Sign of the Beast Deciphered

For years, I didn't know what to make of the "sign of the beast." What's the point of a three-digit-number? Driving to work this morning, the solution finally hit me. Right there in front of me, in Conoco-Phillips red, I saw the number 366. Bingo! Three conclusions:

1. The end is near. At the rate gas prices are rising right now, the world will be destroyed in about two years.
2. California is going first.
3. We should switch to selling gas by the liter.

Joe's Rule of Potty Training

The greater the desire for stickers (Ds), the greater the need to go use the potty (Ng).

Multiply by two.

A Long Week

I promise, I'll stop blogging about the VfB for a while soon (that's not much of a promise, as you will see in a moment). One week is terribly long to be under such tension. There's two UEFA cup spots available, and four teams are vying for it - all have 51 points. Unfortunately, we have the worst goal difference. The third of the four spots still qualifies for a play-off of sorts that may get you in by the backdoor, the fourth (our current ranking) means you're doomed. I'm cautiously optimistic that if we can win our home game - the last game of the season - that we can at least get this "UI Cup" spot. That's because second-placed Bremen is playing Leverkusen, one of the four. They should at least manage a draw against them. My preference would be a VfB win over Bielefeld, a HSV draw, and losses for Leverkusen and that dreadful Wolfsburg team that slaughtered us last weekend (0-4). If you're quick at math, you'll notice that would put us on top (actually, in fourth place on the whole grid, there are three champions league spots ahead of us). I'm not sure we can lay any claim to deserving to get in after some of the mistakes we've made all season. Anyways, Saturday morning will be torture until it's all over.

Until then, hope dies last.

BTW, the European championship starts in early June ;-)

Fussball

When I was in Pasadena, I chose to get a "surprise" for the girls. Unfortunately, Pasadena appears to lack tourist traps, which meant I had to go to Target for my purchase. Worse yet, California is too backwards to have supercenters. Consequently, I found myself in the enviable situation of buying a soccer set for my children (they had nothing else that was appropriate. I promise!). It said 3 years and up, so it seemed fairly appropriate. They loved it.

Ch is actually doing very well with it already. She's got the concept of kicking the ball down, and she knows that it needs to be kicked into the goal. There's one small nuance that she's still working on. Instead of kicking the ball towards the goal, and then through it, she leaves the ball wherever it lies, picks up the goal and sets it in front of it, and then kicks the ball through it.

Toooooooooooor!!!

Debt Culture

Yikes!

"The Fed's measure of consumer borrowing, which does not include any debt secured by real estate such as mortgages or home equity loans, stood at a record $2.558 trillion in March."

Source: USA Today

An Evangelical Manifesto

A large number of Evangelical leaders, including Fuller Theological Seminary President Rich Mouw, have composed "An Evangelical Manifesto." Aptly worded, it lays out the Evangelical position. There's room for you to sign, too, if you desire to. There's even a study guide if you want to look at it more closely with others.

"An Evangelical Manifesto is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for. It has been drafted and published by a representative group of Evangelical leaders who do not claim to speak for all Evangelicals, but who invite all other Evangelicals to stand with them and help clarify what Evangelical means in light of “confusions within and the consternation without” the movement. As the Manifesto states, the signers are not out to attack or exclude anyone, but to rally and to call for reform.

As an open declaration, An Evangelical Manifesto addresses not only Evangelicals and other Christians but other American citizens and people of all other faiths in America, including those who say they have no faith. It therefore stands as an example of how different faith communities may address each other in public life, without any compromise of their own faith but with a clear commitment to the common good of the societies in which we all live together.

For those who are Evangelicals, the deepest purpose of the Manifesto is a serious call to reform—an urgent challenge to reaffirm Evangelical identity, to reform Evangelical behavior, to reposition Evangelicals in public life, and so rededicate ourselves to the high calling of being Evangelical followers of Jesus Christ."

Fuller - Week 1 Recap

This photo isn't going to win any prizes. However, I wanted to capture a view of our classroom (and only remembered when pretty much everyone had left... thanks, K and J, for the smiles!). We had an amazing time these two weeks. Hearing everyone's stories was incredible, and reason to thank God for His faithfulness.

We would start with a time of worship. Every group led in worship once, as did the instructors. We worshipped through joint prayer, prayer for one another in small groups, meditating on our Community Rule of Life, considering a graphical depiction of how prophecy in the Bible has been shown to be fulfilled elsewhere in His word, giving our dreams for the future over to Him, and many other ways. Our perspective of how God can be worshipped was surely expanded, and it was a wonderful way to start off the day.

In the first week, there were a number of presentations on character as the significant determinant of finishing well. We explored Willard's concept of the capacity ladder and the character ladder, noticing how the two can be combined to avoid the fallacies of climbing the unstable capacity ladder only. We also met the MAGL faculty and staff, and took a campus tour. We even met the person who came up with the name for Fuller's Coffee by the Books cafe.

A Powerful Picture of Community

Photograph by George Steinmetz, National Geographic.

Original Caption: In Guandong Province toulou, the traditional dwellings of the Hakka minority group, curve around each other like the rings of a tree. As the village grew, new homes were built around older ones.

What a powerful image of community!

P.S. I hope I have done justice to copyright laws, if not, please comment.

Five Purposes Revisited

Some people are going to be ready to shoot me. I have spent the last 5-6 years drilling the five purposes into the heads of people at our church: Worship - Fellowship - Discipleship - Ministry - Evangelism. However, recently I've started to wonder whether a change would be wise: would the purpose of "fellowship" be better expressed as "community?" While I'm at it, would "service" be better than "ministry?" So, this may be my new language:
Worship
Community
Discipleship
Service
Evangelism

The Germans say, "Worte sind Schall und Rauch" (or something like that). "Words are like echoes and smoke." I suppose that's supposed to mean that the exact word used is less important than what it stands for.

Thoughts?

Outlet Mall Ante Portas

Oklahoma City is getting an outlet mall! The city council approved a mall that is supposed to be twice the size of Gainesville, TX, located at I-40, Council, and Reno. That's Western Heights' school district (also part of Francis Tuttle's CareerTech district). We're talking new jobs for an area that can use them, and possibly new opportunities for Francis Tuttle to serve her stakeholders, too. You can see Francis Tuttle's Reno Campus from the site. For more info, check out the City Council package PDF about it (there's a map as the last page).

Several Scripture Passages Side-by-Side

This one is for novices...oh, well. If you want to look at several passages from the same translation side-by-side, open your preferred translation, then select "Window, New Window" from the menu.

Three Times is a Charm

Bless Bayer Leverkusen, their kindness lasts forever... . Every time we fall behind them, they are nice enough to lose their next game to put us back on top. You can't complain about that.