Retired & Thinking

How many pastors have told their members, either in a sermon or individually, that the best message to share about Christ is their own. Now we have scientific proof, of a kind . Two physicists discovered a simple, one atom thick, piece of graphite [graphene]is more powerful than they ever thought. Their method of discovery was unique too. They didn't use "multibillion-dollar particle accelerators and orbiting telescopes" but "Andre Geim, 51, and Konstantin Novoselov, 36, both of the University of Manchester, laid the foundation for their discovery with an ordinary piece of Scotch tape" The simple stories are the powerful ones. Our stories may not sound like something from the 700 Club , Guidepost or Decision but, assuming the presence of the Holy Spirit working, they have the ability to share what God has done for us to those in our world. A few fish [John 6, Matthew 15, Mark 8], a couple of coins [Mark and Luke 12] or being faithful in the little things...

Leonard Sweet makes us of the model of immigrant and native in describing two approaches to the digital and post-modern age in which we are living. In an interview Leonard says, "I find that it is especially helpful for getting some people to think in a new way. I say this first, and then I backtrack from it. I am just going to make a generalization here. If you are over 30, you are an immigrant. If you are under 30, you are a native." Read the whole interview to see it in context Part of the application of this principle is how one connects with the world in which they live. How does an unchurched person look, act, talk and behave. In addition, what are they "into". This all leads into something I heard today on a Portland, "Family Friendly", the new watchword for Christian radio station. The morning team were talking about how many families have DVR's and were using them to record the new shows that are premiering this week. Then they show a...

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. Hab. 3:2 NIV I want to take a few moments to process how God has been at work since my mom's death May 23. Besides the usual emotions, I've noticed that God has touched my life with a variety and interesting group of people. Some of them are old friends. Some of them are relatives both known to me and new. Some are [were] youth that I worked with when I was a volunteer. Some were people that I sort of remember. This probably won't make a lot of sense to you but that's my issue not yours. I've just been burned with the need to share what has been happening the last two months. Family: I met Jerry, a cousin from the Wilkerson family that I met when I was 3 or 4 years old. We got to visit over coffee and share some things about family and our genealogy hobby. Sadly, my mom never knew he lived less than 15 minutes from her...

Check out Rob Harrison's comments on the video below for he does a very good job of asking the difficult questions about it's content and purpose. My comments after the video. In light of the Gospel of John which they are handing out should this surprise any follower of Jesus. 18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the One who sent me. Are there other cities with such restrictions? Heck yeah! From Boston's recent protest of a church training event with Exodus International to confrontation of Gideons handing out New Testament...

One of the nice things about a personal blog is that it can be, well... personal. Many people have asked, "How are you doing" as concerns my mom's death. The easiest way to answer that is to say, "I'm doing ok...but." The ok part is that I understand the issues involved in grieving and my slips in memory etc. don't bother too much. I know that there's a bunch of stuff to do and most times, I feel just too overwhelmed to even start, let alone finish projects. The "but" part has been a journey. My mom had a stroke about 6 years ago. Where my mother is concerned, dealing with her post-stroke became my focus. I realize that a big part of me had simply shoved the other times we shared aside so that I could work on the situations and get things done. As I've thought about the trips dad, mom and I took I can recall many better than good times. I can relive some of those jokes she told me. I can smile at her exploration into doing "color c...

My mother passed from this life to eternity May 23rd. The cause of death won't be known till the toxicology screen is back from the coroner's office. We got the news of the fire in her mobile home as we were waiting to return from our vacation. It had been a time of celebration and relaxation up till the call. One night home in our own beds then off to Sacramento we drove. Many people in Portland and elsewhere were praying for us as we started the process of dealing with the details of her death. God answered the prayers of people. God used my mom's chief care-giver Christina to do so much it's amazing. God oversaw some the issues with my mom's CD's as well as with the insurance she carried on the place. All-in-all it the last week has been a heck-of-a lesson on watching God work. Is there more to do? Sure. Will there be set backs and road blocks? I'm sure there will be. But the fact remains that God's in charge and that's the best news we can hear n...

So, I've got a new toy/tool which has taken me a bit more time than I wanted to get tweaked. Found the jump to Windows 7 to be a bit of a learning curve since everything else I have is XP or older, but I'm moving up the curve. A couple of things I've discovered with the new computer: 1. The handwriting recognition is much better on Win 7 than XP and it wasn't too bad on XP. If it can read my scribbling it can read anyone. 2. I'm not putting all the programs I've ever owned on this one. It's getting the necessary ones-- Office; Logos 4; Nero; Acrobat; Avast; NIV Study Bible and a couple of others 3. I hate the HP junk at the beginning of the boot up. Desk management or whatever they call it is "fill-ware" [there are other names for it]. I'd be willing to do an total reinstall if I could get rid of that stuff. It's a nice computer. Hopefully it will let me do what I need it to do with less hassles than the old Motion 1400 [it is now a home ...