“If I die in 30 seconds…”

… let it be said on my grave stone, ‘Here lies dAN: among other people and things, he loved coffee.’”

On this day in history…

• Herman Melville was probably celebrating his newly published book Moby Dick in 1851.
• In 1889 “Nellie Bly set out to beat Jules Verne’s fictional Phileas Fogg’s time of 80 days to travel around the world (She did it in 72.),” 
• the Apollo 12 mission (not the Tom Hanks one) took off “like lightning,” in 1969.
• and I… am sitting in a Panera Bread in Kansas City, across from my lovely wife, enjoying the tail end of her Birthday present to me.  (thanks to www.infoplease.com for the quotes, etc.)

Somehow, Jamie scored us tickets to the Coldplay concert in KC, and we got to leave the boys at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, heading off by ourselves.  (another first for history!)  As they smiled at the Audience, I wondered if they ever thought back to their Starfish days [London, 1998].  They’ve certainly come a long way.

Isaiah 28 talks about the “Proud Crown of the Drunkards of Ephraim.”  The people had fallen so low, they paraded their drunken men & harlot women around calling them the Famous, Wise or Powerful ones – probably treating them like we treat the fine musicians of Coldplay.  God says He’s going to crush their crowns “underfoot,” and establish Himself again.

“In that day the Lord of hosts will be a Crown of Glory, and a Diadem of Beauty, to the remnant of His people…” (v. 5)

Good Lord, I’m proud!  The things that set me off on a selfish pomp are so small and trivial.  On this day in history, I’m asking again, that the Lord humble me and make me low, so that He can lift me up in His time.  Amen.

Post Hole-y Cow!

I’ve been working on a “little” project on the side of our house.  A storm blew our privacy fence over on this side, so I’m replacing that, and I’m putting in a concrete patio that will go all the way to the Meter in between those windows.  We really want a place that the boys can ride their little bikes (our street is mount vesuvius) and we can chill outside (maybe get a fire pit some day).

I had to spend time with a ground tiller getting the space that level, and I just finished digging the post holes.  Next is setting the post and framing the patio area so I can get a huge pile of gravel out of my driveway.

Needless to say, the boys have had the time of their lives.  This project could last a couple more years if they had anything to say about it.

He’s not an It.

I’ve been studying the Holy Spirit quite a bit lately.  WOW, what have we done?  Our ideas of who He is are alarming!  MY ideas of who He is were crippling.  I guess in some twisted way, I secretly considered Him to be like the little puppy of the Trinity:  helpful, obedient, silent, of no consequence.  I knew that He “sealed” you for the Day of Redemption, and with my decrepit thinking, I don’t even want to carry that over to the puppy analogy.  I’m just starting to realize that I thought that way about Him.

While I was studying for a talk I got to give about Him, I thought about that verse in Acts 1:8 where it says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…”  I thought that if you stop there, you can either get stuck on the first part – “you will receive power” – or the last – “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” – like a vampire or something.  I compared these extremes to different Super Humans, and all of them, I would say, are incorrect and belittle the power of God Himself.  They reduce God’s existence to being man centered.  Right in the middle of the extremes is something of a partnership.  A partnership between us little folk – made of flesh and bone, living for about 60 to 100 years, and dependent on coffee and chocolate – and the God of the Universe – self existent, Giver of Life, all powerful.  Here, have a chart…

He’s not by the way.  He’s not centered around us.  He’s bigger than that.  MUCH bigger.  The main reason I wanted to post this stuff, was to share these verses.  This blew my mind.  A young guy named Elihu steps up to confront Job when Job’s feeling all self-justified.  He says,

Job 33:4 

4^(A) The Spirit of God has made me, and^(B) the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Job 34:14-15

14If he should^(A) set his heart to it
   and^(B) gather to himself his^(C) spirit and his breath,
15all flesh would perish together,
   and man would^(D) return to dust.

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 byCrossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Obviously, this may not be proof of God’s existence to someone who doesn’t believe in God’s power, but it puts me in perspective when I start to think to highly of my little 28 year old self.  If He took away His life, I would go ‘poof.’

“God give me faith to see You as who you are… much bigger than me.  Amen.”