness.

But then again, I know that there are not too many people that would drive nearly 4 hrs to get to the ballpark 2 hrs before game time so that you could watch bp, stay for a 3+ hr long baseball game and then make the return drive home (after making the traditional post-game stop at Ted Drewe's)--all after having worked the midnight shift the night before and grabbing a few hours of sleep before starting the day long adventure. 

And yes, I've done that.
More than once.

So I guess we all have our crazy things that most other people don't understand. We'll enjoy those times with the crazy people that are complete strangers, but share our passions. We'll shake our heads in wonder and confusion at those that have their own crazy ideas of good times (like joining frenzied shoppers on a holiday) and somehow, we'll manage to survive in a society that makes room for all of us.

If you are one of the millions of crazy shoppers out there this weekend, well...I think you're crazy. But have fun doing your crazy thing. Be nice to the poor clerks that have to deal you and the others like you. Treat other crazy shoppers with respect and courtesy. Remember, they're one you.

And if shopping isn't your thing, maybe we can meet at Ted Drewe's next spring after a Cardinal baseball game...

John <><

More on Thanksgiving (part 3)

This post wraps up the re-posting of last year's thankful list from November.
I don't want to give the impression that I didn't have anything to be thankful for this year.
2012 has been a great year.
Chris, Hannah and I had a great vacation near Tulum, Mexico in May.
We've been able to spend some time with Aaron and Jenny.
I had some part in four different camps this past summer as well as opportunities to share the gospel at several churches throughout the year.

...And I am eligible to retire! To avoid tax penalties and still be able to get at my thrift savings plan, I may have to continue working for a little bit longer, but it is nice to have the eligibility under my belt.

There are many things that I seem to take for granted every day. There are even people that I take for granted. I'm sorry for that. I need to be more aware of everything and everybody that blesses me each day. Perhaps listing things that we are thankful for only during the month of November is more shallow than it is meant to be. Do we continue in our gratitude for one more week and then go back to being the ungrateful people that we are the remaining eleven months of the year? Maybe we just need to make "thank you" a more frequent part of our vocabulary. Maybe we need to make thankfulness more of an attitude of our hearts.

This was my post to complete last year's list.

This year I'd like to leave the list open. I'd like to add to it ... often.

As for this post, I'd like to close by thanking you for stopping by to read Out of My Hat from time to time. Thanks for leaving your comments and thanks for sharing Out of My Hat with your friends. If you care to follow me on social networks, I'm here on Facebook, on Twitter @magicianary,and here on LinkedIn.

However you choose to celebrate the coming holidays, I wish you well. May your days be filled with love and joy.
And may God smile on you as he has on me.

John <><

More on Thanksgiving (part 2)

After a good meal, I'm just spending some quiet time before cleaning up the kitchen.
It's been a good day.

Here is the list of my next 10 things from last year's post.

I hope that you have had a great day, too.

Be thankful.

John <><

More on Thanksgiving ...

Yesterday I was driving past one of Springfield's all you can eat buffets that was advertising its hours for its Thanksgiving Day buffet. It brought back memories of a Thanksgiving long ago...

Chris and I (this was pre-kids days) were invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with friends and their family down in the boot-heel of Missouri. Since we had been planning on dinner with friends, we didn't have any holiday type food at home. On Thanksgiving Day, Chris was sick; too sick to make the trip from St. Louis south and too sick feel like being around people. By evening she was feeling a little bit better and wanted a traditional holiday meal. We ended up at one of the few restaurants still open on Thursday evening--yep, Thanksgiving Day dinner at Shoney's!

It's all about the memories.

Here are my first ten thankful things from last year's post. If you've just been following Out of My Hat since last Thanksgiving or if you just feel like the reread, enjoy.

John <><