Posts from — July 2004

Yesterday morning, before church, I was sitting at our dining room table slicing the communion bread. Geneva was next to me, eating her toast. I had the big, long bread knife out, and when she saw it, she said to me, “Daddy, don’t cut yourself”.

I said, “Okay, I’ll try not to”. And not a moment later the bread slipped, and whack! I sliced my finger right open. I said, “I cut myself!”

There’s a lesson to be learned somewhere in that story.

The ladies from church have a women’s book study, and I had Megan record a few of them, so we could have some ladies teaching on record for whatever reason. And I’m currently making the cds, which requires me to hear a little bit of what is being said. One of my diaconal, er.. “privleges”.

So anyhow… I noticed something pretty funny. Not funny in a ‘haha’ sense. In fact, it really isn’t funny at all. I just use that word too much. Anyhow…

In both sessions, they started out by going around the room and introducing themselves. Men just don’t do this. New guys can be at the group, but we just don’t go around and all introduce ourselves. We might introduce the one new guy to everyone else, so we all know his name or something… but that’s about it. The onus is on you to introduce yourself.

It’s one of those glorious, trinitarian differences between men and women.

Here’s a list of live recordings I have. Just for fun.

Do any of you know of any good, reputable companies that offer credit cards with good reward programs, preferably cashback?

I figure I spend so much money on gas each month, if there was a way to get something back for using a credit card each time (and then paying it off each month instead of each time at the pump), I could save a lot of money.

So… any good’uns?

Oh, and something that doesn’t expire in three months or six months woudl be nice. Something that doesn’t go away.

update: I just got a Discover Platinum Gas Card, which has a 5% cashback “bonus” on all gas purchases (well, actually it’s only for the first $1500 in gas purchases each year. Then 3% for the next $1500, and finally 1% for everything over $3000. But, I don’t figure that’s going to be an issue for me). 1% on all other purchases.

How Duke gets students.

I got the original Cranium for Christmas, and registered on the site to get a 20% discount at the online store. Over the past six months since I registered, I probably received four or five emails. One of them requested that I fill out a survey. I like Cranium stuff, so I thought I’d do it. One of the last questions they asked is if I would be interested in hosting a Cranium party and telling them about it. I said that I would be.

Not too long after that, I got an email from one of the guys at Cranium, asking me to verify my information, so I could host a party. I did so.

Yesterday we got a package from Fedex. It had a Cranium sticker on the outside, so I knew it was something good. I opened the box, and the first thing I saw was tongs of shredded purple paper as packing material. Only, it reminded me more of confetti than packing material. The box contained a brand new copy of Cranium Turbo Edition (a game that isn’t in stores yet), plus tons of other goodies. There were six different Cranium hats, several bags of popcorn, cranium balloons, cranium coasters, some starbucks coffee, some tasty looking gourmet chocolate sauce, cranium invitations and a letter from Cranium folk, with a picture of them acting crazy at what I imagine is Cranium headquarters. Also included is a very large pink envelope, with some surveys inside. The envelope is already addressed and postage already affixed.

Now, how cool is that? I’m rather excited. Hopefully everyone (they ask to invite six other people) will be able to come over pretty soon, so we can get this party underway.

A few blogs that I stumbled upon today, and think I’ll keep visiting…

~ The Terrell Record ~ – Mike Terrell

Upriver – Todd Davis, pastor of Christ Church, Searcy Arkansas.

I’ve finally finished rereading all the Harry Potter books, and I can get back to my regularly scheduled reading…

I wonder why Sandlin is so black and white on the issue?

While I agree that an adult child turning from the faith is not an automatic disqualificaiton for leadership in the church, certainly it is something that should be considered. Sandlin emphasizes the reality of covenant apostasy, and says that it is the real decisions that the individual children make on their own. Well, yes, that’s true. But that isn’t the whole picture. Another (large) part of understanding the covenant is knowing that parents shape their children. How the kids are raised affects how they turn out. What we do with two or three year olds will be evident when they are 20 year olds. That is covenant truth.

When children make bad decisions, such that they reject the Christian faith, I think a wise session of elders will ask themselves how responsible the parents are, and namely the father. At some level he is responsible. I’m not willing to say that he should then be disqualified from leadership forever. But I’m also unwilling to say that an adult child’s apostasy has nothing to do with the father’s qualification to be an elder or deacon.

In my church’s newsletter, the Lynchburg Reformation Newsletter, there is a little line included in every issue. It reads, “While contributors are generally likeminded, we do not agree on every point. And we like it that way.”

This is similiar to what Chori Seraiah says:

I take a certain pride in the fact that I do not agree with Andrew Sandlin on every issue. Not the sinful pride of one who thinks he is better than someone else, you understand, but rather a Biblical joy in knowing that we do not have to agree on everything to be able to love each other as Christian brothers. We can sit down and enjoy time together discussing our lives, our families, and our Lord. No, I am not saying that we are perfect, but I do believe that we, together, are seeking to �walk worthy� of how God called us.

When Megan and I were planning on moving to Lynchburg, we would come out on Saturdays and look at various apartments, trying to find a place to live. One time, the guy asked for a $20 deposit, then he’d give us the key and we could go look at the place. I have heard too many stories where you come back to return the key and they say “what deposit?”, so I asked for a receipt… Just something to show that I gave him twenty bucks. He refused to do it, took his key back and sent us on our way.

That is all. Except that I’m glad we didn’t rent from that guy.

Some sermons by Duane Garner.