Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us #4

Here’s the link (thanks to Payton for tweeting this): http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576646,00.html

In case the article is gone by the time you get to it, here is the summary.  Ahmed Hashim Abed is believed to have masterminded the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater security guards in Fallujah and was on the most wanted list.  The article quotes the atrocity: “The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Insurgents burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph”

Three of our Navy SEALS who captured him are being tried for assault because the guy claims one of them punched him in the mouth. 

I want to personally thank our military for trying to protect us and risking their lives every day to do it.  I’m sorry that you have to serve your country and then go through things like this after a job well done.

Dear Dads (or Mexico Reflections, part 2)

We got a Mayan show with our dinner tonight.  It took a lot of work to put the peformance together.  Just to get all of the face and body paint on the dancers would have taken a good amount of time.  What stood out most to me was at the very end.  Not the finale, but actually the time where they introduce the dancers and everyone claps and they bow.  The host made a comment that was impactful.  He said that the dances we saw tonight were dances that “fathers passed down to their sons.”  What are we passing down to our sons?  Learning those dances and the meaning behind them would have taken purposeful time from a dad.  Passing faith down to your sons takes purposeful time as well.

Reflections from Mexico

Sitting on the beach in Cancun with my wife and child, watching the waves crash into the shore, is a pretty cool experience.  I noticed something for the first time and I’m sure there is a scientific name for it, but I don’t know what it is.  When a wave comes in, it crashes on the shore and then recedes back to the ocean.  When it is receding, it usually meets another wave on its way in and seems to take away all of the new wave’s power.  I’d see this big breaker coming and I’d expect it to wash all the way up to our feet, but it was like the wave right before it took the legs right out from under the new wave.  Kind of anti-climatic.  I wonder if my generation will do that in the church.  As the next generation of young believers and leaders is heading in, will we crash their momentumn on our way out?  I hope not, but I think it may be the natural tendency.

Sign The Apocolypse Is Upon Us #3

Let me see if I can make this clear.  Apparently the woman at the Chase Bank Credit Card division had trouble . . . now that could be because I was speaking English and she wasn’t.

My wife and I have two Chase Visa cards.  Both cards have the same mailing address and the same account number (except for the last four digits).  We also have a joint account at Chase.  My wife’s credit card was being declined and when she called, they informed her that she hadn’t ever paid her bill.  She explained that we pay all of our bills, so if we haven’t paid then we haven’t been mailed a bill.  She tried to pay it right there, but asked that the late fees be waived since she hadn’t had a bill.

Now here is what happened.  They have sent us bills and I’ve been paying them online.  Same address, same zip code, same everything (except for the last 4 digits of the account . . . which DOES NOT show up when you use Chase Bank bill pay).  My credit card account has a positive amount of money in it that matches the negative amount in my wife’s account.

Is it crazy to ask Chase to transfer the money and waive the late fee since it has been paid . . . just to the other account?  Apparently it is.

I’d suggest finding another place to do business with.  I cancelled my cards . . . you should too.

Sign The Apocolypse Is Upon Us #2

Taylor Swift stormed the airwaves with her song “Tim McGraw.”  A great song that ended up being a big hit that led to her instant fame.  That is okay.  What isn’t okay is this guy named Tyler Dean trying to do the same thing with his song “Taylor Swift.”  Here are a portion of the lyrics:

“Maybe she’s just a little too pretty
Outta reach and way too busy
What can I do when the honest truth is
I want a girl… I want a girl
I want a girl like Taylor Swift

Call her agent call her lawyer too
Hey Mr Swift I need to talk to you
Hey Mr DJ why don’t you send it on through

Cause she might be listenin
Maybe she’s listening
Please be listening”

Dear Mr. Dean . . . NO ONE IS LISTENING.  The only thing worse than the lyrics is the song itself.

Top Ten Restaurants in Georgetown

This is a pretty meaningless list if you are browsing thorough the world wide web, but maybe you are going to stop in Georgetown, Texas, in the near future and you don’t even know it.  Then you’ll remember to come back here to decide on where to eat.

