I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK

A "friend" sent me this comic; as she says, it hits a little too close to home.

THINGS GO BETTER WITH COKE-LITE

Don't get your exercise jumping to conclusions.

WEEKENDS ARE FOR FUN 19

Pastoral Perquisites

1. The Pastor is always right.

2. In the inconceivable circumstance that someone else might possibly be right, rule #1 becomes immediately operative.

3. The Pastor does not sleep in the office; he meditates.

4. The Pastor is never late; he is ministering.

5. The Pastor is never angry; merely vexed in his spirit.

6. The Pastor never leaves work; his presence is required elsewhere.

7. The Pastor never wastes time reading extraneous materials in his office; he studies.

8. The Pastor never deviates from procedure; he uses creative management.

9. Whoever may enter the Pastor’s office with an idea of his own must leave the office with his Pastor’s ideas.

10. The Pastor is ALWAYS the Pastor, even in his swim trunks.

ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS THE BIAS

This morning on Good Morning America news reader Chris Coumo announced that presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is "in trouble." The contender was asked another lame question attempting to divide the country over non-existent "religious issues." The question concerned Mormonism, a faith that apparently inspires more terror among social liberals than it does Christian conservatives.

Huckabee said he didn't know much about the Mormon faith. He offered, "don't they believe Jesus and the devil are brothers?"Coumo said this has caused problems for Huckabee's candidacy.

I'd like to know why and how?

As it happens, I was raised a Latter Day Saint. I remember being taught this very doctrine as a child. Unless the Prophet, Council of Elders and the Seventy have weighed in with a new teaching on the subject, this is LDS doctrine. So what? Mormons teach that you and I are brothers and sisters as well. In fact they believe we are brothers and sisters of Jesus and the devil in exactly the same way. According to Mormon doctrine we all had a preexistence in heaven before assuming a physical life here on earth.

Accept it or deny it, as far as I know that is what Mormons believe. I repeat, so what? What in the world does this have to do with the price of a presidential election in New York?

Everything. It is an attempt to divide religious conservatives and set us against each other so that we make life easier for social liberals come next fall.

let me help you out, here. Catholics and Protestants disagree over Mary the mother of Jesus, among other things. I seem to recall Christians and Jews have a few areas of disagreement as well. We CAN actually hold differences in faith and practice and still get along as American citizens. Anyway, I thought you social liberals were all for separating politics and religion.

Nice try, though. Don't look now, but your bias is showing.

Mario, we're not voting for the Pope, dude. Keep your holy war to yourself.

THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED THE NAME "HADLEYBURG"

Its funny, when I originally named this site I chose to bounce off a Mark Twain story. I chose "Observations from Hadleyville" because I resonated with Twain's view on corrupted mankind. But I actually got the title WRONG. Twain wrote "The Man That Corrupted HadleyBURG."

Oops. Not a terrific job of fact-checking, there.

Funny thing is, I'm not the only one. Google offers an analysis site to see statistics related to my Blog. I can see countries and cities from where people access the site. In the US I can see states as well. Don't worry, I can't see your name, address or even computer address. For instance, I have a fan in Sterling, Virginia, who's logged into the site 38 times in the past 30 days. I also know this person originally jumped to this site through Quartz Hill School of Theology, but that's all I know.

On the other hand, Google doesn't always get it right, either. I have a friend in southeast Arizona who's log-on city is listed as Tucson; pretty sure that's not right. My mother is in Mexico, and her log-on city is Tijuana; I KNOW that's wrong.

One other statistic I like to check is keyword searches. If someone was directed to my site by following a keyword, Google lets me know what that keyword or phrase was. It pays to use theological words, like Keregma, or controversial words, like Nixon.

Here's the point: I've seen more than ten keyword searches for Mark Twain's "The Man That Corrupted HadleyVILLE." Twain was big on choosing the correct word, not its second cousin. I think he missed the boat with HadleyBURG.

Go Figure.

WEEKENDS ARE FOR FUN 18

At last, the mystery is solved!

SLOW POST!

I'm working on a new book lately so i've been slow to post. I've enjoyed keeping this blog up to date so I'm sorry I've been dragging this week. When the fit--make that muse--is upon me I can think of nothing but the current project. I don't want to post about it though. This is going to be a GOOOOOD book and I don't want to give it away just yet.

A tidbit, though. Yes, I must leave you with something. I recently found Pandora Radio. You pick an artist or song and it begins compiling and playing songs in that style or category. You can give thumbs up or down to individual songs and even open new genres. Pretty cool. I've been listening for hours as I write tonight. Check it out.

DIZZY

Today, as I drove around town on errands, I listened to the group Sixpence None The Richer. Some people don't like the vocalist, but I find almost all of their songs deeply moving. Today I wept as I heard the following words. I don’t know if the words will move you apart from the music and cadence. Perhaps what I heard was merely the anguish of my own soul. If that’s the case, then I expect even a sterile reading of the words might speak to you as well.

DIZZY

I’M LIKE THOMAS DOUBTING
FINGERS ROUTING THE SCARS
IN YOUR WRISTS AND SIDE
TOUCHING FLESH WILL MAKE MY MIND BELIEVE

BUT I WANT TO BE LIKE DAVID
THROWING HIS CLOTHES TO THE WIND
TO DANCE A JIG IN MY SKIN
AND BE REMADE BY YOUR CLEANSING AGAIN

CHORUS:
I GIVE YOU MYSELF, IT’S ALL THAT I HAVE
BROKEN AND FRAIL, I’M CLAY IN YOUR HANDS
AND I’M SPINNING UNCONCEALED
DIZZY ON THIS WHEEL FOR YOU, MY LOVE

I’M LIKE PETER CRYING
CROWING BURNING MY EARS
STILL YOU COME NEAR
YOU TAKE MY HAND AND PLACE IN MY PALM
AN ETERNAL CHANCE

CHORUS
I GIVE YOU MYSELF, IT’S ALL THAT I HAVE
BROKEN AND FRAIL, I’M CLAY IN YOUR HANDS
AND I’M SPINNING UNCONCEALED
DIZZY ON THIS WHEEL FOR YOU, MY LOVE

PREDICTIVE SOFTWARE

I received another of those interminable internet advertisements. This one from Amazon. On the verge of clicking the delete button, I recognized a book cover. Humm, I already own that book. So I read the notice.

“Amazon.com has new recommendations for you based on items you purchased or told us you own.”

The listed works were: The Cat Dancers & Spider Mountain by PT Deutermann. Serenity—the Movie. Deception by Randy Alcorn. No Legal Grounds & Try Dying by James Scott Bell. Down Range by Dick Couch. 40 Days, Encountering Jesus Between the Resurrection and the Ascension by Alton Gansky. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden. The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan.

Of these books, I already own the Highlighted ones. There were twelve other recommendations in a MORE category that I don’t own, though My wife owns one. Seems Predictive Software might have something going for it.

One thing their predictive software did not take into account; how they categorize types. There was a single, truly glaring contradiction. The Atheistic Philip Pullman “Dark Materials” trilogy is NOT something I’m looking for. That is, unless I’m preparing lessons for my course on Christian Apologetics.

QHCC ON THE WEB

Check out the updates to our church's web page. We've added video interviews of members with their comments about the church. When you get to the page, click on the CHURCH tab. That will take you to the WELCOME page. In the first three paragraphs there are two highlighted "here's."
Click on the first and you get videos, click the second and get our new brochure.