I know we’re not supposed to bring it up; but, this is the weekend we celebrate the Savior’s victory over the grave. If it were not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ then His birth, which we celebrate as Christmas, would have no more meaning than anyone else’s birthday. Okay, that’s been covered insufficiently; if you want to know more try reading the scriptures , on to other things.
A good portion of the readership was scared away with the title alone, much less that first paragraph which makes lots of folks very uncomfortable. I heard one of the talk show hosts, I think it was Glenn Beck; but don’t hold me to that, where was I; anyway he was explaining how many folks feel guilty for not attending church all year long and figure they NEED to attend at Easter. His advice was to stay home if that’s the only reason for attending.
He quickly added that the purpose of attending church was to get folks to change their way of living to one more in tune with the way God intended us to live. If all you can do is better yourself on Sunday then that’s a start; but remember the goal is to eventually be in tune all the time, so get Sunday under control, add Monday for a while and then Tuesday and so on until you are a better person seven days a week. Good advice, hard to do; but good advice.
There’s lots of talk about how Christianity is “on the way out”, just a matter of time before it becomes a footnote in American history. Books and articles abound with the decline, almost like there was a betting pool to see who can guess the date, sometime in the near future, when Christianity will have the same number of adherents as folks buying the Boston Globe newspaper. Last time I looked at the Gallup Polls , percentages were about 82% of Americans claimed to be Christians.
I heard a sports figure talking about Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher with a blazing fastball. Nolan had been pitching for many years and had lost some of the zip off that famous fastball, from 96 mph down to 94mph. In a quiet joking matter of fact way the sports figure mentioned that Nolan would be down to 91 mph if he were to keep pitching at age 58. I guess at the rate of decline, the number claiming to be Christians might be down to 80% some time soon; say the year 2050?
Here’s a “change of pace”, a neat segway (sp) away from Nolan and baseball; articles posted by other bloggers. I’ll start with a neat visual by Mover Mike showing what a Trillion Dollars looks like. Thank you, Mike.
Next on the list of wonderful articles would have to be a combined effort from Dana, Principled Discovery , and her daughter, the “Science Mouse”, who posted, a day with the sandhill cranes containing lots of pictures and observations from the standpoint of a young person. I couldn’t resist leaving a comment, in part, “That will get each of you one “atta boy” and a green star on the chart at the front of the classroom.”
Neal Boortz had a neat “citizens who were not going to wait for government to help” article which should make the American Spirit grow. Private citizens finished the project of repairing flood damage which occurred from flooding to Polihale State Park, complete with restoration of a destroyed bridge, in 8 days instead of the 2 years projected and they did it with their own funding and labor. Everyone involved in the project should get a serious and sincere tip of the hat from their fellow Americans; but more especially, teach the government contractors a thing or two about efficiency in action.
Thank goodness the “boys of summer” are back; going all winter long without baseball pushes my limits. The Houston Astros could use a pitcher or two; maybe we could get Nolan Ryan to come out of retirement after having been embarrassed badly by the Cubs , giving up 8 runs in the first two innings of the rubber game to close out the home opener series 1 and 2.
I managed the Point Control softball team , one of Houston’s Finest police league entrants back in 1976. We gave up ten runs in the first inning one time, mostly on sloppy ball handling rather than bad pitching. I told the guys, as they came back to the dugout with their heads hanging pretty low, “That takes a lot of confidence to spot the other team a ten run lead.” I laughed and then encouraged them to have a go at getting back in the game a run at a time. We eventually came away with the win and made it into the playoffs that year.
In case you’ve lost sight of the original message, Happy Easter. Take a moment to thank your Lord for the gift of the resurrection and the atonement. Remember, if it were not for the Easter Bunny jumping over the moon we would have no colored Easter Eggs.
A good portion of the readership was scared away with the title alone, much less that first paragraph which makes lots of folks very uncomfortable. I heard one of the talk show hosts, I think it was Glenn Beck; but don’t hold me to that, where was I; anyway he was explaining how many folks feel guilty for not attending church all year long and figure they NEED to attend at Easter. His advice was to stay home if that’s the only reason for attending.
He quickly added that the purpose of attending church was to get folks to change their way of living to one more in tune with the way God intended us to live. If all you can do is better yourself on Sunday then that’s a start; but remember the goal is to eventually be in tune all the time, so get Sunday under control, add Monday for a while and then Tuesday and so on until you are a better person seven days a week. Good advice, hard to do; but good advice.
There’s lots of talk about how Christianity is “on the way out”, just a matter of time before it becomes a footnote in American history. Books and articles abound with the decline, almost like there was a betting pool to see who can guess the date, sometime in the near future, when Christianity will have the same number of adherents as folks buying the Boston Globe newspaper. Last time I looked at the Gallup Polls , percentages were about 82% of Americans claimed to be Christians.
I heard a sports figure talking about Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher with a blazing fastball. Nolan had been pitching for many years and had lost some of the zip off that famous fastball, from 96 mph down to 94mph. In a quiet joking matter of fact way the sports figure mentioned that Nolan would be down to 91 mph if he were to keep pitching at age 58. I guess at the rate of decline, the number claiming to be Christians might be down to 80% some time soon; say the year 2050?
Here’s a “change of pace”, a neat segway (sp) away from Nolan and baseball; articles posted by other bloggers. I’ll start with a neat visual by Mover Mike showing what a Trillion Dollars looks like. Thank you, Mike.
Next on the list of wonderful articles would have to be a combined effort from Dana, Principled Discovery , and her daughter, the “Science Mouse”, who posted, a day with the sandhill cranes containing lots of pictures and observations from the standpoint of a young person. I couldn’t resist leaving a comment, in part, “That will get each of you one “atta boy” and a green star on the chart at the front of the classroom.”
Neal Boortz had a neat “citizens who were not going to wait for government to help” article which should make the American Spirit grow. Private citizens finished the project of repairing flood damage which occurred from flooding to Polihale State Park, complete with restoration of a destroyed bridge, in 8 days instead of the 2 years projected and they did it with their own funding and labor. Everyone involved in the project should get a serious and sincere tip of the hat from their fellow Americans; but more especially, teach the government contractors a thing or two about efficiency in action.
Thank goodness the “boys of summer” are back; going all winter long without baseball pushes my limits. The Houston Astros could use a pitcher or two; maybe we could get Nolan Ryan to come out of retirement after having been embarrassed badly by the Cubs , giving up 8 runs in the first two innings of the rubber game to close out the home opener series 1 and 2.
I managed the Point Control softball team , one of Houston’s Finest police league entrants back in 1976. We gave up ten runs in the first inning one time, mostly on sloppy ball handling rather than bad pitching. I told the guys, as they came back to the dugout with their heads hanging pretty low, “That takes a lot of confidence to spot the other team a ten run lead.” I laughed and then encouraged them to have a go at getting back in the game a run at a time. We eventually came away with the win and made it into the playoffs that year.
In case you’ve lost sight of the original message, Happy Easter. Take a moment to thank your Lord for the gift of the resurrection and the atonement. Remember, if it were not for the Easter Bunny jumping over the moon we would have no colored Easter Eggs.
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