10. Burger King – I know this may seem ridiculous, but until you have had the Coke Icee Float . . . don’t judge.  It might be the greatest creation ever.  Found it on the menu in San Antonio and it’s not on the menu here,  so you have to specifically order it.  Half Coke Icee/Half ice cream.

9. Casa Ole – Chain restaurant (but most of the homegrown places in Georgetown are less than ideal).  Fajita burrito is excellent

8. County Seat – This is the place to go for breakfast (you can also do IHOP, but County Set wins out since it is local). 

7. The Loading Dock – Pizza is really good, but the fried pickles are from another planet.

6. Mama Fu’s – Tried several things before I settled in on the Thai Basil Noodles.

5. Fish City Grill – Fish tacos . . . but everything I’ve ever had there is great.

4. Ichiban/Hayashi tie – They are our only two sushi options.  The are about the same price and Hayashi is made to order and a little bit better, BUT Ichiban is all you can eat so you get to try a lot of different stuff (plus they have Chinese for your friends who don’t like sushi).

3. El Patron – Pretty new place, but definitely one of the best Mexican food places in the area.

2. Dos Salsas – I know this is heresy for some people, but the Dos got knocked out of the #1 spot after a seven year reign as “Best Place To Eat.”

1. Genghis Grill – How does a chain (granted a small one) get to be #1?  It’s a dream come true of making your own bowl of meat and noodles!

Our Changing World

How was life different twenty years ago? Just think about the technological changes.

• Video cameras were carried on your shoulder and recorded on to VHS tapes that weren’t edited. Now your video camera fits in your pocket, records to a 1/4 inch card, and edits into movie quality on your computer. The ability to video is so accessible that 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• Speaking of home computers . . . remember the green screen monitor?
• Twenty years ago the internet wasn’t on the average person’s radar. Today, I registered my Genghis Grill card online over an internet page on someone’s cell phone.
• Cell phones weighed 37 pounds and cost $18 a minute (that’s an exaggeration, but it’s pretty close to the truth)

What’s next? Who knows, but currently IBM is working on several projects. They say . . .

• We’ll be able to access healthcare remotely from just about anywhere in the world.
• Real-time speech translation – once a vision only in science fiction – will become the norm.
• There will be a 3-D internet
• Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance
• Our mobile phones will come close to reading our minds.

Some of that stuff seems overwhelming. Change is great, but it can leave us scrambling to keep up. If you feel overwhelmed this week, remember that the eternal, UNCHANGABLE, and indescribable God is present. He’s waiting to spend time with you and bring the hectic pace to a sensible rest.

Sign The Apocalypse Is Upon Us #1

Texas Law: Rodeo

After returning from the final night of the Austin Rodeo where we went to see Kevin Fowler, it led me to a new law for this great state/soon to be country. 

It is illegal to to wear a helmet and/or face mask when riding a bull in the rodeo. 

I understand that football players and baseball players wear helmets . . . but you are  a cowboy.  Cowboys have to keep the image of toughness and grit as a part of the Texas legend.  Out of respect for all the real bull riders, I did “boo” the guys wearing helmets.  On a side note . . . how did bull riding get invented?  That had to start with a couple of guys sitting out on the ranch after drinking way too much.

Old People Say Cool Things

Taken from the TXT3 blog at www.txt3.tv

“It is one of the ironies of the ministry that the very man who works in God’s name is often hardest put to find time for God. The parents of Jesus lost Him at church, and they were not the last ones to lose Him there.” – Vance Havner (American preacher, born 1901)

 That just might sum up the “Blurry” series!  How often do we get caught up in “doing church” that we forget to connect to Jesus in minute by minute worship.  We are more concerned with high attendance week in Sunday School then we are applying the Bible study to our life.  We go to church to get instead of investing in people around us.  We talk about our church rather than Jesus.  We join a church based on the ministries our family can receive rather than the ministries our families can get involved in.

 We get so good at church (and maybe a ministry like Havner said) that we leave Jesus and his purpose for our life out out of the equation.

 P.S. I know you’ve been wondering and yes, that is Vance Havner in the picture